Nobel Laureate Predicts Future Regulatory Onslaught Targeting Crypto.
Joseph Stiglitz, the former chief economist of the World Bank and Nobel laureate, has predicted that cryptocurrencies will be “regulated into oblivion” in future, with Mr. Stiglitz saying that BTC may be “worth just $100 in 10 years.
In a recent interview with Financial News, Mr. Stiglitz predicted that bitcoin and alternative cryptocurrencies will become the subject of a major regulatory crackdown in future. “You cannot have a means of payment that is based on secrecy when you’re trying to create a transparent banking system,” the Nobel Laureate said. “If you open up a hole like bitcoin then all the nefarious activity will go through that hole, and no government can allow that.
The Columbia University professor theorized that law enforcement across the globe are yet to adopt prohibitive policies regarding cryptocurrencies due to the underdevelopment of the virtual currency ecosystem, stating “Once it becomes significant they will use the hammer.
Mr. Stiglitz’ comments are of a similar vein to those made by the professor regarding cryptocurrency in recent years.
In September, 2016, Mr. Stiglitz stated that “The main use of Bitcoin has been to circumvent tax authorities and regulation. I think the US government did the right thing by shutting or trying to shut it down.
In an interview with Bloomberg during December of last year, Mr. Stiglitz echoed virtually identical sentiment, asserting that “bitcoin is successful only because of its potential for circumvention.” The Nobel laureate continued: “it seems to me [bitcoin] ought to be outlawed. It doesn’t serve any socially useful function. We ought to just go back to what we always have had […] This is just a bubble … It’s a bubble that is going to give a lot of people a lot of exciting times as it rides up and then goes down.