The Netherlands must ban crypto currencies as soon as possible before the ‘invitable crash’ happens, according to Pieter Hasekamp, the director of the government’s economic think-tank CPB. Unlike in other countries, the Dutch authorities have been slow to legislate on crypto currencies despite warnings by the CPB of its inherent ‘bad money’ characteristics, such as ‘fraud, criminal use, gambling addiction, financial instability and the dependence on huge amount of energy’, Hasekamp wrote in an essay for the Financieele Dagblad. The...
At one point I would have agreed with you, but now I’m not so sure. Cryptocurrency is outside the control of any central bank. It’s useful simply because it gives an option besides whatever currency the local central bank is peddling. Of course, that doesn’t make it the better option but by providing an option it under-minds the hold government central banks have over the economy, for better or worse. I don’t think it will ever replace our fiat government-issued currencies but I don’t think it’s going to collapse on itself and go to zero either. Technically speaking, it does have the backing of the El Salvador government which could pave the way for other small countries to adopt it as legal tender as well.