On Thursday (September 24), American economist and well-known cryptocurrency and blockchain critic Dr. Nouriel Roubini (aka “Dr. Doom”), who calls himself an expert in asset bubbles, fired shots at decentralized finance (DeFi).
Professor Roubini teaches at New York University’s Stern School of Business, and is chairman of Roubini Macro Associates LLC, an economic consultancy firm.
During 2018, Roubini called blockchain “a glorified Excel spreadsheet” and “one of the most overhyped technologies ever”. As for Bitcoin, as far back as 2014, he was attacking it, calling it “a Ponzi scheme”, a “lousy” store of value, and “a conduit for criminal/illegal activities”.
In May 2018, Alex Mashinsky, the founder of Celsius Network, told Roubini, who has never owned Bitcoin, during a heated exchange at a panel on cryptocurrencies at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2018, that he should “buy one coin and then tell us how it works.” Mashinsky also compared Roubini’s criticisms of Bitcoin to “a horse salesman saying we don’t need combustion engines.”
Last year, during an interview with the CFA Institute, Roubini was asked about his “strong views” on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Here were a couple of his comments:
…to me, the whole crypto space is one of assets that are not really money. They’re not really a currency. They’re not a scalable means of payment. They’re not as stable in terms of store of value.
And what happened, especially in 2017 when the price of bitcoin went from $2,000 all the way to $20,000 by the end of the year, to me had all the features of a bubble… And guess what? That bubble started to burst because there was no real fundamental value on these assets… This was to me the mother and the father of all bubbles.
Well, on Thursday, Roubini decided to go after the red-hot DeFi sector after seeing an attack by David Gerard, a less famous blockchain and cryptocurrency skpetic who is the author of the book “Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts”.
Robert Leshner, Founder of Compound Labs, Inc., offered to debate Roubini in order to educate him (and presumably his supporters) on DeFi:
I think @Nouriel would love #DeFi if he realized that it was just finance running on open infrastructure. He loves finance (and so do I).
In the interest of educating our respective communities, should we have a publicly-broadcast debate?
— ?? Leshner (@rleshner) September 25, 2020
For another perspective on DeFi, here is a definition from Ryan Selkis, Founder of Messari:
DeFi is basically D&D or Settlers with a little more excel, testosterone, and self-loathing.
Oh, and the winners make millions and move out of mom’s basement.
— Ryan Selkis (@twobitidiot) September 20, 2020
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
