One among them is Nassim Taleb, author of Black Swan, a 2007 writeup in which he has precisely forecast a forthcoming financial crisis.
The statistician believes that Bitcoin is simply a Ponzi scheme. In fact, Taleb has gone to the extent of suggesting land purchase to beat inflation, rather than purchasing Bitcoin.
Nassim Taleb issued the aforesaid crude statement while speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box. The Lebanese-American academic’s forecast about financial crisis turned out to be true in 2008, giving him worldwide recognition.
British media outlet, The Sunday Times, has pointed out Black Swan as one of the top twelve effective books since World War II.
Taleb is, nevertheless, not a supporter of Bitcoin. While speaking to Andrew Ross Sorkin of CNBC:
“It has all the characteristics of an open Ponzi. Everybody knows it’s a Ponzi.”
The writer additionally made scathing attack on the argument that Bitcoin is an inflationary hedge.
“It has characteristics of an open Ponzi scheme. Everyone knows it’s a Ponzi,” says @nntaleb on #bitcoin. “Basically there is no connection between inflation and #bitcoin … It’s well-made but there is absolutely no reason it should be linked to anything economic.” pic.twitter.com/174OJ49BLD
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 23, 2021
“Basically, there’s no connection between inflation and Bitcoin, none. You can have hyper-inflation and Bitcoin goes to zero. There’s no link between them. It’s a beautifully set up cryptographic system, it’s well made, but there’s absolutely no reason it should be linked to anything economic.”
During a time when several governments have went forward to “print” fiat money to buffer the economic jolt from Covid-19, Bitcoin has surfaced as a safe haven asset to hedge inflationary pressure. Both individuals and institutions have together turned towards cryptocurrency. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has clearly stated “However, when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere.” Taleb contradicted the theory, stating that it is better to invest in land and venture into cultivation.
“If you want a hedge against inflation, buy a piece of land, grow—I don’t know—olives on it. You’ll have olive oil if the price collapses. With Bitcoin, there’s no connection.”
The safe-haven claim is a ploy by hodlers of Bitcoin, as per Taleb. He said “These gimmicks, of course—you have Bitcoin today, you may have another one tomorrow—they come and go, and there’s no systematic link between them and the claims they make.”
Years before, Taleb was a supporter of Bitcoin. Nevertheless, earlier in 2021, he announced of liquidating all his Bitcoins.
He issued the following statement at that time:
“I’ve been getting rid of my BTC. Why? A currency is never supposed to be more volatile than what you buy & sell with it. You can’t price goods in BTC.”