LONDON — Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has a message for the world’s central bankers: Don’t be Luddites.
Addressing a Bank of England conference, Lagarde conceded that digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, don’t currently pose a major threat to the status quo, as they are “too volatile, too risky, too energy-intensive.” Some have also been hacked, she noted.
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Too energy-intensive? Someone should tell Lagarde how much energy is wasted on the printing, processing
and distribution of fiat money. Whole industries (e.g. cash transport) are wasting massive amounts
of capital and energy just to keep the ATM networks running.
Besides, advances in renewable energy will lead to the point where the energy consumption
of the BTC network isn´t problematic anymore.