European Central Bank Executive Dubs Crypto “Evil Spawn” of Financial Crisis
An executive board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), Benoit Coeure, dealt a verbal blow to bitcoin and the infant cryptocurrency industry when he termed the digital currency “a combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme, and an environmental disaster,” per a report by Bloomberg, published November 15, 2018.
Bitcoin “Evil Spawn” of Financial Crisis
Speaking at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, the ECB banker called bitcoin a “clever idea” before adding that “not every clever idea is a good idea.” This comes just a few days after the head of International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, urged central banks the world over to consider issuing digital currencies.
The statement was made keeping in view the steady transition of the world economy to a cashless society. She stated:
“The advantage is clear. Your payment would be immediate, safe, cheap and potentially semi-anonymous. And central banks would retain a sure footing in payments.”
However, the sentiments shared by Coeure regarding the cryptoverse have sparked a few concerns among the already deflated crypto community.
Global crypto markets crashed heavily on November 14, with bitcoin recording a loss in value in excess of 15 percent, ahead of the controversial bitcoin cash hard-fork. The sudden downturn wiped out close to $30 billion from the cryptocurrency industry.
Coeure spoke about the regulations and initiatives the global regulatory bodies are taking to create a favorable and controllable ecosystem for digital currencies. However, he also pointed out bitcoin’s “evil” origins. He added:
“Few remember that Satoshi embedded the genesis block with a Times headline from January 2009 about U.K. banks’ bailout. In more ways than one, bitcoin is the evil spawn of the financial crisis.”
Bitcoin Slammed by Prominent Personalities
Although the cryptocurrency industry looks far from finished, the idea behind it has been continually criticized by some of the most prominent personalities in the financial and economic world.
Nouriel Roubini aka “Dr. Doom,” who successfully predicted the 2008 global financial crisis, recently stated that bitcoin will be worth only $100 in ten years time.
Further, the economist also went on to call blockchain technology nothing more than a “glorified spreadsheet.” At the time, he stated that blockchain is anything but a decentralized technology, and that it is only responsible for creating an economic hell.
The controversial take on the innovatoin sparked tension within the crypto community, as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took to Twitter to take a dig at the economist.
