In the wake of a good few weeks for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies which has seen a reignition of interest, Bill Harris, former PayPal CEO and founder of Personal Capital has written a scathing editorial on the digital currency.
Harris goes on to say that it is a colossal pump-and-dump scheme and that some of the cryptocurrencies out there are pure frauds. The former CEO then goes on to spell out how a Bitcoin holds no value whatsoever.
Attacking at the source
In his tirade against Bitcoin, Harris takes what are considered its strengths, and points them out as weaknesses.
Harris pointed out that Bitcoin is not widely accepted as a form of payment and that the price is so unstable. Another issue he mentioned was how cryptocurrency transactions take a long period of time to complete, about an hour for a Bitcoin transaction, and the fees cost more than credit cards or bank transactions.
“In my opinion, it’s a colossal pump-and-dump scheme, the likes of which the world has never seen,” he said. “ The losers are ill-informed buyers caught up in the spiral of greed. The result is a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary families to Internet promoters.”
Criminal activity
Like many who do not believe in Bitcoin or think it is a fraud, they point that it's only viable use of for criminal activities, and for Harris, he is of the same opinion.
“Cryptocurrency is best-suited for one use: criminal activity. Because transactions can be anonymous, law enforcement cannot easily trace who buys and sells, its use is dominated by illegal endeavors,” he said
“Most heavy users of Bitcoin are criminals, such as Silk Road and WannaCry ransomware. Too many Bitcoin exchanges have experienced spectacular heists, such as NiceHash and Coincheck, or outright fraud, such as Mt. Gox and BitFunder. Way too many initial coin offerings are scams- 418 of the 902 ICOs in 2017 have already failed.
General scaremongering
Harris brings up a lot of points that have been said many times before. However, many of the points he raises are only at face value.
For example, the criminality argument falls flat if comparing the number of crimes that are funded with Bitcoin compared with regular fiat currency, yet there is no attack against the US dollar for its role in buying drugs.
Additionally, Bitcoin is falling out of favor on the dark web and other places. Bitcoin’s entire perception is in the midst of a major reversal as it becomes more and more accepted, its dark web past and the arguments attached to it do not hold water.
Alex Dovbnya
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin