Éric Pichet: «Bitcoin Will Die of Grand Theft»
China made the correct decision in banning initial coin offerings and shuttering cryptocurrency exchanges according to the People’s Bank of China deputy governor.
As the market waits with baited breath for the start of bitcoin futures trading, Chinese authorities have again waded in on the digital currency debate. With enormous outflows of capital reaching into the billions, there is speculation that the country's central bank is itself working on a digital currency to stem the tide.
Speaking at a financial forum in Shanghai Pan Gong-sheng, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China said that Chinese authorities were right to rein in cryptocurrencies.
Up until September China was the preeminent bitcoin trading hub before the authorities launched a crackdown. Initial coin offerings (ICO's) were banned and this was quickly followed by the forced closure of all cryptocurrency exchanges, declaring them illegal and a threat to financial stability.
Pan also referred to a recent article by economist Éric Pichet in the French newspaper La Tribune (French), who predicts that bitcoin will die of grand theft, a hack into the blockchain technology behind the cryptocurrency, which seems unlikely, or a collective ban by global governments, which perhaps cannot be ruled out.
