Why CBDCs Will Fail And How to Protect Yourself From the Financial Fallout

I was interviewed by Flagship CEO Jorn Van Zwanenburg in March 2023. The full interview is now available on YouTube and is 44 minutes long. But if you just want the talking points summary, here are the key points from the interview.

1. Nigeria limiting withdrawals to $45/day to promote their CBDC?

It was a Political move. Nobody is buying into the CBDC the central bank is pushing. The restricting laws get reversed after the elections and hopefully things go back to normal. The Naira was depreciating in global markets, so Nigeria's central bank saw a solution in going after the crypto community. But Crypto adoption in Nigeria still covers about 20% of the country, while CBDC adoption did not even touch 1%.

(During the interview, I said I don't know anyone who uses the e-naira. But since then, I found one. And he is not even a Nigerian. Needless to say, the CBDC idea is dead on arrival. Don't make the same people who screwed up fiat come to tell you that they can get CBDC right).

2. The difference between the two worlds - crypto and fiat world

Using crypto for mortgage loans didn’t work out so great. These loans and financial programs is what put the fiat world in massive debt. And now they are  trying to bring that into crypto too. Most of the lenders are now in deep trouble.

They are two different worlds; two different rules, two different philosophies. Whether you are  playing in the crypto or fiat world, don’t mix up the rules of both worlds.

Fiat world is a debt leverage system. They have federal reserve and all kind of tools to bail them out if they ever make mistakes.

This is why CBDCs will fail. It is impossible to bring crypto philosophy, structure, and ideology into the fiat world without a catastrophe. Crypto is an edge to cash, the economy, and the financial system. It can be put away and preserved for future uses, and nobody can take it away from your cold wallet.

New ways of using cryptocurrencies are coming up everyday. It is not a currency or a commodity, it is like nothing we have ever dealt with before. It is a new financial instrument and it is still evolving. Even when we say we know a lot about it, we are still discovering it. It is barely over a decade old.

3. Staying afloat financially in a failing economy

First, I started earning in the global reserve currency (US dollars) not in my local currency. And takes a lot of deliberate consistent work to achieve that.

Then I started building. Two phases of building:

Earning phase – building your capacity to be able to earn a lot of money

Investing phase – building the capacity to keep the money you have earned through investments

4. Advice to crypto investors

A different piece of advice will apply to different people in the market. Advice for a steady monthly salary earner is different from advice for a business owner with a chunk of cash. So investment advice should be taken in context of your specific situation.

That being said; I haven’t gone back from my usual way of tell people to invest in bitcoin. Which is, if you earn a salary, the wise thing to do is to do dollar-cost average. Forget about the charts and the graphs and just invest a small amount that you can be consistent with (monthly, weekly, biweekly, etc).

Also remember to take your gains once the Bull market comes. Don’t sell everything, but sell something and enjoy your money. When you make life changing gains, change your life.

However for business owners and investors that have a chunk of cash to invest, follow the cycle. Don’t try to be logical or emotional about it, just follow the cycle as explained in my crypto book.

5. What else is interesting in the crypto industry asides bitcoin?

The industry is still very young and it’s hard to know who the big winners will be for now.

There are also lots of uncertainties. Anything can happen tomorrow and change the entire game.

There are lots of interesting things in the market, but no convincing big winners yet. Crypto market still has a challenge with on-boarding everyday people. The systems are not simple enough yet. That’s something that upcoming tools should look out for; if your systems are too complicated, nobody would want to take the pain to figure it out. It is important that things get simpler for people to get into the market more.

Watch the full interview here: