Rouhani Suggests Islamic Crypto
- Iranian president Hassan Rouhani suggests Islamic crypto
- Latest in a bid to get around US dollar hegemony
- Several countries could benefit from this approac
Islamic Republic of Iran president Hassan Rouhani suggested on Thursday that perhaps most Islamic countries should adopt the Islamic cryptocurrency. Hassan Rouhani stated that this could be used to get around US dollar-related sanctions, and the hegemony of the world’s reserve currency. By allowing the US dollar to be the world’s reserve currency, it allows the US to weaponize its place in the world, levying punishing sanctions on countries such as Iran.
The proposed idea
Rouhani suggested that the cryptocurrency could replace the US dollar as the major means of exchange, at least in Muslim countries. This proposal came during the Malaysian summit, an event that gathers several world leaders to discuss social and economic issues affecting the world.
He urged Muslim countries to design a way to protect themselves from the hegemony of the greenback, and therefore escape the power of the American monetary regime. The Iranians themselves are facing major sanctions that have been going on for roughly 40 years. This has had punishing effects on the Iranian economy, even though Iran holds a good amount of crude oil within its borders.
By using cryptocurrency, Middle Eastern and other Islamic countries can do transactions and completely bypass anything to do with the United States government. This is an idea that could catch on in some countries, but the viability of actually going through with this may be hard to swallow. That being said, it’s possible that we could see something like this occur down the road, as it would obviously be a major undertaking.
Whether or not it actually happens is probably a question for years down the road, but it does propose an idea that perhaps has been in the back of the minds of Islamic leaders for some time. This could be a means of exchange between countries like Syria and Iran, which then would have no concerns whatsoever about the Federal Reserve controlled greenback.
That being said, this comes down to the economic sanctions more than anything else. Washington has been bending the knee of Tehran for several decades, but has yet to break the regime. If the Iranians can avoid sanctions altogether, it could open up a bit of a renaissance when it comes to that economy. There are several other countries around the world that would benefit as well, but as we have seen in Venezuela with the advent of Petro crypto, this is something that is highly experimental to say the least.