Amagi Metals recently made headlines with news the company would focus their attention on only accepting cryptocurrencies as a form of payment for their products. This effectively means that they’ll no longer be saving U.S. dollars, though they’ve noted customers who still wish to buy precious metals with the dollar are welcome to do so, but it will be instantly converted to digital currency.
It’s a bold strategy, bit it’s not slated to kick in until 2017 begins.
I had a few questions for the company on the topic, and I thought I’d share them here with you. My first question, plain and simple, was just “why?”
Megan Duffield was kind enough to take some time to give my questions attention. Here’s what she said:
[blockquote style=”2″]We wrote a long list of why the dollar will inevitably fail¹. It’s well known in this community and the precious metals world that the dollar is on its last leg. All fiat currency systems fail in time…with interest rates at the lowest they can go, being $18 trillion dollars in debt and the continuance of Dollar-printing, this current system is in a lot of trouble. It’s also important to note how involved the government is overseas and in individuals’ lives here in the US. 50 million people depend on food stamps and military bases can be found in over 100 countries around the world. The only way to sustain these services and military presense is printing more money and/or taxing individuals more – which even then couldn’t keep up with the rate of spending. Printing money of course will only devalue the Dollar more…and well you’ve seen what happens in countries that choose this route (ie: Zimbabwe, Argentina and soon enough Japan). There are no options left for the Dollar. Sure they could re-pin the dollar to gold, but we find this to be a highly unlikely scenario. Amagi Metals’ core principles revolve around sound money. The Dollar is the furthest from a text book example of that. By staying ahead of the curve, Amagi will be prepared for the transition away from the Dollar in the future. We of course will accept Dollars, but only if the customer converts them into crypto first through an exchange – which will involve an exchange rate.[/blockquote]
I asked next whether Megan thought we’ll be more businesses following in Amagi’s footsteps by shunning the dollar.
[blockquote style=”2″]Just recently Agora Commodities announced they’d no longer be accepting credit card payments and yes, I do believe more companies will join us. With how quickly technology and the world evolves, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve with education and customer service. That’s what we are doing. [/blockquote]
And if you followed Amagi’s news on social media last week, you may have noticed some critics insinuating the move was done for the sake of public relations. In other words, a show. Surely, in two years, many people won’t remember Amagi’s announcement.
And so I asked what Amagi thought about the criticism:
[blockquote style=”2″]To those who are calling this a publicity stunt…you haven’t met Stephen Macaskill personally. While it is a bold move and did gain us a lot of, in my opinion, well-deserved press, our hearts and minds are fully committed to cryptocurrencies and most of us have been in the industry and liberty world long enough to know that this current system will fail. Stephen spends the majority of his time outside of the office converting his friends and family to sound money and alternative currency. He cares about his loved ones financial future and rarely rests when there’s an opportunity to evangelize about Bitcoin. One of his favorite reasons to talk about when it comes to losing paper money and adopting cryptos is “life expectancy”. Money is dirty and instead of exchanging this germ-filled paper that has been all over the world, one can use a digital currency that won’t spread disease! Then we will all live longer! Amagi Metals has been a pioneer of this crypto movement since the very beginning, so this bold, yet researched step to not accept dollars is in character with the company. In character with Stephen Macaskill. [/blockquote]
What do you think about the bold new move? Do you think other companies will follow suit?