Why Peter Schiff Pretends to Hate Bitcoin

[BittBurger]

The following is my opinion on Peter Schiff and his campaign against Bitcoin.  Disclaimer:  This may already be common knowledge, but I have not yet heard it presented this way:  Peter Schiff is not a "Bitcoin non-believer".  He doesn't think Bitcoin will fail.  He doesn't think Bitcion is a useless technology.  He doesn't think Bitcoin has no value.  Quite the opposite.  Peter Schiff knows Bitcoins value.  He is fully aware of its power to change the world.  Peter Schiff is terrified of Bitcoin, because Peter Schiff is afraid Bitcoin will put him out of business.  As it turns out he's the chairman of Euro Pacific Precious Metals. Its a company that stores people's gold investments offshore.  Peter knows that if Bitcoin succeeds, he will lose money.  Maybe even go out of business.  

However, instead of being an honest, upright individual, and just admitting that he's a Gold guy, and gold may suffer if Bitcoin succeeds.... he instead has decided to be a total bullshit artist.  He rants and raves in television interviews, blogs, and podcasts about the uselessness of Bitcoin.  He labels it a Ponzi Scheme, knowing full well it doesn't meet that definition.  He mocks it, and tries to scare the shit out of the uneducated public.  And the whole time?  He's saying things that even *he* doesn't believe. He's blatantly lying to millions of people about his opinion of Bitcoin.  His hope is that his influence will scare people away from it, and he will thereby ensure security for his business.  

I can respect someone who has valid reasons for disliking bitcoin.  I can't respect someone who tries to discredit something when he himself doesn't even believe what he's saying.  He knows its not a Ponzi Scheme. But he says it anyway, hoping dumb people will believe him. He knows it has no correlation to Tulip scams.  But he says it anyway, hoping dumb people will believe him. As childish as this sounds (and it is!) he's simply talking out of his ass, in hopes that he can fool enough people into not adopting Bitcion, so his Gold company isn't affected.  Here's a guy who is a highly respected voice in Economics, yet in reality he's a twelve year old who tells everyones the ice cream has gone sour just so he can have more ice cream cones for himself.  That' makes him a dishonest, cunning, deceptive snake.  And it makes me angry because every time I hear him speak now, I know he's completely acting.

If any of you listened to the Let's Talk Bitcoin podcast this week, all he did was rant for 20 minutes about the uselessness of Bitcoin.  He then buried himself by saying he'd "support a Bitcoin backed by Gold".  Well of course you would Peter. That would make you massively wealthy, instead of put you in the poor house.

[cbeast]

That was my impression as well until he said "I may be wrong." I didn't expect that. Maybe he is getting a position in Bitcoin before making the public leap.

[shawshankinmate37927]

It's pretty clear that he would rather see all of the people buying bitcoin, buying gold from him instead.  But, I think his biggest problem is that he considers Mises' Regression Theorem to be gospel.

[beetcoin]

but the thing is, if he really believed in bitcoin, he would have invested way back when bitcoin was less than 1/10th of its present day value. then he would have interest in propping both gold and bitcoin.. but he didn't.

[BittBurger]

Not necessarily.  I know a lot of people who felt it was a brilliant idea, but were not willing to take such a high risk investment.

Believing its got value and utility doesn't equate to the same faith that it will be adopted all over the world.

I wouldn't fault him for avoiding a high risk investment and sticking with Gold.

I just hate that he's probably the most biased party to ask about Bitcoin, and yet he's considered a reliable source of opposing information on it.  He isn't.

Its like asking the CEO of McDonalds his thoughts on a Burger King Whopper.

Peter Schiff should never be asked about Bitcoin because of the glaringly obvious conflict of interest.

On a personal level I have no respect for the guy because he knows he's pulling a bullshit act with all this anti-bitcoin ranting and raving.  He doesn't believe what he's saying.  He's just trying to scare people away from it to keep his wallet fat.   Lame.

[beetcoin]

Not necessarily.  I know a lot of people who felt it was a brilliant idea, but were not willing to take such a high risk investment.

Believing its got value and utility doesn't equate to the same faith that it will be adopted all over the world.

I wouldn't fault him for avoiding a high risk investment and sticking with Gold.

I just hate that he's probably the most biased party to ask about Bitcoin, and yet he's considered a reliable source of opposing information on it.  He isn't.

Its like asking the CEO of McDonalds his thoughts on a Burger King Whopper.

Peter Schiff should never be asked about Bitcoin because of the glaringly obvious conflict of interest.

On a personal level I have no respect for the guy because he knows he's pulling a bullshit act with all this anti-bitcoin ranting and raving.  He doesn't believe what he's saying.  He's just trying to scare people away from it to keep his wallet fat.   Lame.

well, when he first found out about bitcoin, it was probably just a few dollars for each.. putting a $1,000 investment isn't much to him, and he would have made thousands. it's not like he would have to put millions of dollars into bitcoin, but just a very small portion of his portfolio.

i suspect that the people you knew who thought bitcoin (early on) might be a good idea, but didn't want to invest in it (early on), were probably lazy or just not into it enough to put money in it.

[BittBurger]

well, when he first found out about bitcoin, it was probably just a few dollars for each.. putting a $1,000 investment isn't much to him, and he would have made thousands.

You have to put yourself back at that place in time. Its 2010.  He makes millions of dollars on an established Gold business.
He probably heard about Bitcoin, saw a bunch of tech geeks playing with it like a toy, mining it like monopoly money, and did't think much of it.
The last thing on anyones mind back then was to buy a thousand dollars of it.
Why would he, when he's making millions on Gold.  BTC was no doubt a novelty to him, at best.

[beetcoin]

well, when he first found out about bitcoin, it was probably just a few dollars for each.. putting a $1,000 investment isn't much to him, and he would have made thousands.

You have to put yourself back at that place in time. Its 2010.  He makes millions of dollars on an established Gold business.
He probably heard about Bitcoin, saw a bunch of tech geeks playing with it like a toy, mining it like monopoly money, and did't think much of it.
The last thing on anyones mind back then was to buy a thousand dollars of it.
Why would he, when he's making millions on Gold.  BTC was no doubt a novelty to him, at best.

yes, i'm not arguing with that. my original argument was that from the start he did not believe in bitcoin.. and now he still does not believe in it. what im saying is that if he actually believes in it, but is lying to himself about it now since he's too late, he would have bought early on.. because people put their money where their mouth is (or at least successful investors do).

[monkeybars]

Either way, his tirades are hilarious and will be an entertaining historical footnote after the gold market crashes due to Bitcoin taking 99% of its demand as a store of wealth.

[Sir Lagsalot]

Everyone talks their book. You guys posting "in defence" of Bitcoin is probably down to owning some.

Peter Schiff makes no secret of his business ties. He's also an Austrian economist, and their official position as per Mises.org is that Bitcoin suffers from lack of inherent value.

I think the lack of inherent value thing is a flawed argument - the inherent value is strong cryptography, which is so valuable that governments tried (and failed) to monopolise its usage.

Anyway, imo hating on gold is retarded. It's another great hedge against gov't toilet paper. It's not as useful for trade as Bitcoin, especially internationally, but it's damn good at retaining value. China, Russia and other countries aren't vacuuming up all the world's gold for fun...

As for the current price of gold, the paper market is completely manipulated - much worse than Libor and silver market, etc. Gold is the traditional "canary in the coal mine" of paper money, but the corrupt markets allow suppression of "the gold price."

Right now, a lot of goldbugs still don't trust Bitcoin. Some never will, but many will come around in time if Bitcoin lasts. I suspect Peter Schiff is one of the latter. A gold-backed altcoin would be a hard thing to achieve but it's still an interesting idea.

[mindfulmojo]

I love bitcoin, but I love gold and silver more... so when I read this today:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-03/silver-slumps-19-precious-metal-smackdown-continues

I knew it was time to cash out a bitcoin, and buy some silver on the dip. 

I ended up going with http://www.amagimetals.com

[crazyfingers]

I think it's pretty obvious that all value is subjective so I do find it pretty yawn-worthy when he goes on about  "intrinsic value", nor do any of his other arguments against crypto-currencies pass the smell test.

However I don't believe his investment strategies are the sole reason for his animosity toward BTC. A lot of it probably has to do with generational differences. People who didn't grow up with the internet live in a different world than those who did. To me, crpytos are the logical next step and it's easy to envision the possibilities. But all he sees is something he doesn't really understand and probably feels he has no hope of ever understanding. 

[monkeybars]

Anyway, imo hating on gold is retarded. It's another great hedge against gov't toilet paper. It's not as useful for trade as Bitcoin, especially internationally, but it's damn good at retaining value.

That was only until something better came along. It has.

(Silver is a different story entirely because of industrial demand)

[GriTBitS]

one more run on the banks from the Gov, will send bitcoin to the moon and it will never come back to earth!