The wildly popular yet volatile Bitcoin cryptocurrency, which has enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent weeks, "should be banned," according to the former chief economist of the World Bank Joseph Stiglitz.
"Bitcoin is successful only because of its potential for circumvention, lack of oversight," Stigliz, currently a professor at Columbia University, told a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday.
Bitcoin "ought to be outlawed," says Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.https://t.co/Z32E5of5I1 pic.twitter.com/gNlkCaum38
— BloombergQuint (@BloombergQuint) 30 ноября 2017 г.
"So it seems to me it ought to be outlawed," he said, adding that "It doesn’t serve any socially useful function."
"It's a bubble that's going to give a lot of people a lot of exciting times as it rides up and then goes down," he predicted.
The rise of Bitcoin has indeed excited observers in recent weeks. The value of the cryptocurrency rose almost twofold, from $5,857 on November 12 to an all-time high of $11,155 on November 29. At 14:00 UTC on November 30 the cryptocurrency was trading at $9,239, a decrease of 17% in just 24 hours, according to data from Coindesk.
What a day! #Litecoin breaks an all-time high over $100, and #Bitcoin breaks an all-time high over $10,000. #CryptoCurrencies are heating up in the world.
— Litecoin [LTC] (@ltc) 29 ноября 2017 г.
On today’s episode of “How much did you lose out on because you sold Bitcoin early.” We talk about how BTC hit a record high of $11,000!
— hayden 🌹 ☭ (@HaydenBedsole) 29 ноября 2017 г.
Stiglitz is not the only high-profile Bitcoin sceptic. On Thursday, Andreas Treichl, chairman and chief executive officer at Austria's Erste Group Bank, replied, "No I'm not," when asked if he was a "Bitcoin believer."
"In a way it's fascinating, but it will make central banks lose control, and they're not going to do that. So, at some point, maybe at 20,000, 25,000, 35,000 [dollars], somebody will say 'stop,'" Treichl said.
