The 90th Bitcoin obituary: Xapo CEO gambles $250,000

Recently, the Washington Post published an article titled "May Bitcoin Rest in Peace, It's Time to Go". This is the 90th time that the mainstream media has announced the death of Bitcoin after the New York Times. The author Vivek Wadhwa claims to be a researcher at Duke University and Stanford University.

However, this report also triggered the anger of Wences Casares, CEO of Bitcoin company Xapo. Wences Casares made a bet on his personal Twitter that as of January 19th, US time, if the price of Bitcoin exceeds US$381 and has more daily trading volume, he will ask Vivek Wadhwa to pay him 655 Bitcoins. Otherwise, he will need to pay the other party US$250,000.

So, what kind of article is this that could cause Wences Casares to be so angry? The following is a partial translation of the report:

Not long ago, venture capitalists were talking about how Bitcoin would change the global monetary system and make governments powerless to regulate currency transactions. Now, the cryptocurrency is fighting for survival. When influential developer Mike Hearn declared Bitcoin a failure, the price of Bitcoin fell 10% in a day, a sad outcome for those who lost money.

Bitcoin also has great potential, but it is damaged beyond repair. It is important to replace it.

Currently, most currencies and trading systems are opaque, inefficient, and expensive. Take the North American stock exchange Nasdaq, for example. It has the most advanced equity trading technology in the world. However, if I buy or sell Facebook shares on the Nasdaq trading market, I still have to wait for days for the transaction to be completed and cleared. This is unacceptable, it should be completed in milliseconds.

In Venezuela, citizens line up all day just to buy something of value on supermarket shelves, as the paper money in their pockets is rapidly depreciating due to hyperinflation. When migrant workers send money back home (to places like Mexico, India, and Africa), their money is swallowed by remittance companies at 5% to 12%. Even in the United States, payment processors and credit card companies charge merchant fees of 1% to 2.5% on every transaction. It's a burden on the economy.

Bitcoin was born with serious flaws. It was unregulated and offered anonymity, so it quickly became a haven for drug dealers and anarchists. Its value fluctuated wildly, allowing for wild speculation. And most of it was controlled by a few people, which led to comparisons to Ponzi schemes. And the exchanges built on it also had serious security vulnerabilities. Then there were the venture capitalists who got carried away, some of whom bought a lot of Bitcoin and began to hype it up as a disruptive financial innovation, from mobile banking to borderless, instant transfers, and more. They also poured millions of dollars into Bitcoin startups in the hope of making even more money.
…

From the failure of Bitcoin, we have learned how digital communities should not operate. We have seen how ledger systems can be hijacked. We have seen a mining system consume thousands of megawatts of electricity per hour and spawned a Chinese mining server giant, just to "mine" Bitcoin.

We need to learn from successful open source technology projects, such as the Linux Foundation…

Let’s remember what made some venture capitalists so enthusiastic about Bitcoin: pure greed. This is what I would like to express as the most obvious reason for Bitcoin’s failure. As a level playing field and a more efficient transaction system, the Bitcoin system has deteriorated into a struggle between parties for the pool of funds. In its beginning, Bitcoin was a noble experiment. Now, it has become a distraction. It’s time to pave the way for everyone in the future with a more reasonable, transparent, and rigorous governance system.

User comments

Egon_1: Promise, record it on the blockchain.

luckdragon69: Fire away! Surrender or shut up.

T62A: In short, this is not a good gamble. Wences will pay a maximum of $250,000, but Vivek's risk is greater (if the price of the currency goes up, he will need to pay more money).

What do you think?

Original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/01/19/rip-bitcoin-its-time-to-move-on/
By Vivek Wadhwa
Translator: Overnight porridge
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/rip-bitcoin)