As people flee the banking system into Bitcoin, even the U.S. President is attempting to besmirch the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.
In the recently released annual Economic Report of the President, Bitcoin was given some rough treatment. It was mentioned no less than 75 times in the report, and was compared extremely unfavourably with the U.S. government’s choice of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
What does crypto do?
The report did include a section on how Bitcoin works and stated that Bitcoin came about as “something of a repudiation of the existing financial intermediaries that caused the crisis” (Great financial crisis).
Then follows what is perceived by the report to be “claims” on what Bitcoin can do. This is set down as:
- Crypto Assets Could Be Investment Vehicles
- Cryptocurrencies Could Offer Money-like Functions without Relying on a Single Authority
- Crypto Assets Could Enable Fast Digital Payments
- Crypto Assets Could Increase Financial Inclusion
- Crypto Assets Could Improve the United States’ Current Financial Technology Infrastructure
The reality of crypto
Next is what the report calls The Reality Of Crypto Assets”. Here it attempts to debunk the earlier “claims” of cryptocurrencies. It starts by stating that “crypto assets are mostly speculative investment vehicles”, calling them “volatile” and therefore “highly risky”.
The report authors call into question cryptocurrency as “money”, and declare that cryptocurrencies “generally do not perform all the functions of money as effectively as sovereign money” (e.g. US dollar).
“Run risk”
Stablecoins are also maligned in that they are said to be “subject to run risk”. This does seem a little rich considering the current environment of impending bank runs, which has only been averted for the time being due to the sheer amount of currency that has been thrown at the problem by the Federal Reserve and other central banks. No mention either of
Go to Source to See Full Article
Author: Laurie Dunn