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Stephen Harp­er, an econ­o­mist and the for­mer prime min­is­ter of Cana­da, said bit­coin could poten­tial­ly see use as a reserve cur­ren­cy, but isn’t going to sup­plant the U.S. dollar’s inter­na­tion­al role.

In an inter­view with Cam­bridge House’s Jay Mar­tin on Sun­day, Harp­er acknowl­edged that the dol­lar had been on a down­trend, but said there were few viable inter­na­tion­al alter­na­tives, even when look­ing at the euro and the yuan.

“Unless the U.S. becomes a cat­a­stro­phe, it’s hard to see what the alter­na­tive is to the U.S. dol­lar as the world’s major reserve cur­ren­cy. Oth­er than you know gold, bit­coin, … a whole bas­ket of things, right?” said Harp­er. “I think you’ll see that the num­ber of things that peo­ple use as reserves will expand, but the U.S. dol­lar will still be the bulk of it.”