⸺ Obituary · May 8, 2011 ⸺
“Why Bitcoin Will Fail”
— Apenwarr, Avery Pennarun
“Like the gold standard, a successful bitcoin would send our economy back into the dark ages. . . . Even if it became popular, governments would squash it because of #1 and because they like being in power. . . . With bitcoin, a single failure of the cryptosystem could result in an utter collapse of the entire financial network.”
Price at death
$3.87
Today
$73,562
Resurrection
×19008
On 2011-05-08, Avery Pennarun (Google Fiber Engineer) declared Bitcoin dead via Apenwarr. Bitcoin was trading at ~$4 at the time. The call joins the growing canon of premature obituaries.
The declaration was catalogued on May 8, 2011, when one Bitcoin traded for approximately $3.87. Since then, Bitcoin has appreciated by 19008× relative to the price on the day Apenwarr pronounced it finished.