Renowned economist Nouriel Roubini found himself embroiled in a war of words with Bitcoin Cash founder Roger Ver during a heated panel at London’s CC Forum on Tuesday.
Roubini, who is often referred to as ‘Dr Doom’, clashed with Ver on the topic of whether cryptocurrencies are being used and if they have a genuine use case.
Ver enthusiastically claimed that “more than 100,000 websites” accept Bitcoin Cash, while Roubini continually rebuffed his claim by stating that “no one uses cryptocurrencies” and that they can’t even be classified as currencies.
Roubini vs Roger Ver @ForumChallenge #crypto $BCH $BTC @rogerkver @Bitcoin https://t.co/t69HDuzVcw
— Oliver Knight (@OKnightCrypto) October 15, 2019
A hostile audience challenged Roubini on his anti-crypto stance, although he reiterated that they have lost “on average 95% of their value” and that “80% of ICOs are all copycat scams”.
Despite the moderator attempting to steer debate towards the topic of cryptocurrencies in general, Roger Ver was insistent in his advertisement of Bitcoin Cash.
To his credit, Roubini held his own when comparing the unregulated nature of cryptocurrencies to global regulated currencies and capital markets, stating that cryptocurrency was a hotbed of “price manipulation, money laundering and terrorism” due to the lack of AML and KYC procedures from exchanges.
There were also claims that 20m people used cryptocurrency, however Roubini was quick to point out that 95% of the reported volume was fake, thus rendering it irrelevant in comparison to paper money.
Full report to follow.
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