{"id":36393,"date":"2021-02-13T09:59:05","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T07:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=36393"},"modified":"2025-08-29T06:08:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T03:08:05","slug":"nassim-taleb-bitcoin-failed-as-a-means-of-payment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/nassim-taleb-bitcoin-failed-as-a-means-of-payment\/","title":{"rendered":"Nassim Taleb: Bitcoin Failed as a Means of Payment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The philosopher and author of the cult work The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, has said he is getting rid of Bitcoin. In his words, the first cryptocurrency did not succeed as a means of payment.<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I\u2019ve been getting rid of my BTC. Why? A currency is never supposed to be more volatile than what you buy &#038; sell with it.<br \/>\nYou can\u2019t price goods in BTC<\/p>\n<p>In that respect, it\u2019s a failure (at least for now). It was taken over by Covid denying sociopaths w\/the sophistication of amoebas<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nntaleb\/status\/1360276917992230919?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 12, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI\u2019m getting rid of my BTC. Why? A currency should never be more volatile than what you buy and sell with it. You can\u2019t price goods in BTC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this context, it\u2019s a failure (at least for now). It [Bitcoin] was hijacked by Covid-denying sociopaths with the sophistication of amoebas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Taleb added that the attractiveness of a currency depends on its \u201copacity, its ability to facilitate tax fraud and money laundering,\u201d which the \u201cone-celled\u201d supporters of Bitcoin do not understand.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">2) The other problem BTC Protozoa don\u2019t get: the appeal of a cryptocurrency depends on some opacity, its ability to facilitate tax fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n<p>You can anonymize a gold coin by remelting it. You can rework a spoon.<\/p>\n<p>BTC is more tractable than cash.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Lindy?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Lindy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nntaleb\/status\/1360458636921823235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 13, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cYou can anonymize gold by melting it down. You can rework a spoon. Bitcoin is much more tractable than cash.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Taleb also expressed the view that Bitcoin did not succeed as an \u201casset and hedge against central bank irresponsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Failed<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nntaleb\/status\/1360277980271038473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 12, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In the comments on his posts, a deluge of critical remarks, attempts to persuade him, and invitations to podcasts soon appeared.<\/p>\n<p>A member of the @worIdwideEb community mentioned the CoinJoin anonymity technology, which \u201cis easier than melting gold.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">CoinJoin is much easier than melting gold<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eb (@worIdwideEb) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/worIdwideEb\/status\/1360459003554332675?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 13, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Twitter user Hodlonaut called Taleb an idiot.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Wow.<br \/>Turns out you are an idiot.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 hodlonaut \u26a1 (@hodlonaut) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hodlonaut\/status\/1360336029350322179?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 12, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Another Twitter regular hinted that the creator of the antifragility concept would hardly have agreed with Elon Musk, whose company recently <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/elon-musks-tesla-invested-1-5-billion-in-bitcoin-the-assets-price-rose-to-44800\">invested $1.5 billion<\/a> in Bitcoin.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WUb2Ytr4nW\">pic.twitter.com\/WUb2Ytr4nW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 (@Colin_Sully) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Colin_Sully\/status\/1360460802864549896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 13, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Nassim Taleb repeatedly supported Bitcoin and criticised the traditional financial system. In February 2019 he delivered a lecture in Moscow, where he described the main task of the first cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<p>In the summer of 2020, Taleb, during a brief Twitter exchange, called the vast majority of Bitcoin maximalists \u201ccomplete idiots.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to the ForkLog channel on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCC9FnXTC8_ENzaNSO5cHQ6g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> YouTube<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The philosopher and author of The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, says he is getting rid of Bitcoin. He argues the first cryptocurrency did not succeed as a means of payment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18,1649,27],"class_list":["post-36393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bitcoin","tag-nassim-taleb","tag-russia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"48","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36395,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36393\/revisions\/36395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}