Let’s Not Destroy Bitcoin: What’s Wrong With MIT Technology Review’s Article

From Cointelegraph

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On April 24, the MIT Technology Review published an article with a catchy headline, titled “Let’s Destroy Bitcoin”. The Internet was quick to react: media and bloggers started to spawn news, features and videos, reacting to “MIT professors” who supposedly called upon action against the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.

The reality is much more mundane. First of all, a lot of people failed to recognize that whilst Technology Review is wholly owned by MIT, editorially it is independent from the institute, and therefore does not represent MIT’s official position. The article was not written, nor edited by a MIT professor - or, in fact, any MIT member of staff at all. Not to mention that there’s quite a few problems with the content of the article itself.

“Let’s Destroy Bitcoin” is a part of Technology Review’s special issue on the future of cryptocurrencies and Blockchain. In a letter named “A Technology in Turmoil”, the editor explains the concept behind this series, mentioning that in the midst of initial coin offering (ICO) crackdowns and decrease in cryptocurrencies values - when compared to their best months in 2017, “a casual reader of the news might be forgiven for thinking that Blockchain mania is over”.

He then introduces the concept of the article in question: “Morgen Peck draws out three futuristic scenarios in which Bitcoin, the original and still the biggest cryptocurrency, might become irrelevant, supplanted by rivals”.

Whilst it’s unclear why the headline of the article in question imitates a public appeal for bringing Bitcoin down, as if getting rid of the largest cryptocurrency is generally a good idea. It doesn’t help that essentially, the author substitutes the decentralized and anonymous currency with state and corporate controlled coins that run on altered versions of Blockchain.

The article starts with the author assuming that “while Bitcoin has established an economy in which it’s impossible to forge transactions, it provides no defense against replication of the idea itself”. Peck goes on to suggest that “no one can copy an individual Bitcoin, but anyone can copy the idea of Bitcoin” and outlines three scenarios in which “a government, or a corporation, or even ordinary people” might make Bitcoin “useless or redundant”.

Therefore, the main problem is that the state and corporations cannot achieve the levels of anonymity and security that Bitcoin currently holds. The first scenario portrays a government takeover of Bitcoin with the creation of a Federal Reserve-backed coin (Fedcoin):

“The year is two-thousand-something-big, and it’s the day your taxes are due. But you don’t file them. Instead an algorithm automatically makes a withdrawal from your electronic wallet, in a currency called Fedcoin.”

Read more: https://cointelegraph.com/news/lets-not-destroy-bitcoin-whats-wrong-with-mit-technology-reviews-article

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I tend to and I think most on Steem would agree that we shouldn't destroy Bitcoin. I think it's important we have well thought out and written responses like the one in this article. Definitely worth the read.

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