How bitcoin will offer an escape from a Brave New World in the next two decades

Bitcoin should prove an excellent store of value as central banks muscle their way into the cryptocurrency world over the coming decades, writes Dominic Frisby.

Bitcoin representation
(Image credit: © Getty Images/iStockphoto)

If you asked me how many pounds, dollars or euros there’ll be in 2040, I couldn’t tell you. I could guess. That guess might be educated or informed, but it would still be a guess. That’s because the rate at which national currencies are created is arbitrary. It’s entirely at the whims of central bankers and the politicians they serve (see page 4). For example, at the start of this year – a few Chinese virologists with a keen interest in monetary policy aside – barely a soul could have predicted the sheer scale of money creation in 2020. Roughly 22% of all the US dollars in existence have been created this year alone, with the goal of cushioning the global economy from the impacts of lockdown. And there is no limit to how much more fiat money can be created. It is inherently inflationary.

However, I can tell you that there will never be any more than 21 million bitcoins. That figure will be reached not in 2040, but in 2140. The supply of bitcoins is deliberately capped. The currency was born in reaction to the central bank money printing and government action that bailed out the finance sector in 2008, and the economic inequality that unrestrained money supply creates. The supply of bitcoin is transparent, planned and programmed.

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Dominic Frisby

Dominic Frisby (“mercurially witty” – the Spectator) is as far as we know the world’s only financial writer and comedian. He is the author of the popular newsletter the Flying Frisby and is MoneyWeek’s main commentator on gold, commodities, currencies and cryptocurrencies. He has also taken several of his shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

His books are Daylight Robbery - How Tax Changed our Past and Will Shape our Future; Bitcoin: the Future of Money? and Life After the State - Why We Don't Need Government

Dominic was educated at St Paul's School, Manchester University and the Webber-Douglas Academy Of Dramatic Art. You can follow him on X @dominicfrisby