The independence movement in Alberta appears to be picking up steam.
Due to a combination of equalization payments, federal carbon taxes, energy industry interference, woke policies, forced mRNA jabs, and mass migration, Albertans appear to be fed up, and are planning their departure from Canada.
On X, you can watch videos of thousands of Albertans lining up in freezing cold temperatures to sign a petition that could make Alberta a sovereign nation.
In such case, Alberta would no longer be taking orders from Ottawa (Canada's capitol). Rather, it would start making its own decisions on energy, immigration, budgets, healthcare, and more.
Resource Wars?
Before we get into the topic of what Alberta's future monetary unit could be, I want to talk about a sneaking suspicion some of us may have...
Despite Trump campaigning on "no more wars or regime change," in the past few weeks we have seen the toppling of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, as well as the threat of military action against Iran. What do both of these nations have in common? They both rank within the top five countries by oil reserves.
As a sovereign nation, Alberta would also rank within the top five:
Is it just a coincidence that a wildly popular independence movement has sprung up in Alberta around the same time as these other geopolitical events, or could this be part of a coordinated effort (part of a "Great Reset," perhaps) to take control of global energy resources?
I want to believe that the Alberta independence movement is authentic. But even if it is, Albertans need to be aware that the powers that be will likely try to corrupt the leaders, probably with bribes and/or blackmail. Sadly, we have seen more and more evidence lately that this is standard practice.
At the end of the day, I think we need to be skeptical as to whether or not this movement is completely organic, especially considering the amount of rhetoric we are seeing on social media about Alberta becoming the 51st state, which would put it under the jurisdiction of Washington D.C., which is arguably more corrupt than Ottawa.
Alberta's New Currency
What are the chances that this independence movement will succeed, and that Alberta will launch its own currency? Well, secession has been done successfully in the past.
Take Singapore, for example, which separated from Malaysia in 1965 and ended up launching their own currency two years later (the Singapore dollar). The country went from a per capita GDP of $500 to $80,000 today, and they had virtually no natural resources to back themselves up.
Alberta, on the other hand, has the world's fourth largest oil reserves (~163–170 billion barrels), which could be used to back a new currency.
As of 2026, the official currency in Alberta is still the Canadian dollar (CAD). However, if Alberta were to separate from Canada, they would need to adopt a different currency. Here are a few possibilities:
- The US Dollar - Like Ecuador and Panama, Alberta could adopt the USD. In fact, that may happen if the Alberta independence movement turns out to be a thinly veiled "America 51st state project," funded quietly by the powers that be.
- An "Albertan Dollar (ABD)" could also be adopted, and backed by a combination of gold and oil reserves, if the independence initiative is indeed genuine.
- Bitcoin - Like El Salvador, Alberta could adopt a neutral cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.
Challenges With Separation
Setting aside the patriotic sentiment for a moment, Alberta seceding from Canada would present several challenges:
- Many Albertans have mortgages (printed out of thin air, by the way) denominated in Canadian dollars. Alberta citizens would still have to pay their mortgages in CAD, while earning whatever currency is adopted by the government.
- How would Alberta pay off its share of the national debt?
- After secession, how would Alberta pay the Old Age Security and Canadian Pension benefits to its citizens who have been contributing to these national social programs for decades?
Perhaps the biggest problem of all is that we find ourselves deep within a unsustainable debt-based financial bubble. Since the end of the Gold Standard in 1971, tons of promises have been made to the populace that simply cannot be fulfilled.
Also, we have seen what can happen to countries that try to nationalize their oil reserves. The powers that be first sanction the country, and then eventually come to drop "democracy bombs" if the leaders don't give in to bribery.
Whether or not Alberta can overcome these hurdles and achieve true independence is yet to be seen.
Borderless Money
We also need to take into consideration the recent advent of cryptocurrency, and how it may affect the way we form sovereign entities (or "network states") in the future.
For hundreds of years, money creation had been under the control of the national legislatures. However, due to the centralized nature of congress and parliament, lawmakers can be corrupted to hand over the power of currency issuance to central banks.
This all changed with the launch of Bitcoin in 2009.
Although core development teams can be subverted by powerful people (especially if there's no formal governance in place), cryptocurrencies are far less susceptible to corruption, as their nodes are borderless, decentralized and independently operated.
It would appear that the powers that be also want to erase national borderlines, but not in the same sense that Bitcoin would do it. Rather than Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) which favor the elite, the technology behind Bitcoin empowers small businesses and individuals all over the world.
Cryptocurrency makes us think differently about money and sovereignty. Separating money from both the banks and the state begs the question, how would nations, provinces, and communities restructure themselves if cryptocurrencies were to replace traditional fiat currencies?
We have already seen it attempted.
El Salvador's Experiment
Back in 2021, El Salvador was the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
Although it was a bold and exciting move, the disappointing truth is that most of the population was not motivated to use Bitcoin as a currency, and the local businesses that accept it are few and far between. That said, time will tell if the failure of fiat currency could spur local usage.
Instead of adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, Alberta could also launch its own cryptocurrency backed by natural resources. Venezuela tried to do something similar with their "Petro" token, but its centralized design prevented it from taking off.
Before Alberta creates its own currency (ABD), many questions would need to be answered:
- Similar to the BRICS' "Unit", would ABD be a token on an open blockchain such as Ethereum, Solana, or Cardano?
- Would ABD be the native token of a public blockchain, open to permissionless mining or validation?
- Or would ABD be on a private, permissioned chain, like Venezuela's Petro?
The tokenomics of Alberta's token would also have to be thought through very carefully. What would be the initial supply, and how would it be distributed over time? Would it be totally permissionless, or would it have some kind of freeze authority?
Perhaps such questions are better left to the grassroots communities who have been experimenting with crypto and tokenomics for nearly a decade. There are already cryptocurrencies designed to incentivize efficient energy production and distribution.
For example, Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) projects such as Powerledger and Daylight reward solar panel and battery owners with tokens for collecting the sun's energy and distributing it efficiently through the power grid.
Although a DePIN project doesn't yet exist for the extraction of oil from the ground, it could still be possible. Small companies would earn tokens for verifying the extraction and distribution of oil, decentralizing production.
It is very important that these cryptocurrencies have bulletproof tokenomics, and a fair token distribution, otherwise they could end up failing spectacularly, like the Petro and many other memecoins.
Until next time...
Alberta's independence movement is just the beginning of a trend in which more states, provinces, and municipalities attempt to escape the grip of bloated, corrupt, and insane national governments.
Plenty of small communities strongly disagree with the policies of Washington and Ottawa on things such as wokeness, mass migration, "vaccines", war, and Bitcoin/crypto adoption.
We will likely see more provinces and states start their own independence movements, especially if the one in Alberta continues to gain traction.
The ultimate question, however, is how will global communities restructure themselves if fiat currencies continue to spiral out-of-control due to unsustainable debts, and cryptocurrency adoption begins to accelerate worldwide.
If you learned something new from this article, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the Hive blockchain. You can also follow me on X or InLeo for more frequent updates.