Nouriel Roubini, a notorious critic of cryptocurrencies, has declared that blockchain “is not better than an Excel spreadsheet” during a panel organized by the exchange of LaToken cryptocurrencies, on January 25.
Roubini is also known for having predicted the financial crisis of 2008, which earned him the nickname of Dr. Doom.
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies
Speaking during a panel at the Blockchain Economic Forum in Davos, Roubini defined blockchain as “the most overrated technology”, while pointing out that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the mother of all bubbles. He also noted during the talk that blockchain and cryptocurrencies have nothing to do with fintech and private distributed record (DLT) technology.
The private DLT, according to Roubini, is nothing more than a sophisticated database, since it is neither trusting nor decentralized. He also noted that, like DLT, the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) also has nothing to do with blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Roubini sees CBDCs primarily as a way to extend access to the central bank’s registry to each individual, rather than granting access only to banks.
What about banks?
In addition, Roubini expressed his idea that CBDCs will dominate cryptocurrencies and radically change banks. In addition, although it foresees that fintech will change the finances and that the cash will disappear, it thinks that blockchain and cryptocurrencies will not play a role in this change.
Nouriel also harshly criticized what he described as the “tokenization of everything,” explaining that having a token for everything would be equivalent to returning to barter. He also noted that the characters in the famous Flintstones caricature have a coin, which are seashells, and said that tokenization is worse than that.
Crypto and government
Speaking of privacy, Nouriel said no government or regulator will allow the use of cryptocurrencies centered on anonymity like Monero. Cointelegraph reported in June last year that the Japanese self-regulatory agency Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) banned the trade of anonymous anchors such as Zcash and Monero.
Roubini’s negative attitude about the cryptocurrency is not a new opinion for him: in an interview with Cointelegraph in October last year, he declared that, according to him, 99 percent of the cryptocurrencies are worthless.