by Kenneth Schortgen, Shotgun Economics:

Many in the cryptocurrency community have forecasted that unbacked digital currencies such as Bitcoin will either compliment, or even one day supplant sovereign currencies as the primary medium of exchange.  But what most of these cryptocurrency advocates fail to take into account is that governments are the ones who hold the power to determine what is and isn’t legal tender.

For now cryptocurrencies do have their uses in the burgeoning technology known as a the Blockchain, but in what could become the first of many sovereign created cryptos, the nation of Iran announced on July 20 that they are preparing for the implementation of a gold backed cryptocurrency.

Who says the gold standard is dead?

The Tehran News agency has reported that Iran intends to launch a gold-backed cryptocurrency. This comes less than a week after President Trump slammed virtual currencies on Twitter amid tensions between the historic foes. The New agency reported the development on its English website. Accordingly, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has approved the issuance of new cryptocurrencies. This is according to the CEO of Iranian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) FANAP, Shahab Javanmardi.
Shahab described the measure as follows: “IRAN’S CRYPTOCURRENCY WILL BE SUPPORTED BY GOLD, BUT ITS FUNCTION IS SIMILAR TO OTHER CRYPTOCURRENCIES. THE CRYPTO ASSET IS DESIGNED TO MAXIMIZE THE USE OF IRANIAN FROZEN BANK ASSETS.” – Asia Crypto Today

Interestingly as well, both Russia and China are also in the process of creating sovereign cryptocurrencies that will most likely be gold backed in some form or fashion.  And with the most recent numbers out on bi-lateral trade along the new Silk Road 2.0 showing $600 billion worth of dollar and non-dollar transactions, it will only require a few simple steps to transition these agreements from fiat to gold now that the Blockchain is ready to supplant the global financial system.

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