Crypto Critic Nouriel Roubini Bashes Digital Assets Again; Calls Them Biggest Bubble

In an interview for London Speaker Bureau, “Dr. Doom” reiterated his biggest criticisms against digital assets.

Nouriel Roubini believes cryptocurrencies are not money and face severe limitations to be of any use. The economist, known as “Dr. Doom”, said digital assets were also the biggest bubble in history, in a recent interview with London Speaker Bureau.

Roubini believes the thousands of digital coins and tokens face challenges when used as a unit of account. He criticized the low speed of proof-of-work networks, while neglecting the higher transaction potential for newer networks using proof-of-stake.

“Comparing crypto-currencies to the early days of the internet is nonsense. A decade since the launch of the WWW in 1991 there were over 1 billion users of the internet, not the approximate 70 million wallets of crypto most of them dormant,” Roubini said.

However, this criticism misses the fact that some of the more active new networks are just a couple of years old. At the same time, Bitcoin’s first decade arrived with significant success and influence.

Future of Digital Money and CBDCs

Roubini still sees a future for digital money, but coming from central banks. Currently, central banks use only a digital ledger, and commercial banks are in charge of serving customers. A common digital asset would mean that central banks could issue funds directly, Roubini said. But he warned this did not mean a place for permissionless, public blockchains.

“Insofar as CBDCs would crowd out worthless cryptocurrencies, they should be welcomed. Moreover, by transferring payments from private to central banks, a CBDC-based system would be a boon for financial inclusion. Millions of unbanked people would have access to a near-free, efficient payment system through their cell phones,” Roubini said.

He believes the developments in fintech will displace blockchain software, and become the cause of a revolution in finance in the coming years. Roubini also worries about the potential to hack cryptocurrency-related systems, including some blockchains with a direct 51% attack.