Niall Ferguson Believes Biden Should Integrate BTC To US Financial System

Niall Ferguson stands as a financial and economic historian of the UK, and has stated that the US needs its own path when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption. As such, Ferguson stated that the US couldn’t build its own versions of the electronic payments systems that China has already developed.

Ferguson: US Shouldn’t Copy China’s CBDC Template

This strange take was written on a Bloomberg opinion piece posted on Sunday. In this piece, Ferguson highlighted the small silver lining in this ongoing pandemic for the crypto space: It’s accelerated adoption to a considerable degree. This, in turn, has caused something of a global monetary revolution, Ferguson said, but the historian couldn’t help but point out the rapid progress China has made on this front.

The country is making increased use of digital payments, and is already in the rollout stage for its digital yuan. WeChat Pay and Alipay, China-based payment apps, reportedly handle about $40 trillion in transactions a year.

Ferguson is convinced that China’s measures have been serving as a template for various other countries in the development of remittance payments and cross-border payment systems. Even so, the historian was staunch in his opinion that the US shouldn’t use this template as well.

Bitcoin Already Boasts Enforcement Policies In US

Ferguson explained that countries across the globe are building their own versions of the electronic payments systems China had developed. This applies to governments resisting China’s financial penetration, as well, a key example being India. As such, Ferguson urged against developing a “Chinese-style” digital dollar, urging the emerging Biden administration to recognize the benefits that could come of having the US financial system have Bitcoin integration.

The historian highlighted how the US authorities already boast ways to deal with Bitcoin enforcement. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in particular, now mandates that individuals declare their respective crypto holdings on their returns. Not all hiccups are cleared, though, as the IRS had started to pursue Coinbase users due to a miscommunication regarding the exchange’s tax returns.

Ferguson: BTC Is Better For US Than Alipay

Even the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has its eyes on crypto, tracking down the money laundering cases within the space.

Ferguson explained that the key argument of his opinion is as follows: Bitcoin protects the financial data of law-abiding individuals far more than Alipay would.

As for Biden’s own views on crypto at large, including Bitcoin and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), it’s not quite known. Even so, there are small hints that his administration has the potential to guide the crypto space into a regulatory framework far more hospitable than the one in the US currently.