- Benoit Coeure, a European Central Bank Board member has slammed Bitcoin calling it an evil creation of the late 2000s financial crisis
- He also stated that Central-Bank issued digital currencies are not happening this decade
Many people around the world have enthusiastically embraced cryptocurrency as the currency of the future and promoted it to others.
It would seem that European Central Bank Board member Benoit Coeure is not one of those people. Instead, he recently spoke out against it.
When asked his thoughts about Bitcoin, he said, “Bitcoin was an extremely clever idea. Sadly, not every clever idea is a good idea.”
Expanding further on this, he claimed that Bitcoin has faulty roots in itself.
He pointed out that alleged creator of Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto first mimed it after the economic collapse of the late 2000s.
“Few remember that Satoshi embedded the genesis block with a Times headline from January 2009 about U.K. banks’ bailout. In more ways than one, Bitcoin is the evil spawn of the financial crisis,” he said.
Tough talk
This might seem like a harsh way to speak on the digital currency that has taken the world by storm, but this just goes to show that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole are not looked at favorably by everyone, despite their progress.
There is still the lingering thought among many in the general public that cryptocurrencies are a fad not built to last in the real world.
However, the fact that this sentiment is being echoed by a European Central Bank member shows that even on an institutional level, there is work to be done.
Given the recent emphasis on institutional investment by blockchain firms and its adoption by various world governments, some progress is being made.
This is also not the first time in recent months that a powerful public figure is speaking out against cryptocurrency, with BIS head Agustin Carstens calling Bitcoin “a combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme, and an environmental disaster.”
Just this week, however, IMF Chief Christine Lagarde urged governments to look into central-bank issued digital currencies. Venezuela already has something similar with their Petro.
Coeure, however, is pessimistic saying,
“There is broad agreement that a central bank digital currency, in whatever form, is unlikely to be issued within the next decade.”
