Authored by Michael Kern via Crypto Insider,
There’s never a day that passes without some otherwise intelligent economist making radical claims about bitcoin. It’s all been said before. “It has no intrinsic value,” “it’s used by criminals,” “it will be regulated,” “it will fall to $0.”
And media outlets are happy to share these opinions, with doom-and-gloom headlines to add fuel to the fire.
The Three Horsemen of the Bitcoin Apocalypse
On July 10th, Joseph Stiglitz, Nouriel Roubini and Kenneth Rogoff looked to breathe fresh air into their campaign against the cryptocurrency citing once again the lack of intrinsic value, anonymity and regulation. They even offered a shocking 10-year price prediction - $100.
In the interview with Financial News, Nobel-Prize winning Stiglitz noted: “You cannot have a means of payment that is based on secrecy when you’re trying to create a transparent banking system."
While the irony may be palatable for many in the crypto-community, it’s not as though Stiglitz is completely clueless in the world of policy or economics. Though he has taken a controversial stance on many issues, from globalization to the Eurozone, he has at least expressed respectable and well researched opinions on these matters.
In the case of bitcoin, however, his one-liners and extreme positions based on his perceived understanding of how the cryptocurrency functions leave a lot to be desired.
“If you open up a hole like bitcoin, then all the nefarious activity will go through that hole, and no government can allow that,” Stiglitz said.
Joining Stiglitz in the interview, Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, explained: “Bitcoin could easily be worth just $100 in 10 years,” adding “People in power will move to regulate anonymous transactions. That you can be sure of.”
It’s worth noting, however, that the idea of bitcoin being used primarily in illegal activity has been debunked time and time again.
The simple fact is: bitcoin is no longer as anonymous as these economists might believe. In fact, with strict KYC/AML regulations in place in most international exchanges and blockchain analysis companies such as Chainalysis and BlockSeer, bitcoin may now be easier to trace than cash.
The third Horseman in the interview, however, Nouriel Roubini, the man that predicted the 2008 crisis, went straight for the kill – attacking bitcoin as a currency.
The notoriously bearish “Dr. Doom,” as Roubini is sometimes called, explained: “For bitcoin to be a currency it has to be a unit of account, a means of payment, and a stable store of value. It is none of these. Bitcoin is not even accepted at bitcoin conferences, and how can something that falls 20% one day and then rises 20% the next be a stable store of value?”
Bitcoin’s 10-year plan
Arguing against Roubini’s point, a...