Now Playing: Central Banks vs. BIS vs. Crypto 

World News Trust Editorial Team

Dec. 22, 2021

Imagine a new product of streaming content in which two ultra-powerful entities battle to control an up-and-coming new power source. But… the new source has some ideas of its own about control and dominance. Let’s introduce the cast:

• Central banks are national banks. To borrow from the always-reliable Wikipedia: “A central bank is an institution that manages the& currency and monetary policy of a state or formal monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the monetary base.”
• The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) is the central bank of the world's central banks. Its self-described mission is “to support central banks' pursuit of monetary and financial stability through international cooperation, and to act as a bank for central banks.”
• Blockchain is an electronic ledger system that supposedly secures against the corruption of information, either intentionally or unintentionally. Cryptocurrency is built on blockchain. Detractors say Bitcoin is a crypto-coin with no intrinsic value. And yet, a dilemma is that the U.S. dollar is a fiat, or faith, currency, with no intrinsic value — just like crypto. The plot thickens…

The United States monetary system is based on money creation through debt. The dollar is often described as a "fiat" currency, especially since President Nixon took the U.S. off the “Gold Standard” in 1971. Prior to that, the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement allowed for the convertibility of U.S. dollars into gold. Along comes crypto in 2008 or 2009… or whatever year you believe it started. Cryptocurrency is almost entirely unregulated. Therefore, Central Banks and the BIS (not to mention the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) are trying to figure out how to enter and control the crypto sphere.

Editor responsible for this story:

Mickey Z.

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