COVID-19 pandemic hit the world real bad and countries across the globe are currently in the process of recovery. The traditional markets and the crypto markets both saw a massive downward spiral throughout March which continued further with the recent drop in the crude oil price.
The financial sector also saw massive disruption and the economies across the globe are currently working towards strengthening their financial systems, but as analyzed, many don’t seem to be doing a good job at it. The US’s excessive money printing plan is resulting in the dollar losing its value, which is, in turn, making people look for an alternate mode of currency. The crypto community, on the other hand, has been waiting for an opportunity like this since 2008.
Alex Gladstein, the Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, recently asserted that Americans should adopt Bitcoin during this pandemic. He stated,
“Bitcoin is an elegant response to the two big threats that the Americans are facing at the moment – The authoritarian overreach on civil liberties and the money manipulation.”
As Bitcoin was launched during a financial crisis, Gladstein further added that Bitcoin was indeed a response to the way money was being printed and distributed in the US at the moment. On those lines he further stated,
“It removes the concept of favoritism. The people who are closer to the money creation point benefit more than the folks who are not. Bitcoin might not combat corruption or inequality, but it will surely prevent money manipulation.”
Assuming that people do take to Bitcoin in the light of these problems created by state-backed currencies, it is not going to be an easy ride. Bitcoin is dealing with many shortcomings right now – be it the high transaction fees, scalability issues, and other added privacy issues.
These shortcomings were supposed to be resolved with the Lightning Network, Taproot, Schnorr upgrades, however, since they are not in place yet, there’s no saying as to how efficient these upgrades might be. Another fact is that this sudden switch might put those who don’t understand the technology at risk. In fact, they might end up losing money. Many notable crypto contributors have also asserted that Bitcoin is not yet ready for mass adoption and that people can’t really find shelter in the crypto space as of now.
