Jordan Peterson Joins Unbanking Movement Mulling Bitcoin as Alternative to Banks
Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson reflects on the power of crypto | Credit: Shutterstock
Key Takeaways
- Jordan Peterson suggests replacing banks with crypto trading.
- Digitizing finance: Pros & Cons.
- Peterson doesn’t “know the outcome” of relying on Bitcoin.
The famous, and often controversial, Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson tweeted suggesting that Bitcoin may “fix” current banking problems.
Peterson’s tweet came as a reaction to an article concerning Macquarie Bank’s plans to scrap “Cash, cheque, and phone payments.”
The user who shared the article said that the move is “Totally excluding all citizens who are not digital ready, to erm force them to … get ready!”
However, there are more details to the article, Peterson’s response, and the feedback he received from followers.
Jordan Peterson Is Unsure About Bitcoin
Peterson’s 8-word tweet ignited discussions on X, drawing attention from diverse audiences, including crypto enthusiasts and politicians. Despite not being a financial expert, Peterson’s influence on online social platforms, especially X, made his comment noteworthy.
To get a clearer picture of Peterson’s stance on Bitcoin, one may turn to a clip of the Q&A portion of his Beyond Order Tour where the interviewer asks for his views on the cryptocurrency.
“the idea that we could develop a decentralized standard of universal value which is what money is a very interesting idea,” said Peterson.
“It’s not like I’m a great fan of the fiat currency that allows governments to print money and inflate away value because that punishes people who are sensible and who make the proper sacrifices it’s inflationary as you’re all seeing right now it’s a very bad idea.”
Peterson goes on to talk about how Bitcoin and altcoins may actually free people from political influence over economics. They would also spare the everyday person from the war going on between each fiat currency and another.
However, Peterson also proposed a counterpoint where he expresses the potential dangers of decentralized currencies.
“If Bitcoin and the blockchain technology truly obtained the upper hand we would have put our economic system outside of the political domain now you could you can make a case that maybe that would be an okay thing right because you don’t want the economic the standard of value is subordinate to political machination.”
“But, it also means that it’s no longer subordinate to the collective will the collective of the people as manifested in the electoral process and we don’t know if that would be a good thing.”
How About Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)?
Perhaps a balanced alternative to Bitcoin could be CBDC as it still falls under the jurisdiction of a nation’s government while enabling ease of transactions. But, that, also, has its caveats.
During The Joe Rogan Experience, host Joe Rogan and guest Post Malone discussed the possibility of adopting CBDC as the primary payment platform in the US. Both vehemently rejected the idea.
“No f*cking way. No way. That’s what I think. I think that’s checkmate. That’s game over. Because if they apply that to a social credit score — if they decide somehow or another that you need some social credit score system and it’s for the benefit of society, and they outline that, they can track your behavior and your tweets and all your things…They just decided you f*cked up, and the rules are the rules,” was Rogan’s immediate response to Malone’s question on what he thought about CBDCs.
