No, the international monetary system is perfectly functional, as evidenced by the fact that it supports the global economy just fine.
Bitcoin is neither an alternative to the international monetary system, nor a hedge. It's a joke. A gambling instrument for financially illiterate people.
The adoption of fiat currency by many countries, from the 18th century onwards, made much larger variations in the supply of money possible. Since then, huge increases in the supply of paper money have occurred in a number of countries, producing hyperinflations – episodes of extreme inflation rates much greater than those observed during earlier periods of commodity money.
Hyperinflation is extremely uncommon, especially in developed countries, and when it occurs it's always caused by incompetent or corrupt governments, not by the currency itself.
Wishful thinking. Cryptocurrencies have failed to gain traction even in countries experiencing hyperinflation. People don't trust a fiat "currency" that is issued by anonymous entities and is backed by nothing. Especially when it's been known to depreciate dramatically in the blink of an eye. People trust fiat currencies that are issued by reputable institutions that give credible assurances about the purchasing power of said currencies. This is why such currencies as the US dollar and the euro are used all over the world for international trade, and cryptocurrencies are not.
> No, the international monetary system is perfectly functional, as evidenced by the fact that it supports the global economy just fine.
Obviously it is functional, I never said it wasn't!
Inflationary systems have a lot of benefits -- they encourage consumption, erode the value of debt over time, etc. But there are downsides, too. Savings and purchasing power are destroyed over time. They encourage investment in hard assets like real estate and BTC to protect wealth. And so you get some waste, too. There is no free lunch.
The international monetary system isn't a deflationary system per se. It can accommodate a variety of monetary policies, including deflationary policies.
As far as bitcoin being a hard asset, this isn't entirely correct either. Not only does bitcoin not generate income, but it consumes income. You see, the bitcoin network is extremely expensive to maintain, and the owners of bitcoins are the ones who bear the cost. Either they pay with fees -unlikely-, or they'll pay by losing value in their investment -most likely. There's no way around it.