(Kitco News) – Money will become more and more digitized, according to Jim Rogers, investor, best-selling author, and co-founder of the Quantum Fund, but the question is whether or not non-government issued digital currencies will prevail.
“If cryptocurrencies become successful, most governments will outlaw it, because they don’t want to lose their monopoly, every government in the world is working on computer money now, including the U.S. The Chinese are there already. I can’t imagine that the governments are going to say ok, this is our crypto money, or you can use their crypto money, that’s not the way governments work, historically,” Rogers told Michelle Makori, editor-in-chief of Kitco News.
Rogers draws on historical precedents of currencies being outlawed.
“In China, you can’t take a taxi with money, you have to have the money on your phone, you can’t even buy ice cream. So it’s happening, but I doubt if it’s going to be someone else’s money, history shows it will be government money,” he said.
Rogers said that the reason Bitcoin is not currently made illegal is that it is still not widely used enough to be a form of currency. Once it “successfully” makes that transition, then it would be on the government’s ban list.
“I know guys that are making a lot of money trading it, it’s a wonderful trading vehicle apparently. But, if it becomes a currency, which the crypto people say that it will be, I cannot imagine that any government in the world will say ok, you can use our money, or their money. That’s not what history shows,” he said.
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