BREAKDOWN: Does El Salvador's Bitcoin Adoption Threaten the US Dollar?
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2022
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Plus the latest from Ukraine and Canada.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo, Arculus, and FTX US.
Today on “The Breakdown,” NLW looks at three geopolitical situations shaping the bitcoin discourse:
- Continued tensions and recent cyberwarfare between Ukraine and Russia
- Crypto wallets targeted in ongoing Canada protests
- A U.S. bill to investigate El Salvador’s bitcoin adoption and the risks it might pose to the U.S. dollar
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Vision” by OBOY. Image credit: Alex Peña/Getty Images News, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My bias when it comes to this study, although it does certainly seem to come from a place of hostility, |
| 0:05.4 | is that more information is almost always better than less. |
| 0:09.6 | What's more, elected officials having the discussion of the U.S. dollar and its role in the world in public |
| 0:15.0 | is better than three-letter agencies having that same discussion in private. |
| 0:20.6 | Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. |
| 0:24.7 | It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. |
| 0:30.7 | The breakdown is sponsored by nexo.io, Arculus, and FTX, and produced and distributed by CoinDesk. |
| 0:38.3 | What's going on, guys? It is Thursday, February 17th, and today we are talking about the latest |
| 0:43.7 | in Bitcoin's geopolitical bid. Before we get into the show, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, |
| 0:49.8 | please go subscribe to it, give it five stars, leave a good review, or if you want to get into the conversation |
| 0:55.4 | on a deeper level, join the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit. |
| 1:00.0 | Dotley slash breakdown pod. So this is the year of the geopolitical trade, and this is something |
| 1:07.1 | we've been talking about a lot, but Suu from Three Arrow summed it up really well. |
| 1:11.2 | When he tweeted, generalized epics of crypto bidding, 2020, macro bid, 2021, tech bid, |
| 1:18.5 | 2022 geopolitical bid. Another framing? 2020, uninflatable. 2021, programmable. 2021, |
| 1:26.5 | censorship resistance. The idea here is that the particular properties |
| 1:31.3 | of Bitcoin and crypto that people are finding value in is shifting from a narrative perspective. |
| 1:36.9 | And boy, has that been on display this week. So let's talk about the geopolitical conversations |
| 1:42.4 | that are shaping the industry right now, and let's |
| 1:44.9 | start with Russia and Ukraine. There's been a lot of cynicism from the Twitterati this week, |
| 1:50.4 | basically claiming that this is a manufactured war, and it's certainly fair to be skeptical. |
| 1:55.7 | I'm sympathetic to those who point out mainstream media's propensity to tell stories of war |
... |
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