MicroStrategy‘s Michael Saylor is warning that China could claim hegemony over the crypto ecosystem if the US doesn’t step up.
In a new interview at the MIT Bitcoin Expo Conference, the billionaire says its inevitable that Bitcoin will become an underlying store-of-value asset that can move across mobile payment rails around the globe while propping up fiat currency.
However, Saylor says that if the US doesn‘t take initiative to lead that revolution, then China will. He doesn’t think this scenario will work out well for America.
“The question really is: is the United States going to provide technology that‘s going to solve the problem of monetary economics for the entire planet or are we going to abdicate our leadership role？ And all that means is the capital moves offshore, the technology moves offshore, and people – maybe they don’t use English or the dollar, they use Chinese and CNY (Chinese Yuan). I don‘t really think that’s good for the United States.”
The MicroStrategy chief executive says to avoid passing the torch to China, American entities need to embrace Bitcoin and its ability to serve as the underlying asset layer.
“The mobile wallet‘s coming to everybody on the planet whether we like it or not. And if it doesn’t sit on Bitcoin controlled and owned by American investors and American companies running on American technology, spreading American values, spreading the US dollar, its going to sit on the Chinese yuan…”
“Either US technology and fintech is going to be built on top of [the] 21st-century crypto asset network Bitcoin. Or, we‘re not, and the six billion people on the planet that need such a thing are going to go to somebody else. I mean the truth of the matter is, they’ll probably go to Bitcoin, but… instead of US dollars on Bitcoin, theyll be running Chinese yuan, renminbi on Bitcoin.”