Why the Next Dollar May Be Digital and Gold-Backed

In this appearance on the Flyover Conservatives podcast, Dr. Kirk Elliott offers his answer to a question he has been asked for years: what the next form of money will look like. Responding to a Glenn Beck segment on Canada's six largest banks building programmable payment tokens, he weighs the benefits of tokenized money, including instant settlement, round-the-clock access, and lower transfer costs, along with the Treasury's view under the GENIUS Act that regulated stablecoins could become an internet-native dollar and raise demand for short-term Treasury bills. He then explains why he sees programmability as the central danger, since rules attached to money could be used to restrict access based on a person's beliefs or associations. He walks through the team now advising the Treasury, including Secretary Scott Bessent, Judy Shelton and her proposal for gold-backed Treasury bonds redeemable in gold or dollars, and David Zervos, brought in for market mechanics and transition expertise, and describes a possible shift from debt-dependent money toward digital, asset-anchored money. He also explains why he considers a revaluation of the government's gold from its decades-old statutory price of about $42 an ounce to market value close to inevitable, and why he believes that could expand demand for metals. He frames physical metals as assets investors may want to consider and invites viewers to schedule a consultation with the KEPM team.