Search for US dollar alternatives showing up everywhere

Thanks to a blog reader here for pointing me to this story. It's about a Native American tribe that has launched a new cryptocurrency. It seems that people everywhere are becoming more concerned about the future for the US dollar. That concern is manifesting itself in a search for alternatives including Bitcoin, precious metals, real estate, art work, and other hard assets. Keep in the back of your mind we have Klickex quietly working on its GSD currency.

Now we can add the Lakota Nation to the list. Here is the Forbes article with some quotes pasted below.

"Standing on the banks of the Little Bighorn River last year, a son of the once-mighty Oglala Lakota Tribe made a promise to continue his ancestors’ fight against the United States. Only this time the war wouldn’t be fought with arrows or bullets, but with QR codes and cryptography."

“My family fought and died on this soil,” recalls Payu Harris, a  Bitcoin developer and native activist.

"Now, a year later, the opening skirmishes of this latest battle have begun in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, one of the most impoverished areas in the US. His tribe has just become the first native people to launch their very own cryptocurrency, MazaCoin. Harris wants to see if it’s possible to sidestep the federal government and use the tribal nation’s limited sovereignty to set its own rules on cryptocurrencies. After all, greenbacks haven’t done much for the people of Pine Ridge. If they can ditch the dollar and make MazaCoin work, Harris thinks, they could set an example for the whole world."


“I want to get my people educated and show them this is the next level of finance,” Harris continues.

“Let’s make the rest of the world play catch up. Let’s be leaders and rebuild the economy on our terms. We’re not going to ask the federal government if we can do this. I refuse to ask them to do anything within my own borders. When you have children going hungry, it’s time to focus.”

“Just like debit cards, it will take a while for people to get it,” Harris adds. “But once people understood the new cards, they began to accept them. The same will happen with MazaCoin. We have other tribes looking into cryptocurrencies as well, like the Northern Cheyennes and some tribes in Colorado. Some tribes have casinos and are doing well. This will help the destitute tribes who don’t have that source of income.”

my added comment: This story illustrates how that more and more people are seeking alternatives to the US dollar. As we have noted here, what happens to the US dollar going forward will be the most important factor leading to possible major monetary system change.

addendum 3-6-14: Adam Hofman at Bitcoin Magazine wrote an excellent article on this story released today.