“Bitcoin is the biggest scam in history,” says PayPal co-founder. And that's not true. You could say that former PayPal CEO Bill Harris doesn't like bitcoin, but that would be an understatement.
In an article published by Recode, Harris argues that bitcoin is not only a bad investment, but also a "pump and dump scheme" in which the price of a worthless asset is artificially inflated through well-planned marketing." Harris hasn't come up with anything new; his criticism is based on arguments that came from 2013, and it was better to leave them there.
Let's quickly go through the list:
Bitcoin mining is an "absurd waste of natural resources." False
In fact, no one accepts bitcoin payments. False
Bitcoin is not a store of value. False
Bitcoin has no real value. False
Bitcoin transactions are too slow and expensive. Definitely not true.
These arguments look even funnier considering the fact that the world's second largest stock exchange Nasdaq is considering trading cryptocurrency as soon as the market matures.
“Cryptocurrency is best suited for criminal activity. Bitcoin's biggest supporters are criminals, such as the illicit goods site Silk Road and the WannaCry ransomware virus,” Harris says. This is an interesting claim not only because financial institutions are bullish on this nascent technology, but also because Silk Road has long been shut down and WannaCry, despite increased media attention, netted hackers just $116,000 in BTC, according to research to be presented this June at the 17th Annual Economic Information Security Seminar (WEIS).
“Bitcoin is not above the law, nor is it. magnet for illicit transactions: it represents only a tiny portion of the criminal money circulating around the planet,” the Quebec government’s chief scientific adviser said in a statement published on the official website.
Harris’s claims are untrue and discredit the publication that published his article without an editor’s note.
It is worth noting that Harris’s point of view differs markedly from that of PayPal co-founder and new CEO Peter Thiel, who is extremely optimistic about cryptocurrency.. Thiel, like many investors, sees bitcoin as a promising digital replacement for gold.
Additionally, Harris repeatedly links bitcoin to ICOs.
“How do you explain someone releasing an electronic script, or saying they are going to release one, and creating billions of dollars in value out of nothing?” he writes, referring to TelegramICO worth $1.7 billion. "It doesn't make any sense."
This may or may not be a fair criticism of ICOs; indeed, many in the cryptocurrency community have made similar arguments, but this is not the case with Bitcoin. However, Harris criticizes ICOs as if initial coin offerings had anything to do with bitcoin.
“All of this would be a laughing matter if innocent people weren't put at risk. People invest their savings in cryptocurrency. One stockbroker even offers his clients the opportunity to buy bitcoin for their retirement accounts!” Harris says, referring to Robinhood, which does not actually offer retirement accounts.
Will anyone tell Mr. Harris that two regulated exchanges have been allowed to list? Bitcoin futures contracts, or that numerous Wall Street companies are going to list the first Bitcoin ETF?
According to https://www.ccn.com
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