As British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once averred, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Bitcoin is frequently on the receiving end of them all, whether it’s exaggerated statistics about energy consumption or damned lies conflating it with terrorism. We’ve rounded up 10 of the most pervasive mistruths and endeavored to set the record straight. The next time someone brings one up, send them here.
1. Bitcoin Funds TerrorismWe’ll start with the most asinine assertion, although all of the entries in this list are pretty dumb. You know what funds terrorism? Terrorists and terrorist sympathisers. If you want to blame a currency though, try the U.S. dollar which has been used to fund more wars, proxy wars, bombings, hijackings, and insurgencies than any other.
In 2016, Europol found no evidence that terrorists were using cryptocurrencies to fund their activities. That’s not to say it hasn’t happened and won’t happen. It’s telling however that the only people linking bitcoin with terrorism are governments seeking to crackdown on digital currencies. If a major terrorist attack funded by bitcoin were to occur, we’d never hear the end of it. So far there’s been a lot of noise but nothing to substantiate this claim.
Yaya Fanusie of the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance had this to say:
[There] are examples of terrorists using virtual currencies, but probably are not indicative of a major push. Right now, virtual currencies are harder to acquire and spend than, say, prepaid cards, or the most anonymous way to fund terrorism – cash. And most terrorists operate in a world where fiat, or government-backed, currency is needed for their expenditures, so a virtual currency where one has to figure out how to cash out without tipping off authorities only complicates a funding scheme.
2. Bitcoin is a BubbleWhere do we even start with this one? No, bitcoin is not a bubble. It’s not going to come crashing down to earth and it’s certainly not going to return to zero. We’ve long passed the point of no return for that to happen. That won’t stop the B-word being trotted out every time bitcoin gains or sheds another $2,000 however. There will be corrections along the way – no asset in history has ever ascended in a straight line – but bitcoin is not about to pop. It wasn’t a bubble at $3,000, it’s not a bubble at $11,000, and it still won’t be next week after a dozen more op-eds have posed this question.
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https://news.bitcoin.com/10-biggest-lies-told-bitcoin/