CoinFox spoke to Shannon Lowery, the founder of the first oil-for-bitcoin online market, who believes the cryptocurrency will help governments to mitigate the effects of upcoming “economic apocalypse”.

SecureTradePlatform opened a week ago and is currently waiting for traders to arrive. However, Mr Lowery is sure that in the years to come his project will become a lifeline for global trade and an instrument of recovery when a serious crisis strikes.

CoinFox: Please, tell us what provoked your interest in bitcoin. What were you doing prior to starting SecureTradePlatform?

Shannon Lowery: What fueled my interest in bitcoin is a keen belief that a financial crisis is about to unfold on an international scale. I believe a hidden derivatives situation will soon come to a head. I believe that many exchanges lack the capital to cash out many who are participating in the current markets, and I believe that negative interest rates, will soon create runs on banks that will expose many banks as insolvent. In short, I believe that a great number of illusions are about to be revealed and when so, things will get complicated for the whole system.

I created the platform as a means of international trade with BTC so that there may be a system of democratically controlled “money” that would simplify world trade by having a common market that is without price speculation.

I was and still am involved with rehabbing commercial real estate and I also am a shareholder in various companies.

CF: How did you come to the idea that oil should be sold for bitcoins?

SL: The idea was prompted once I realized that banks are only required to hold less than 10 percent of all money they take in. Once I realized that, I took my funds out the bank. The whole point of this platform is to have a system in place, once the current system fails, so that we may prevent hyperinflation and shortages that happen when currencies devalue. The currencies should have devalued long ago, but the Central Banks are doing all they can to prevent the day of reckoning.

CF: Is the process of sale and purchase on your platform somehow different from traditional exchanges?

SL: As you may well know, the futures market, where prices for oil are set, have a participation ratio that is roughly 80%-20% in favor of speculators, meaning that speculators are the driving force behind oil prices and not producers and actual commercial interest. Basically, the price discovery mechanism is destroying economies, and it will continue.

The difference with this platform is that commercial interests are in control of prices and all trades are for actual delivery. Essentially giving the real oil market back control over its product and the same for every commodity that is purchased or sold.

CF: What makes you think the US dollar is about to collapse?

SL: What we are seeing across the world is a collapse of the debt-based system, it is inevitable to occur. A new system of trade must be in place or social unrest will be the order of the day and certainly, every central bank knows what is coming.

CF: Considering the volatility of bitcoin and the fact that the cryptocurrency is not backed by anything but market demand, how would it affect bitcoin’s role as a prospective world reserve currency?

SL: Not only will the USD plummet, but so too will all other major currencies where fractional reserve banking, highly leveraged trading practices and price speculation has taken root. I believe BTC will go higher as governments themselves and major institutions will be purchasing it in order to trade because if they do not, there will be economic problems across this world that has never before been witnessed, and it will continue until each Government does what is right by the people.

CF: Why, in your opinion, many governments still regard bitcoin as a threat? Is there a way to change this attitude?

SL: I believe that many governments view BTC as a threat because the current order of things has allowed many governments to run sizable deficits without much repercussion. I also believe that governments are doing all they can to keep the current system alive as no individual wants to deal with the political and social fallout of a systemic collapse. However, it is coming, and it will force governments to cooperate.

Lastly, I believe that many governments view BTC as a threat because that is how the Bitcoin community is positioning it. I believe that if it were positioned in a manner that highlights the capacity of BTC to hedge governments and institutions from what is inevitable there perhaps would be a different response. I think positioning it from a perspective of having something that governments can all control democratically is a better way to position it.

Making settlements in BTC allows governments and institutions flexibility as it relates to currencies. For example, many institutions do not want to take in various currencies because their currencies are devaluing at a rapid pace, thus, this may be circumvented by using BTC.

Lyudmila Brus