Doctor Doom hits out at blockchain (again)

Decentralisation in crypto is a myth, according to American economist Nouriel Roubini.

In a tweet, he said. “It is a system more centralised than North Korea: miners are centralised, exchanges are centralised, developers are centralised dictators (Buterin is “dictator for life” ) & the Gini inequality coefficient of bitcoin is worse than North Korea”.

Roubini is a Professor at Stern School, NYU, Chairman of Roubini Macro Associates and Co-Founder of Rosa & Roubini. He is also known as Doctor Doom for his role in predicting the 2008 financial crisis.

He’s a frequent critic of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. In August, he claimed that the former is useless and the ICO space is a scam. ‘People are robbing, raising funds for projects with zero value,” Roubini told Forbes.

Roubini added that that the US Securities and Exchanges Commission’s rejection of several Bitcoin ETFs was “no surprise at all. It isn’t the real asset; it is nothing but a fad”.

Blockchain, meanwhile, is nothing but an over-hyped technology that will won’t go anywhere due to proof of stake and scalability issues.

“No matter what, this is not going to become another benchmark because it is just too slow,” he said. He argued that comparing blockchain technology to the internet in its early stages was “complete nonsense. The adoption of this technology is nowhere close to that level”.

The fact the banks are investing resources in testing blockchain “doesn’t mean they’re going to adopt it…There is nothing new or unique about banks testing new technologies. They test thousands of new technologies every day”.

Talking trash Twitter

Roubini frequently goes on to Twitter to trash Bitcoin. On 25th August, he tweeted that “Bitcoin is a collapsing means of payment and thus is not a currency. $70 million of transactions in a month and collapsing from a $270 million per month last year. That is pathetic.”

Various Twitter users replied angrily, some saying that “using your logic, #USD is not a cryptocurrency”.

A user with the Twitter handles @MiFalck limited his or her reply to a GIF of a person rolling back his eyes.

Saber or @pabx06 responded to Roubini saying the “same things goes for travellers’ checks. Because traveller’s check is denominated in USD: it must mean US Dollar is dying”.

SandieSN replied that the “US Dollar has lost 92% of its value since 1920, & will never recover. There has never been a fiat in history that hasn’t collapsed. Bitcoin is a peer to peer currency, requiring no 3rd party for payments. This is true freedom. No more being told daily withdrawal limit is €60”.

KesKon agreed: “#US #Dollar Use in #International #Trade Keeps #Falling Given the Rise of Other #Currencies. Using your logic, #USD is not a currency”.