You can say a lot of things about the crypto industry, but you definitely can’t say it’s boring. An online scuffle has developed after noted Bitcoin bear Nouriel Roubini participated in a debate that hasn’t yet been released.
After debating the CEO of BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, at the Asia Blockchain Summit in Taipei, Roubini is demanding the tapes be released. Both sides are claiming they crushed their opponents, but the tapes have not been released yet, and Roubini is calling this foul play.
Details of the Debate
The Twitter fight began with Roubini’s outburst below:
“Another @CryptoHayes scam: he didn’t allow the blockchain conference to record our debate and beam it live. He controls the only recording of it and will only release heavily edited “highlights”. I destroyed @CryptoHayes in the debate and he is hiding. RELEASE THE TAPE YOU COWARD!”
Hayes responded in kind:
“Don’t worry our tapes will exposure your thin grasp of economics and technology. After seeing these tapes, I would be surprised if you were allowed into any higher learning institution.”
It makes sense that the debate has been called the “Tangle in Taipei”, as it has definitely gotten heated. Roubini has long since been an outspoken attacker of Bitcoin, and believes it to be a worthless scam. Referring to the crypto world as being run by “mafioso gangsters” and also going after Binance’s CEO, CZ, it seems like those who are most bearish are looking for the most attention.
Peter Schiff, another notable Bitcoin bear and gold bull, has very similar positions to Roubini. It has been theorized that they only maintain these controversial positions in order to gain relevance in the community and make money off of their ownership of gold trading firms, but this can be substantiated as no more than a rumour.
Every Debate is the Same
There are many notable Bitcoin and cryptocurrency bears, and most of their arguments fall under the area of it not being secure or convenient, and the technology not being advanced.
As Bitcoin’s price has broken into the 5-figure range, we are seeing more and more debates ensue. Crypto winter was quiet on this front, because everyone thought it was gone for good.
The tapes have not yet been released, so we don’t know what went down or how the debate concluded, but it is unlikely either side actually made “new” arguments. What probably happened was each side reiterated past points about the pros and cons of Bitcoin, applied it to cryptocurrencies as a whole, and then assumed they’d won.
What many of these debates miss is that Bitcoin is very different from Ethereum or Ripple in terms of its utility and their reason for existing. Blockchain technology the only commonality, but no one really talks about the real downsides of blockchain when compared to the upsides of decentralization and high-security.
One thing that CZ didn’t fail to point out is why someone who “sees no future” in the crypto space spends so much time going to different conferences to deride it.