My thoughs on "Joseph Stiglitz wants to shut down cryptocurrencies"

Joseph Stiglitz wants to "shut down cryptocurrencies" that's what he said on CNBC the 04/05/2019. In the beginning Stiglitz was not a detractor of crypto and he even saw some advantages in using them: transactions are faster than fiat (fiat is the traditional money like USD) and completely transparent so that the FED for example can adjust interest rates in real time. Yes, that could actually bring new economic efficiencies I agree.

However, to summarize Stiglitz blames cryptos because they allow money laundering….yes that’s bad, a lot of individuals have money to launder, but most of us are just honest people willing to live in a better world, isn’t it?

And he says that there is no justification in having crypto because the USD is a very good a money, and has all the attributes of a good money. We’ll see that later…

So why I do not agree with him? Well I would say as usual, he is only looking at it from the government’s perspective. That is annoying. I am French and when I see where government is leading us, I am doubtful about their skills. That’s why he only sees in crypto this dichotomy: a way to better monitor economics for governments and a way to cheat the system for others.

I am a developer with many of years of XP and it took me at least 6 month to understand Bitcoin and how it works. It was a struggle! It’s so difficult that many of my friend’s professional developers give up : it’s like another field which has nothing to do with computer science.

So let’s also put in the balance the benefits of cryptocurrencies.

The role of a government is also to help avoid money laundering, not only using laws to impose sanction, but also to encourage honesty. Mr Stiglitz why don’t you see crypto as an opportunity for governments to change those things rather than using interdiction? Don’t you think the majority is just honest people willing to live in a better world?

I think there is a lot of misunderstanding coming from Mr Stiglitz. For example, I am sure he is not aware of what a “fork” is, and he sees only the power that crypto could give to governments. He misses the point because crypto can give power to individuals: if I dislike a project or an idea, or want to create a new one I can just fork it.

Now let’s talk about this last point: according to him there is no justification in having crypto because the USD is a very good money, and has all the attributes of a good money…Well, I think I just don’t have to argue about that. In France, we have a debt of 2,299 billions. In the US, it is 22,000 billion dollars. If I spare my money in cash, I will lose a lot because the inflation is higher than the interest rate. Is it really what we call a good money?