- The Death of the Dollar
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- Currency Wars Are Over But Protocol Wars Have Just Begun
Currency Wars Are Over But Protocol Wars Have Just Begun
The plumbing of money is changing—and the dollar’s not invited.
In the old system, reserve currency dominance was enforced with oil, aircraft carriers, and Excel sheets.
In the new system? It’s API calls and instant settlement.
For most of the last century, the U.S. dollar wasn’t just the global currency—it was the clearing mechanism.
If two countries wanted to do business, odds are they needed dollars somewhere in the chain.
Not because they wanted them, but because they had no alternative.
But that middleman role—the dollar as the plumbing—is now up for grabs.
Enter: Real-time settlement
India’s UPI processes over 10 billion transactions a month. No middlemen. Just rupees.
Brazil’s PIX is so fast and frictionless, banks are begging customers to stop using it.
FedNow is the U.S.’s own real-time payment system. Ironically, it undermines the very advantage that made the dollar dominant in the first place.
And on-chain? Protocols like Stellar, Ethereum, Layer 2s, and RippleNet now offer near-instant, cross-border transfers—without SWIFT, and increasingly without dollars.
This isn't just an infrastructure shift.
It’s a paradigm collapse.
What made the dollar dominant wasn’t just trust.
It was friction.
Slow wires. Nostro accounts. SWIFT messaging delays.
All of it required a liquid, reliable middle currency—and the dollar fit the bill.
But today, friction is a bug.
Speed is the feature.
And the platforms being built now? They’re designed to route around middlemen entirely.
This is bigger than “de-dollarization”
Forget the headlines about China buying oil in yuan—although it does matter.
What’s happening underneath is much more serious and is a rewiring of how capital moves:
From currency-first to rail-first.
From clearinghouse dominance to protocol-level interoperability.
It’s not a war over what money you use.
It’s a war over whether you even need money in the middle anymore.
And the dollar?
Still powerful. Still everywhere.
But no longer required.
That’s the risk.
Not collapse, but irrelevance by upgrade.
And what happens when the dollar’s no longer the default?
Less demand for Treasuries. No dollar needed = no reason to buy our debt. Rates go up. Pressure builds.
FX leverage disappears. Sanctions lose bite. SWIFT becomes optional. U.S. control over global finance fades.
Emerging markets opt out. They don’t need to hold dollars—or play by dollar-based rules.
Inflation fights back. Fewer dollars exported = more dollars at home. More heat on prices.
Until next time,
Death of the Dollar