It never was. There is no 'world standard' currency, other than gold, Bitcoin, silver, or other such currencies. There is one attempt to make a fiat currency a world standard currency, called the Special Drawing Right (or SDR), issued by the UN and under it's authority. The SDR value would be set according to a basket of currencies in the currency market. SDR's are fiat currency. Of the fiat currencies, it would have the best balance sheet associated with it though. Somehow I don't think people will choose yet another fiat currency. The SDR is dead on arrival. Each nation uses it's own currency. Transactions between nations take place according to the agreed upon currency for that transaction only. Dollars are not necessarily involved at all.
For example: If China were to buy a car made in Germany, China would have to buy it quote probably in Euros. Since China uses the Yuan, it would have to convert the necessary funds to Euros on the currency markets to conduct the transaction.
It is the same as you would have to do if you travel to a foreign country. You have to convert some of your dollars into the local currency there.
Oddly enough, gold, silver, and Bitcoin are generally easy to convert to local currencies wherever you go.
Visa and Mastercard are simply credit agencies. They work in most currencies around the world, whether they are Rubles, Yuan, Rupees, Dollars, Yen, Euros, or pretty much anything else. They are not dollars, not do they standardize anything in dollars either. Their profit around the world is converted into dollars at the current exchange rate, since they are 'U.S.' companies. There are other credit companies. Russia is simply switching their banks to issue cards attached to UnionPay, a Chinese credit company (owned by the Chinese government). In other words, Putin's response to Visa and Mastercard bailing out is, 'Meh'.
Now it is even less possible for The Oligarchy (Biden and friends) to place sanctions on the Russian economy. Putin has actually gained power because of this.
The idea of 'our throne of currency' is really just propaganda. There is no world fiat currency standard (not even the SDR yet, and I don't think it will be). There is no 'throne' to topple. Each nation accepts transactions in their own local currencies, and always have.
Gold is universally accepted. So is silver. These are hard currencies. They've been used for thousands of years for a reason. Bitcoin is pretty universally accepted wherever there is internet.
Gold is easy to check it's purity with simple equipment. Silver isn't worth as much, so most don't bother. Silver also corrodes (tarnishes). In a gold/silver based currency system, such as is the only legal tender in the United States, according to it's Constitution, silver is used for day to day purchases, while gold is used to store value and for major purchases. When these were used, people would put their money in the bank, just like today. The bank would issue a certificate of deposit, which also acted as a certificate to claim the gold back. People would often just trade using these certificates.
The word 'dollar' itself comes from the word 'tahler', a silver coin minted by the mining town Jachemstahl that was accepted at one time over most of Europe and even further. A dollar is actually a unit of weight. It was at one time set by the government to equal 1/20th of an ounce of fine gold.
That was all before FDR stole the gold from people and build Fort Knox to store the stolen gold in. Penalties for using gold at the time were very high, equivalent to about a $5 million fine today.
What FDR did was illegal. He got away with it because of the stresses of WW2, and that people were already trading using gold deposit certificates, effectively paper money.
Now, the 'dollar' (really just a Federal Reserve Note) has no backing, and the word 'dollar' is no longer a unit of weight at all.
We aren't the only ones with fiat currency. Every nation uses fiat currency, with the exception of Russia and Iraq (based on a gold standard). Each nation is doing what we are doing, printing money to keep the party going. It's a race to the bottom. Who will get there first? The world has never been here before.
