2018-10-18 20:55 |
Nouriel Roubini Couldn’t Convince With Absurd Data on Bitcoin
The recognized economist, Nouriel Roubini, has been recently attacking the crypto space and blockchain technology. He had some discussions with Vitalik Buterin and was present at the Senate Banking Committee hearing on cryptocurrencies.
Some of the things he said were related to Bitcoin being a Ponzi scheme and having fees of $60 dollars, something that cannot be sustainable. However, these things are false and this is not how the network works.
On Bitcoin transaction fees, he said that they are currently around $60 dollars. Following his logic, buying a cup of coffee with Bitcoin would cost $63 dollars. Fortunately, it is possible to see that Bitcoin fees are far from being $60 dollars.
According to Bitinfocharts, Bitcoin transaction fees are currently $0.479 dollars. When Bitcoin skyrocketed at the end of the last year, Bitcoin transaction fees were close to $55 dollars.
According to Ari Paul, Blocktower co-founder, it remains unclear why Roubini said in this way when it is possible to refute that.
On the matter, he commented:
“BTC fees are less than $0.10, easily verifiable. If you value truth, you’d provide a public correction. If your goal is to mislead people with simple false statements, carry on. There’s nothing to research. Fees are publicly viewable from many sources (googling it works.). I find it better not to provide a specific source because then regardless of source, the source gets attacked.”
For example, there are some transactions worth several hundreds of millions of dollars that cost just $0.1 in fees to send.
Roubini has also commented that Bitcoin is printed out of nowhere. However, Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are not printed out of thin air. These cryptocurrencies use a consensus algorithm known as Proof of Work (PoW). This requires miners to verify transactions and generate new virtual currencies. Although it seems easy, it is a very expensive activity that requires a large amount of energy and important hardware costs.
At the moment, miners are almost not profitable. If Bitcoin falls under $6,000 dollars, the number of miners could be reduced. They can also continue mining without any profit since they foresee an increase in Bitcoin’s value for the future.
Larger cryptocurrency mining farms have to pay for employees, security and energy bills that are quite expensive. That means that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies using PoW are not created without effort.
Additionally, Roubini attacked Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder saying that he stole 75 per cent of the supply of ETH alongside Joseph Lubin, the other co-founder. Nonetheless, Vitalik Buterin answered him saying that he never had more than 0.9 per cent of the supply of ETH.
I never personally held more than ~0.9% of all ETH, and my net worth never came close to $1b. Also, I'm pretty sure there are no criminal laws against pre-mining.
— Vitalik Non-giver of Ether (@VitalikButerin) October 10, 2018
Roubini said that Lubin and Buterin were involved in criminal pre-mining sale activities when they created Ether. But Buterin also explained that there are no criminal laws against pre-mining.
Mr Rroubini has always been against cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. But it remains unclear why he attacked the industry with false claims and lies when it is possible to verify this data.
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