Russia?s invasion of Ukraine is proof that the world can?t have nice things and harkens back to a potential post-war settlement that could see cryptocurrencies take a more central role in the evolution of decentralized money.
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The dollar may be the global reserve currency today, but not so long ago, the US was actively trying to promote and prop up another reserve currency, backed by another empire ? the British pound.

For most of the 1920s, the US, Britain and France had coinciding interests, with Washington and Paris, supporting London?s efforts to shore up the pound’s value against market forces.

In the early 20th century, the US was at best a middling military power, whereas the sun never set on the British empire?s navy whose gunboats ensured not only its sovereignty but the sanctity of the pound.
Collaboration on shoring up sterling was aided not just by policy, but by personal friendships between American, French and British central bankers, but nothing breaks up friendships quite like a crisis.

And after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, France lost faith in the pound as a store of value, selling it heavily on the global markets, a move that was soon followed by the US.

Because Britain no longer believed France and the US were playing by the rules of the gold standard, by September 1931, the British were forced to substantially devalue the pound, taking it off t...