Last week’s CC Forum in London saw a clash of the cryptocurrency titans with the likes of Craig Wright and Nouriel Roubini battling it out with staunch crypto advocates like Tone Vays and Bobby Lee.

One of the many highlights from the event was a debate between the names mentioned above and Brock Pierce, who argued over the viability of the current financial system.

An almighty rift presented itself between Bitcoin Foundation board member Bobby Lee and renowned global economist Nouriel Roubini.

The divisive duo argued over whether cryptocurrencies have the potential to replace the existing financial system, with Lee criticising the US Dollar while Roubini reiterated the uselessness of digital assets.

The debate

“It was a polarising debate,” said Lee. “There was a micro debate between BSV and BTC between Tone and Craig Wright and there was another debate about fiat currencies. It was fun.”

On the topic of Roubini, Lee added: “He avoided all the questions. He kept dissing s***coins, I said I’m not talking about s***coins I’m talking about the US Dollar.

“Asset-based money is better than debt-based money. Bitcoin is the asset and Bitcoin money would be the asset backed money. I was frustrated by Nouriel’s response.”

When asked whether Roubini adds value to the cryptocurrency space with his contrarian attitude, Lee replied: “For conferences, Nouriel adds value but for cryptocurrencies he is too dismissive.

“He doesn’t help push digital currency forwards. So whatever the state digital currency is in, it needs to be pushed forwards in a positive way. He won’t push it forwards.

Craig Wright

The topic of conversation moved onto Craig Wright, who claims to be the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper under pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

Wright launched a scathing attack at Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao last week, labelling him as a ‘money-laundering piece of scum’, but Lee believes Wright is adding value to the space.

“I feel he is [adding value], he’s pushing it in his own way, which some people agree with and some people disagree with.”

Wright kept reiterating that, contrary to popular belief, Bitcoin can be seized. Surprisingly, Lee sympathised with his view.

He continued: “I think his point is the global mining consortium is made up of small players and big players. The big players in theory can receive a court order to make them mine on a certain chain. In which case, the chain could split which would make a court-ordered chain and a freedom chain.

“His point is that miners, in their economic interest, could potentially obey the court order and mine on the court ordered chain. Subsequently all regulated exchanges would be forced by the government to choose the court ordered chain. That’s his theory, it hasn’t happened yet. It could happen next year. I just heard it for the first time today.”

Ballet wallet

Bobby Lee was also promoting his newly-launched company dubbed the ‘Ballet wallet’. It is a hardware wallet in the form of a metal card and it is aimed towards everyday users of cryptocurrency.

“It’s a physical hardware wallet, we’re allowing you to physically turn your digital currency into physical holdings so you can touch it, hear it and you can even smell it.”

Coin Rivet will be reviewing the Ballet hardware wallet and its respective app in the coming days, keep an eye out here for the article.