Can Cryptocurrency Replace the US Dollar?
Channel: BSidesDFW
Date: 11/11/2021

BSidesDFW 2021 Track 1 Session 3 - 06 Nov 2021

Can Cryptocurrency Replace the US Dollar?

Cryptocurrency has the potential to revolutionize world finance and world politics. As a currency, however, crypto still has a lot to prove. Good money has three requirements: reliable medium of exchange, meaningful unit of account, and stable store of value. Computer coders and digital revolutionaries have only just begun. A key milestone will be whether cryptocurrency can replace the US Dollar as the world's reserve currency - a pillar of international relations since World War II. That is unlikely in the near term, but over the horizon, anything is possible.

This talk offers a framework for understanding cryptocurrency's past, present, and future. It details the security challenges associated with cryptocurrency investment, dissecting numerous vulnerabilities and mitigations. It examines why the economic potential of cryptocurrency is intimately tied to its political impact. Investors, from citizen to nation-state, must weigh the benefits and risks of cryptocurrency on tactical and strategic scales.

Dr. Kenneth Geers is an External Communications Analyst at Very Good Security. He is an Atlantic Council Cyber Statecraft Initiative Senior Fellow, a NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence Ambassador, and a Digital Society Institute-Berlin Affiliate. Kenneth served for twenty years in the US Government: in the Army, National Security Agency (NSA), Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), and NATO. He is the author of "Strategic Cyber Security", editor of "Cyber War in Perspective" and "The Virtual Battlefield", and technical expert to the "Tallinn Manual".