⸺ Obituary · January 29, 2019 ⸺
“Cryptocurrency: Burn It With Fire”
— arsTECHNICA, Nicholas Weaver
“In conclusion, it is a dismal space. Private and permissioned blockchains are an old idea—a good idea—just with a new buzzword on it. The public blockchains are grossly inefficient. The cryptocurrencies don’t work to provide anything against drugs and ransoms and stuff like that. Smart contracts are an unmitigated disaster unless you like comedy gold. And the field is just recapitulating 500 years of failures. So in the end, the only winning move is not to play—unless you like playing with flamethrowers.”
Price at death
$3,421
Today
$73,495
Resurrection
×21.5
On 2019-01-29, Nicholas Weaver (Professor, UC Berkeley) declared Bitcoin dead via arsTECHNICA. Bitcoin was trading at ~$3,421 at the time. The call joins the growing canon of premature obituaries.
The declaration was catalogued on January 29, 2019, when one Bitcoin traded for approximately $3,421. Since then, Bitcoin has appreciated by 21.5× relative to the price on the day arsTECHNICA pronounced it finished.