American economist and chairman of economic consultancy firm Roubini Macro Associates LLC, Nouriel Roubini, is keeping his earned nickname of “Dr. Doom” intact, providing an incredibly bearish report on cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin in front of the U.S. Senate today.
Cryptocurrency is the “Mother of All Scams and Bubbles”
Dr. Nouriel Roubini, who has earned the nicknames “Dr. Doom” and “permabear” through his routinely negative predictions about financial markets such as cryptocurrencies, read through a scathing 37-page report today.
Taking place in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Community Affairs, Roubini gave his views on cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology powering them in his report entitled “Exploring the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Ecosystem.”
Roubini, who in the past called Bitcoin the “biggest bubble in human history,” “bullshit,” a “ponzi game,” and something that “only attracts suckers,” and warned of Bitcoin prices going to “all the way down to zero,” didn’t hold back during today’s hearing.
Roubini claimed that cryptocurrencies are the “mother of all scams and bubbles” and called cryptocurrency investors “clueless” for buying assets offered by “scammers, swindlers, criminals, charlatans, insider whales and carnival barkers.”
Roubini continued his full on assault on Bitcoin, also calling attention to the cryptocurrency’s volatility, making it a poor store of value or payment solution, and citing Bitcoin mining’s effect on energy consumption.
The permabear pointed out Bitcoin’s 70% drop from its $20,000 all-time high in December 2017, but compared it favorably next to altcoins, which he referred to as “shitcoins,” before apologizing to the Senate Committee for insulting “manure.”
“Actually calling this useless vaporware garbage a shitcoin is a grave insult to manure that is a most useful, precious and productive good as a fertilizer in agriculture,” he said apologetically.
Permabear Blasts Blockchain’s Early Beginnings
Roubini’s blasts spilled over into the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which many believe could revolutionize a variety of industries, including finance. The outspoken economist also trashed blockchain, calling it the “most over-hyped technology ever,” and added that it’s “nothing better than a glorified spreadsheet or database.”
He does believe that the financial services industry has been “undergoing a revolution,” but that it has nothing to do with blockchain. Instead, Roubini sees the future of finance being built on “artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things,” and claims “thousands of real businesses are using these technologies to disrupt every aspect of financial intermediation.”
Roubini also shot down the idea that cryptocurrencies and blockchain are comparable to the early days of the internet. Instead of “booming” in every dimension, he says that crypto and blockchain are “literally collapsing and imploding in every possible dimension.” He concludes that they are a “failing set of technologies.”
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