America should get rid of fiat money and move to digital currency, Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize in economics, suggested at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

In his speech during the session Ending Corruption, Stiglitz said that replacing the traditional monetary system with digital currency has “benefits that outweigh the cost,” CryptoCoinNews reports.

“One of the big issues being discussed here in Davos this year is the backlash against globalization, the darker side of globalization. The lack of transparency in global financial markets [and] the secrecy havens that the Panama Papers exposed, just reinforced what we already knew has meant that there is a global framework for both corruption and tax evasion and tax avoidance.”

The availability of tax havens, according to the economist, encourages tax-avoiding activity allowing offenders to use disadvantages of fiat money to their benefit. Therefore, transparency and immutability of blockchain-based financial systems would seriously undermine this global corruption network.

Stiglitz said that the United States has not done their job in fighting corruption, whereas cryptocurrency may offer a potential remedy against it.

“I believe very strongly that for countries like the United States we could and should move to a digital currency and get rid of currency. There are important issues of privacy [and] cybersecurity, but it would certainly have big advantages.”

Meanwhile, not so long ago Stiglitz was one of those who expressed scepticism about digital currencies and bitcoin in particular, associating them with financial crimes. In September 2016, commenting on the subject during a talk at the London School of Economics, he said that “the main use of bitcoin has been to circumvent tax authorities and regulation.”

Elena Platonova, Svetlana Nosova