Bitcoin: A Digital Lifeline for a Debt-Ridden World

Shashank Shekhar Rai
9 min readSep 1, 2024

The specter of global debt looms large over the world economy. A mountain of liabilities, accumulated over decades of borrowing and spending, threatens to destabilize financial markets and stifle economic growth. As this debt burden continues to mount, it becomes increasingly evident that traditional solutions are insufficient because traditional economic growth has failed to keep pace with debt growth. A new approach is needed to expand the global economic frontier to pay for the excess debt. Like always, this expansion in the economic frontier will be led by technology, it will not be linear, and it will disrupt the traditional notions of collateral, even though collateral will remain key to credit expansion and as such growth.

The Weight of Debt on Global Growth

Global debt has skyrocketed in recent decades. According to the Institute of International Finance (IIF), global debt reached a staggering $340 trillion in the first quarter of 2023, surpassing 320% of global GDP. This alarming figure underscores the urgent need to address the growing debt burden.

The excessive accumulation of debt has far-reaching consequences. It weighs heavily on economic growth, as governments and businesses are forced to allocate a significant portion of their resources to debt servicing. This reduces their capacity for investment, innovation, and job creation. Moreover, high debt levels increase the risk of financial crises, as borrowers may struggle to meet their…

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