​Economist Steve Hanke calls bitcoin a speculative asset with zero value

What’s new? Economist and Johns Hopkins University professor Steve Hanke said that bitcoin is not a currency. According to Hanke, BTC is “a highly speculative asset with a fundamental value of zero.” He wrote about it on his Twitter account on March 26, attaching a joky picture to the publication.

Bitcoin is not a currency. It's just a highly speculative asset with a fundamental value of zero. pic.twitter.com/leA4Fe9Ixz — Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) March 26, 2023

Community reaction. Within days, Hanke’s publication gained 1,2 million views, 4855 likes, and 3100 replies. Some representatives of the crypto community disagreed with the professor’s statements and came out in defense of bitcoin. As blockchain developer and musician MartyParty pointed out, behind bitcoin are 47 000 decentralized computers that permanently store a single ledger in memory.

“What is your currency backed by sir?” MartyParty wonders.

Bitcoin is backed by 47000 decentralized computers which store a single ledger in memory at all times for perpetuity. What is your currency backed by sir? — MartyParty (@martypartymusic) March 26, 2023

Journalist and host of Coin Stories podcast Natalie Brunell stressed that bitcoin clearly has enough value that Hanke wrote about it on Twitter.

“Seems like Bitcoin lives rent-free in the heads of many fiat bankers and economists,” Brunell noted.

It clearly has enough value for you to tweet about it. Seems like #Bitcoin lives rent-free in the heads of many fiat bankers and economists. — Natalie Brunell ⚡️ (@natbrunell) March 27, 2023

Julian Hosp, CEO of Cake DeFi protocol, said the value of an asset is determined by three factors: utility, the number of people who need it, and its rarity.

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“Bitcoin has utility. We can argue how much, but it is definitely >0. There are undoubtedly some people who want its utility. Lastly, it is provably rare. Hence, your statement that #bitcoin has zero value is 100% incorrect,” Hosp concluded.

Value is a function of 3 things in decreasing importance:1. Utility2. Number of people wanting that utility3. Rarity of that Utility#Bitcoin has utility. We can argue how much, but it is definitely >0.There are undoubtedly some people who want its utility.Lastly, it is… — Dr. Julian Hosp (@julianhosp) March" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/julianhosp/status/164027712335... 27, 2023

Earlier, billionaire Tim Draper called BTC a hedge against bank failures that could continue if the government “continues to print money and whipsaw interest rates to counteract inflation caused by the over-printing of money.” And Robert Kiyosaki, an American entrepreneur and author of the bestseller “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” urged his Twitter followers to buy more gold, silver, and bitcoins because “Crash and Crisis just starting.”