Helicopter money, cash restrictions and negative interest rates: "We live in an experiment that has not existed in the past 3,000 years," says financial expert and author Markus Miller. Savers and consumers need more security. And they exist.N-tv.de: Digital currencies are on the rise. 179 officially recognized paper currencies are more than 800 virtual currencies. Where does this hype come from?
Markus Miller: If you wanted to secure the purchasing power of your money, you only had to put your 100-Mark Mark into the locker. Today it does not work anymore. It is due to the high government debt as well as to the bond purchases and monetary expansion of the central banks.People have simply lost confidence in the value of money. They are looking for alternatives, the exodus goes into gold, silver, diamonds, real estate - and in cryptocoins.
And why are cryptos more secure than cash?
Unlike paper money, cryptic payments are not based on debt. The growing trust is based on the technology behind it, the so-called blockchain. This is a decentralized system that has no influence on the company or the central bank. It regulates itself through the respective transactions of supply and demand in this block chain, which is completely transparent and visible.This technology will revolutionize our lives in many areas - not just our money system. Probably our monetary system will be fully digitized in the future. Therefore, it is important to implement a very high level of security.Blockchain fulfills this requirement.
Obviously they do not expect much resistance.
The confidence in these currencies and the application possibilities in the most diverse areas are growing. Even the Bundesbank and Deutsche Börse are intensively researching this block-chain technology in order to use them in the future as a cash register or an order book for securities transactions. States are also interested in a new currency based on cryptographic keys, ie mathematical encryption models. Norway is researching the EKrone. Japan has recognized Bitcoin as the official currency. In Europe there is only the city train in Switzerland, the Bitcoins officially accepted with authorities. But there are other companies that accept Bitcoin every day. However, at the moment, an incredible speculative boom in these currencies has also emerged.
But you do not even know who is behind these cryptic stories. Father or mother of Bitcoinis supposed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. Is this an individual or a programming group? There are new dangers.
Yeah right. But the origin is no longer important. Whoever invented Bitcoin has little influence on the system. The system has developed decentrally and established itself independently all over the world. Take the history of the automobile: it was Otto Benz, who invented the Otto engine over a hundred years ago. Over the years, the technology has been further developed by a wide variety of people and businesses. The basis of a car, four wheels, brake, gas and steering wheel have always remained the same. The same thing happened with Bitcoin. The programmers have put a motor on the Internet and this engine has been further developed worldwide on hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Internet nodes. This is precisely what makes the technology so secure.
Nevertheless, there are cases of fraud.
This has been the case in the past and probably will continue to exist in the future. That's right.Years ago in Japan a large Bitcoin platform went bankrupt because Bitcoins were misused as with a bench screw. This is a risk. That is why it makes sense to use several trading platforms and different accounts.
There are also black sheep under cryptry: OneCoin, SwissCoin, for example, are considered untrustworthy. How can the layman distinguish good from bad digital currency?
No one can guarantee that a digital currency will get through. I am firmly convinced that many digital currencies will fail and fall to zero. But on the Coinmarketcap.com website, you will find currencies that are solidly designed from their basic, technological design. OneCoin or SwissCoin are not solid cryptographic currencies, they are centralized. They are based on distribution systems. That makes a big difference. Behind them are companies that manage these currencies. If these companies go bankrupt, the money is gone. The currencies are recommended with gigantic commissions of more than 30%. These are pure pyramid systems, which are constantly being deprived of substance by commissions. This can not work.
The bitcoin keeps course on converted 3000 euro. Is that still healthy?
This is an incredible development which is fundamentally even welcome. The higher the market capitalization, the greater the spread and acceptance. Splitting is not an issue, because it is like in the Euro sub-portions. The smallest unit in Bitcoin is called Satoshi, named after the founder group.Even if a Bitcoin is worth 20,000 euros, this is not a problem, because you can also pay something with 0.00000001 Bitcoin.
The usefulness in practice - at least here in Germany - is nevertheless not particularly great.
Markus Miller is a former private banker,
financial analyst, founder of the media and
consulting company Gepolitical Biz and book author.
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Because we Germans are a people of cash. In Scandinavia or Canada much more is paid with a card or mobile phone. In Scandinavia, there are churches where you pay the collection or the police's penalties with your smartphone. We Germans are backward - or cautious. There are over 1250 Bitcoin ATMs around the world.Many of them in Austria, many in the Czech Republic, some in France, over 60 in the UK, over 800 in the USA and over 400 in Canada. Liechtenstein has just received its first machine. Germany has not a single one for the public.
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Because we Germans are a people of cash. In Scandinavia or Canada much more is paid with a card or mobile phone. In Scandinavia, there are churches where you pay the collection or the police's penalties with your smartphone. We Germans are backward - or cautious. There are over 1250 Bitcoin ATMs around the world.Many of them in Austria, many in the Czech Republic, some in France, over 60 in the UK, over 800 in the USA and over 400 in Canada. Liechtenstein has just received its first machine. Germany has not a single one for the public.
Why?
Because the Bundesbank and the Bafin - at present still - intervene and do not allow. There are currently only three Bitcoin ATMs for research purposes. I'm sure that with the Bitcoin boom, it will soon be a bank that is setting up the first machine, probably for marketing purposes. In terms of interest rate policy, the financial institutions must look to open up new business fields. Blockchain and Bitcoin offer as a possibility.
They mentioned the resistance of Bafin. The financial supervisors are skeptical about the parallel universe. Allegedly, digital money is a perfect hiding place for organized crime.
I think this is an absolute myth. Other markets are more interesting for organized crime. The money is washed, for example, by trade in works of art, real estate or business. The regulators would like to control certain areas; this is possible with banks and asset managers. But with Bitcoin not. I believe that the Bafin, the Bundesbank, governments must integrate cryptographic currencies into their own systems. Why? So that there is no parallel universe that could be more successful than one's own money system. Then the states would fail, and that is exactly what they will try to prevent.
How can we imagine this new beautiful world of money? Do we have only cryptic money in our pockets? Or a real and a virtual wallet?
I believe that our future financial system will basically be based on cryptographic encryption systems. The banks of the future are named Amazon, Apple or Alphabet (Google). I can imagine that there will also be parallel currencies in smaller quantities. We are afraid of these technological things that enter our daily life because we do not deal properly with it. But now cash restrictions and prohibitions come. The 500-euro bill, for example, will be abolished. Cash surpluses are falling ever further. People are automatically forced to deal with the new technologies.
They have written a book titled "The World Before the Money Attack. How to Create Financial Self Defense for Your Own Fort Knox". Why so dramatic?
Our money system has been completely out of control since the 1980s. There have been a lot of new financial products: derivatives, options, futures, certificates and other purely virtual financial vehicles. They no longer correspond to the real-economic purpose, but serve purely for financial market speculation. The world is now in debt with 225 trillion US dollars. Money is based on a value added through lending. The higher the debt, the less worth the paper money. The value retention function simply no longer exists. The purchasing power will continue to decline. We live in an experiment that has never existed in the past 3000 years: negative interest. It is an open-ended experiment. A mathematician has analyzed 600 paper deposit systems of the past 1000 years. No one has survived this. Therefore: Do not rely on governments and states, but create your own, covered money system. This is possible, you decide on the type of cover, from goldcoins to cryptocoins.
Because the Bundesbank and the Bafin - at present still - intervene and do not allow. There are currently only three Bitcoin ATMs for research purposes. I'm sure that with the Bitcoin boom, it will soon be a bank that is setting up the first machine, probably for marketing purposes. In terms of interest rate policy, the financial institutions must look to open up new business fields. Blockchain and Bitcoin offer as a possibility.
They mentioned the resistance of Bafin. The financial supervisors are skeptical about the parallel universe. Allegedly, digital money is a perfect hiding place for organized crime.
I think this is an absolute myth. Other markets are more interesting for organized crime. The money is washed, for example, by trade in works of art, real estate or business. The regulators would like to control certain areas; this is possible with banks and asset managers. But with Bitcoin not. I believe that the Bafin, the Bundesbank, governments must integrate cryptographic currencies into their own systems. Why? So that there is no parallel universe that could be more successful than one's own money system. Then the states would fail, and that is exactly what they will try to prevent.
How can we imagine this new beautiful world of money? Do we have only cryptic money in our pockets? Or a real and a virtual wallet?
I believe that our future financial system will basically be based on cryptographic encryption systems. The banks of the future are named Amazon, Apple or Alphabet (Google). I can imagine that there will also be parallel currencies in smaller quantities. We are afraid of these technological things that enter our daily life because we do not deal properly with it. But now cash restrictions and prohibitions come. The 500-euro bill, for example, will be abolished. Cash surpluses are falling ever further. People are automatically forced to deal with the new technologies.
They have written a book titled "The World Before the Money Attack. How to Create Financial Self Defense for Your Own Fort Knox". Why so dramatic?
Our money system has been completely out of control since the 1980s. There have been a lot of new financial products: derivatives, options, futures, certificates and other purely virtual financial vehicles. They no longer correspond to the real-economic purpose, but serve purely for financial market speculation. The world is now in debt with 225 trillion US dollars. Money is based on a value added through lending. The higher the debt, the less worth the paper money. The value retention function simply no longer exists. The purchasing power will continue to decline. We live in an experiment that has never existed in the past 3000 years: negative interest. It is an open-ended experiment. A mathematician has analyzed 600 paper deposit systems of the past 1000 years. No one has survived this. Therefore: Do not rely on governments and states, but create your own, covered money system. This is possible, you decide on the type of cover, from goldcoins to cryptocoins.
With Markus Miller, Diana Dittmer spoke