DOLLAR: THE INEVITABLE DECLINE
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The dollar still presents itself today as the supreme currency, the global benchmark, the essential tool of international trade, and the symbol of American power. For a century, it reigned supreme, imposing its logic on every country, every bank, every market. But behind the smooth facade of the greenbacks and the symbolic weight of its imperial eagle, lies a less glorious truth: the dollar is an aging currency, undermined from within by its own logic, imprisoned by its own excessive role, and condemned by the relentless mechanics of debt and money printing. This story is one of slow agony, the twilight of a currency that believed it would last forever.
The history of the modern dollar begins with Bretton Woods in 1944. At the end of World War II, the United States was the only one with an intact economy, immense gold reserves, and unparalleled industrial capacity. The dollar was backed by gold; all other currencies were pegged to it. This system granted America an exorbitant privilege: to issue the currency that governed the world. For decades, this privilege was tolerated because it ensured a certain stability. But by the 1960s, confidence began to falter. Wars, deficits, and the overproduction of banknotes shook the parity. In 1971, Nixon ended gold-dollar convertibility. The sacred bond was broken: the dollar became a purely fiat currency, with no tangible anchor, a mere piece of paper guaranteed only by the promise of the American government.
This shift is a historic turning point. The dollar survives, but its nature is changing. From now on, it is based not on a physical reality, but on collective belief. A belief maintained by the military might of the United States, by its financial institutions, by the cultural influence that makes the greenback a universal symbol. But all belief has its limits. When a currency becomes completely disconnected from reality, when it becomes nothing more than an instrument manipulated to finance wars, deficits, and banking crises, then trust is weakened. The value of the dollar becomes relative, dependent not on its scarcity, but on the infinite capacity of central banks to create ever more of it.
Since that rupture, American debt has continued to grow. Each recession has been pushed back with the printing press. Each crisis has found a response in a new round of money printing. 2008, 2020, 2023… each time the Fed opened the floodgates, flooding the world with artificial dollars. In the short term, this prevented collapse. But in the long term, it destroyed the primary function of money: to preserve value. Today, the dollar is like a patient on a permanent drip, kept alive by repeated injections, unable to stand on its own two feet.
Indebted nations had no choice. They continued to use the dollar, out of inertia, fear, and the lack of a credible alternative. But the cracks are visible. Russia, China, Iran, India, even some European allies: all are seeking to free themselves from the grip of the greenback. Bilateral agreements, settlements in yuan, rubles, and rupees are multiplying. The dollar remains dominant, but it is no longer uncontested. It has become a political weapon, used to sanction, exclude, and impose. A weapon currency is a currency that loses its status as a neutral arbiter. And when a currency ceases to be neutral, it inexorably weakens.
What's killing the dollar isn't a frontal attack, but a slow erosion of trust. A currency doesn't disappear overnight: it disintegrates over time, through a series of small sacrifices. Americans themselves no longer trust their own greenback. Inflation is eating away at wages, the middle classes are becoming poorer, and real wealth is becoming concentrated in the hands of those who own assets. The dollar no longer protects. It silently impoverishes those who have nothing else. This phenomenon, masked by decades of economic propaganda, is now becoming visible to all.
Bitcoin mirrors this decline. While the dollar is unlimited, Bitcoin is limited. While the dollar relies on the promise of a government, Bitcoin relies on mathematics. While the dollar depends on trust in a declining power, Bitcoin relies on an incorruptible protocol, verified every second by millions of independent machines. Where the dollar lies through excess, Bitcoin tells the truth through scarcity. Where the dollar devalues to survive, Bitcoin appreciates through its internal logic. The contrast is stark, and it only becomes more pronounced over the years.
Some say the dollar will always remain the dominant currency because it is backed by the world's most powerful military. But even military empires collapse when their currencies devalue. Rome wasn't defeated by barbarians alone: it destroyed itself from within through the corruption of its currency. Emperors diluted the silver coins to finance their wars until no one believed in them anymore. The parallel with the dollar is striking. It won't be the external enemy that will destroy the American currency: it will be its inability to respect scarcity, to preserve trust, to discipline itself.
Every excess bill printed brings the dollar closer to its end. Every accumulated debt, every prolonged deficit, every bailout fuels this slow agony. What was once a symbol of power has become a headlong flight. The dollar will not disappear tomorrow, but it is no longer eternal. It is doomed to erosion, to gradual decline, until the day a critical mass of nations and individuals decides it no longer deserves their trust. On that day, the shift will be irreversible.
Bitcoin will not replace the dollar by decree, nor by force. It will absorb it through its own logic. Like a truth too obvious to be denied. Like a foundation too solid to be ignored. The dollar exists in a short time, a succession of crises managed in a hurry. Bitcoin exists in a long time, a certainty engraved in the protocol. The former is dying slowly, the latter is strengthened with each block. One survives on debt, the other thrives on scarcity. In this silent duel, there is no suspense: only time will decide. And time is on Bitcoin's side.
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