The Black Swan's Author Calls Bitcoin Stuff Similar To Fraud Or Ponzi

Pros and Cons of Bitcoin (Executium-Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The emergence of Bitcoin and crypto money as a whole that is in demand by the wider community has shocked the financial system regulated by the world's central banks. Recently, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, an author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, also enlivened the pros and cons of crypto money.

Criticism of digital money is still loud, as is support for it. The author of the book has criticized it by saying that crypto money is a gimmick and is similar to a Ponzi scheme or fraud.

The author's reason, Bitcoin is very unstable and cannot be used as a currency. He also said that crypto money cannot be used as a hedge against inflation. Although, in essence, inflation and Bitcoin have nothing to do with it.

“There is basically no relationship between inflation and Bitcoin. Nothing. I mean, you can run into hyperinflation and Bitcoin going zero. There is nothing to do between them," Taleb said in an interview with CNBC International, Saturday, April 24.

Not only that, but the essay writer also pointed out that Bitcoin is very similar to the Ponzi scheme. For information, this scheme is one of the fraudulent mechanisms in which the perpetrator steals investors' money and covers it up by distributing the stolen funds to clients.

The author admits that he feels cheated by Bitcoin. The reason is, Taleb once predicted that crypto money could develop into a transaction tool. After learning of the sharp rise and fall in the price of Bitcoin, Taleb doubts his own predictions.

“Something that moves 5 percent a day, 20 percent per month, goes up or down cannot become currency. This is something else," he said.

He also added that if Bitcoin does not have government support, then crypto money is just speculation. This makes crypto money resemble a game.

The price of Bitcoin itself has decreased drastically in the last few days. This decrease was caused by a policy issued by the US president, Joe Biden, which would raise taxes with a certain minimum income.