According to the Bitcoin Obituaries webpage, the cryptocurrency ‘died’ 90 times in 2018. Since the inception of Satoshi’s great invention, almost a decade ago, economists and financial news publications have informed the public that bitcoin has passed away a grand total of 336 times.
Also read: Year in Review: 2018’s Top Cryptocurrency Stories
Dead Currencies Have ‘No Chance of Success’
Ever since the general public started hearing about cryptocurrencies, many financial bigwigs, well known pundits, Keynesian economists, and Wall Street executives have explained in great detail how Bitcoin has ‘died’. This has occurred on numerous occasions over the years. Mainstream media outlets have also stated time and again that Bitcoin was officially deceased. The Bitcoin Obituaries webpage hosted on the site 99 Bitcoins has around 336 recorded bitcoin ‘deaths’ over the years. 2018 has claimed 90 of those deaths during a spell when the crypto-economy was extremely bearish all year long.
One would think that because cryptocurrency markets did so well in 2017 there would be fewer deaths declared than in 2018. However, the cryptocurrency bull run last year resulted in 125 obituaries for the digital asset. In 2018, most of the top cryptocurrencies lost more than 80 percent of their values since hitting all-time highs last year in December. The last death call of 2018 was a post written by Seeking Alpha author Anthony Garcia titled “Bitcoin: the decline is fundamental, unsolvable, and the end of BTC.” In the post Garcia states:
Bitcoin is literally worth nothing — Bitcoin has no chance of success because it’s worthless. It has nothing backing it but an illusion; no gold or silver or even a decree that it’s legal tender. It has no intrinsic value and no one needs it.
2017 and 2018 Had the Most Bitcoin Deaths per Year
Before that article, Santa Clara University Professor of Finance Atulya Sarin’s opinion piece on the financial publication Market Watch said that bitcoin is “close to becoming worthless.” Sarin explained in his 1,049-word document that the digital asset was the victim of the infamous “death spiral.” This past October the notorious Nouriel Roubini, otherwise known as Dr. Doom, sparked controversy when he said that “bitcoin represents the ‘mother of all bubbles.’” Roubini, a professor of economics at the New York University Stern School of Business, called digital currency advocates “crypto scoundrels.” The professor emphasized that the bubble is “clear” enough to see and “blockchain technology is nothing better than a glorified spreadsheet or database.”
It’s safe to say that as long as financial pundits like Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffet’s opinions are still catching headlines then Bitcoin will continue to die in 2019. To these bigwigs and many others, Bitcoin is a gimmick, and yet some of them like “blockchain technology” as long as it is centralized. One interesting phenomenon is the fact that even though bitcoin has grown immensely in value since 2010, it has died increasingly year after year. Bitcoin ‘died’ the most consecutive times throughout 2017 and 2018 with close to ¾ of the deaths during those years. Otherwise, 2015 was a distant third with 39 total bitcoin deaths. Bitcoin’s oldest published obituary according to 99 Bitcoins was written in 2010, which claimed the asset could never be a currency. When bitcoins were worth $0.23, the Underground Economist author stated at the time:
Either it will remain a novelty forever or it will transition from novelty status to dead faster than you can blink.
What do you think about bitcoin dying 90 times this year? Why do you think the cryptocurrency has had so many obituaries over the last two years? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Images Shutterstock, 99 Bitcoins, and Pixabay.
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