Bitcoin Replacement? The Fed Can Build One – Bloomberg

Mark Gongloff is an editor with Bloomberg Opinion. He previously was a managing editor of Fortune.com, ran the Huffington Post's business and technology coverage, and was a columnist, reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal.

Photographer: ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images

Photographer: ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images

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Megan Thee Stallion, who has a Grammy but not yet a coin.

Photographer: Kevin Winter/Getty Images North America

Lets say you run a sovereign nation that has the worlds biggest economy and the worlds reserve currency to boot, butone day a rival arises. Lets call it MeganTheeStallionCoin. Itpromises to do away with fusty old dollars like yours by being unregulated and secured by something called the blockchain, which burns the annual energy consumption of a large Texas family every hour. It also disappears forever if you lose your password, and youd never use it as actual currency because the MeganCoinyou spend on a pizza today could be worth $60,000 tomorrow. But people ignore all that in hopes of making $60,000 and also its endorsed by not only Megan Thee Stallion but Elon Musk. Do you:

If you chose c, then youre thinking like Bloombergs editorial board. It suggests the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks respond to the crypto eruption by mostly letting people have their BitFun but then using what it learnsfrom crypto to create digital rivalsthat dontfluctuate wildly, ruin the planet or leave peopledigging through landfills for lost millions. There would be risks, including that of government spying and a whole payments industrygoing up in smoke. But those can be managed, and the upside could be a truly secure and global digital payment system with, uh, JayPowellCoin at its heart. JanetYellenCoin? The name still needs some work. Read the whole thing.

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People are stealing NFTs.

Notes: Please send NFTs and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net.

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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:Mike Nizza at mnizza3@bloomberg.net

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Mark Gongloff is an editor with Bloomberg Opinion. He previously was a managing editor of Fortune.com, ran the Huffington Post's business and technology coverage, and was a columnist, reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal.

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Bitcoin Replacement? The Fed Can Build One - Bloomberg

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