It is commendable that the FT has found someone credible to speak out against bitcoin (“Why Bitcoin is Worse Than a Madoff Ponzi Scheme,” FT Alphaville, FT.com December 22). The bitcoin hype is so strong that it is important to publish counter arguments. Sadly, Robert McCauley’s play reads like the daydreams of a dinosaur examining a large, flaming boulder in the sky and wondering what it could be.
First, bitcoin is a whole new kind of asset, so there’s no need to analyze it as security. If you have to put it in any traditional category, you would have a better time to compare it to a commodity, especially since it reacts to the macro climate in the same way. Far from “pumping and dumping” (how can you “pump” an asset with a market cap of the best part of $ 1 billion?), Most bitcoiners treat it like digital gold – a type of gold which can be sent anywhere in the world in a snapshot, weighs nothing and does not need expensive storage.
While it could be treated like a Ponzi by some, the majority of bitcoiners do the opposite and Hodl (“hold dear life”) for five years or more, according to the “Hodl Wave” metric. These accounts may not need to sell to realize the value of their investment, as they can borrow from their stack using a number of innovative and cheap loans that take digital assets as collateral, including self-paying loans. . Search it on Google.
Finally, no “hit” bitcoin coin would be complete without mentioning the environmental impact. The fact that McCauley turns to this zombie argument to support his thesis is testament to his fragility. This problem is already being addressed by proof-of-stake blockchains like Near, Cardano, and soon to be ethereum, as bitcoin miners turn to renewable energy sources. That’s more than I can say for commodities like oil and gold, which continue to wreak havoc on the environment with few solutions in the pipeline (pun intended).
I understand that the world of digital assets is overwhelming and confusing. It’s a revolution and these things are chaotic by nature. But they don’t leave either. Better to embrace evolution.
Nathan thompson
Senior Technology Writer, Bybit, Vientiane, Laos