Putin demands 'unfriendly countries' pay for Russian gas in rubles

> "I have decided to implement ... a series of measures to switch payments — we'll start with that — for our natural gas supplies to so-called unfriendly countries into Russian rubles," Putin said in a televised government meeting, adding that trust in the dollar and euro had been "compromised" by the West's seizure of Russian assets.

Objectively, the dollar and euro have been compromised as reserves. The whole idea behind reserve currency is to be liquid and not subject to seizure. Weaponize the dollar enough and people stop using it. Not tomorrow or probably next year, but eventually.

Still this seems very unlikely. People have been proclaiming the end of dollar hegemony for decades now. It doesn't happen because nobody has an answer to the simple question: what else is there?

No country other than the US is insane enough to want the world's reserve currency because of the many ways it screws up the productive economy. Think Rust Belt. Gold is a pain to use and in the end people just end up trading paper promissory notes instead of physical gold.

The one asset that might have a shot is Bitcoin. But that's still crazy talk. In a few years, though...