The IMF's stance of course comes ahead of the implementation of El Salvador's new law to treat Bitcoin as legal tender in the country, which starts next Tuesday, Sept. 7.
As you can probably imagine, the tweet attracted thousands of remarks from blockchain and crypto enthusiasts. While a few were quite cringeworthy, they made some very good points for the most part.
One tweet that I found particularly enticing was posted by Coin Bureau's Daniel Krupka, who pointed out that the IMF is not an elected organization, and therefore it should not have a say in how people or countries conduct their own business.
He did stop short of the main point though, which in my mind is that the IMF has a clear conflict of interest. If Bitcoin succeeds, they lose their power.
So looking from their perspective it's quite easy to see how they might be fearful or less knowledgeable in this particular area of innovation.
That however, does not excuse the fact that the tweet itself, and the blog post to which it links, are loaded with factual inaccuracies.
For some reason, I just expected a higher level of research and scrupulousness from an organization of this stature.
Even the first word of the tweet is incorrect, as cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are not privately issued. In fact, some of the most attractive features and the entire reason for blockchain technology lies in its open-source nature.
On the other hand, fiat currencies, like the ones championed in their blog, are the ones that are issued privately by government entities.
Though I'm not entirely certain how the IMF tries to reconcile this clear case of cognitive dissonance, I am very glad to see this many people pushing back with logic and reason to get their point across.
Can we use this power of overwhelming awareness of the truth to change the way the world's monetary system works?
We can only try.
Wishing you a marvelous day ahead!
