Earlier this month around March 7th 2025, the White House convened a Crypto summit. The current administration has discussed designating Crypto currency as part of the United States Federal Reserve currency. Will it be held at Fort Knox where the dollar is backed by United States gold and will it replace the United States dollar? Here is what you need to know about Crypto and where the future of money may be headed.
What is Crypto
The whole crypto understanding and conversation can be somewhat dense if not complicated. One of the basic things you need to understand prior to investing is that crypto currency has its own language. Therefore the first thing you might want to do is familiarize or get acquainted with the terminology and definitions of the currency. In order to provide a simple definition, you should understand blockchain.
Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed, and public digital ledger that stores and records transactions across many computers across the world. This ensures immutability and transparency across transactions. Blockchain is used in various applications beyond cryptocurrencies. Contrary to popular belief, crypto transactions are detectable and traceable.
Criminal cases involving crypto are growing due to hacking, fraud and money laundering. In 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filed a summons against Coinbase, a digital centralized exchange forcing it to turn over the names of individuals and businesses who did not report digital or crypto transactions on their tax returns or failed to file a tax return, so much for untraceable crypto transactions!
Blockchains have layers. On the first layer we find Bitcoins, Ethereum and Solana. The most popular of these three is Bitcoin. What makes crypto, and by extension bitcoin, preferable is that it is DiFi. This means it is a decentralized financial system which is quite different from the way we execute and manage finances today. Today if you want to send money to a family member locally or even internationally, you can have your bank send the money to the recipient’s bank and then they will receive the money. With a DiFi system, there are no intermediaries such as banks or third parties and assets can be sent or transferred directly from one person to another.
Cash or Digital Currency
With the crypto currency movement and in particular Bitcoin in high gear, one question is, will Bitcoin replace the United States Dollar? It may be that cash is no longer king one day. What you should know is that Central Banks all across the world are in various stages of developing digital currencies to replace their Fiat also known as local currency or dollar. These are called or known as Central Banks Digital Currency (CBDC). The Bahamas and Jamaica for example have already developed and issued their own CBDC. Bitcoin is a form of digital currency and could be counted as a part of the United States Federal Reserve Assets.
Central Bank issued digital currencies are not the same as cash. Under our current system cash is untraceable and non programmable. These two distinctions are of critical importance . For example, Central Bank Digital Currencies could be tied to an expiration date. Therefore if you do not use your central bank digital currency by a certain date, it could no longer retain its value. It could also be programmed for restricted purposes. For example, digital currency could be programmed in such a way as to demand or require you to spend it on only certain restricted items and not others. Cash transactions on the other hand does not control which items it can be used to purchase. The European Central Bank is moving ahead with pilot programs and development towards issuing digital currency. While the Federal Reserve has not issued digital currencies and is still developing a plan, there is no question that digital currency is the future.
Buying Crypto
In order to acquire and hold crypto, you need to have a wallet of which there are at least two types, cold and hot. In basic terms, a cold wallet is one which is not connected to the internet, while a hot wallet is connected to the internet. But there is more to it than just that. Cold wallets being not connected to the internet are less exposed to hacking ,fraud and risk. They are usually stored on hardware almost like a USB stick. Hot wallets while more susceptible to higher risk may be easier to receive and transfer money. In order to purchase crypto you will need to go through a centralized exchange such as Crypto.com, CoinBase, Binance or any of the other exchanges available. Just know the risk associated with investing in crypto currency.
WHAT’S UP!
Today’s What’s Up is about digital payment oversight or regulation. There has been proposed regulation over the digital payment providers, to treat them like banks if they handle more than 50 million transactions per year. The new rule will impact companies such as PayPal, Zelle,Amazon, Google and Apple to name a few. It is reported that 62% of shoppers used digital wallets last year. It is unclear as to the new administration position on this regulation, but the regulation is supported by the banking industry. And that’s what’s up!
Ruthven R. Phillip, Esq., is a tax attorney, Stewardship and Philanthropy Ministry Assistant, and CEO of Give2Getrich, LLC. Give2Get Rich, LLC 2025 All Rights Reserved. Any distribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited.
