A large chunk of international trade is in dollars. Even though the US as a country is only 13.4% of global trade, over 40% of all global trade is invoiced in dollars. International banking (countries’ foreign reserves, loans, & debt payments, etc) is even more dominated by the US dollar.

This fact has become weaponized in US foreign policy, with country after country having banking deposits frozen, or even being excluded from international banking altogether (via its SWIFT network backbone). Around the world, this is focusing other countries’ minds on de-dollarizing global trade.

This foreign policy weaponization has now spread to tech platforms, too. This has led to a push for technology sovereignty, where countries like Canada & Europe are rapidly seeking alternatives to previously trusted US tech.

As sci-writer Cory Doctorow explains, this disentangling will be far from easy. China is already building much of an alternative international technology & financial infrastructure, but can it be trusted any more than the US? Probably not. The only alternatives may be decentralized, and building those may be a messy process.