Everything Bitcoin was called that turned out wrong: whats missing from our list

[windpath]

Next Thursday LearnBitcoin publishes a chapter that's a cousin of the Bitcoin obituaries list. Instead of counting the times it was declared dead, it collects the labels: every thing Bitcoin was confidently called, who said it, when, and what happened next. One entry per claim, each with a dated primary source.

This forum has the longest memory in Bitcoin, so before it goes up I'd rather ask here than guess.

What we have so far:

• Dead. The 99bitcoins obituary list, running since 2010, 477 entries as of this week. The four worth reading, including Hearn's, are in our obituaries entry.
• A Ponzi. No operator, no promised return, public books. The real Ponzis (pirateat40's Bitcoin Savings and Trust, Bitconnect, PlusToken, Quadriga) all took bitcoin as the deposit, which is the counterexample: Ponzi scheme.
• Tulip mania. Dimon, September 2017, "worse than tulip bulbs." Tulips crashed once and stayed down; bitcoin has drawn down 75 percent or more four times and made a new high after each. Goldgar's archive work says 1637 was mostly legend anyway: tulip mania.
• Only for drugs. Silk Road seized October 2013. The ledger then convicted two of the agents on the case and, in 2021, the man who had stolen 50,000 BTC from the site in 2012: Silk Road.
• No intrinsic value. Greenspan, December 2013. True of every money that has ever worked, which is why economics dropped the concept in the 1870s: intrinsic value.
• For money laundering. Chainalysis, whose business is finding crime, put illicit activity at about 0.14 percent of on-chain volume in 2024. Where privacy is genuinely weak is in the privacy chapter.
• For terrorists. Hamas's military wing stopped taking bitcoin donations in April 2023 because donors were getting caught.
• Full of illegal images. The 2018 headlines, which came down to a paper that found text and links in a few hundred transactions.
• Boiling the oceans. Newsweek, December 2017, all the world's energy by 2020. Numbers in the energy chapter.
• About to be banned. China, roughly sixteen times.
• Rat poison squared. Buffett, May 2018. Berkshire put $500M into Nubank in 2021, which sells bitcoin to its customers.
• Evil. Krugman, NYT, December 2013.
• Broken by quantum any day now. Wrong on every date so far; live exposure count in the quantum chapter.
• Never usable for a coffee. Lightning.

What I'm asking for:

1. Claims we missed, especially from 2010 to 2014. The forum archive is full of them and I'd rather have the ones you remember than the ones I can search for.
2. Name, outlet, date, link. The chapter only includes claims with a dated source.
3. The ones that were partly right. Exchanges do collapse, privacy is worse than the marketing, mining did centralize for a stretch. Those go in with the true part stated plainly. This is not a victory lap.

Sources get credited by handle in the chapter unless you say otherwise. Link goes in this thread the day it's live.

[aoluain]

You missed listed the classic....

"RAT POISON SQUARED" by Warren Buffet.

I created a few threads in the past documenting what famous financiers in the past had to
say when interviewed and asked about Bitcoin.

I guess the hosts/interviewers liked asking about their opinions on Bitcoin and Crypto because
it was guaranteed to be 'colourful'

Warren Buffett – CEO Berkshire Hathway

Is considered to be the 4th wealthiest person in the world. He has invested in Coca-Cola in the 80’s,
this is probably their best known investment along with investing in Apple.

He was listed in 2007 in the Times 100 most infleuential people and has donated Billions of dollars to various charities.

He has written numerous books and is known to like telling stories so no doubt he also likes his quotes
to reach far and hit hard and is a very outspoken critic of Bitcoin and Crypto.

After seeing recently some tweets aimed at Buffett and quoting the famous RAT POISON attack by Buffett I decided to
list his other quotes against Bitcoin.

Michael Saylor
@michael_saylor · Jan 6
"Warren Buffett famously called bitcoin “rat poison.” He may well be right. #Bitcoin could be rat poison,
and the rat could be cash." -Bill Miller, CFA

Warren Buffett famously called bitcoin “rat poison.” He may well be right. Bitcoin could be rat poison,
and the rat could be cash.

March 14th 2014 - https://www.cnbc.com/2014/03/14/buffett-blasts-bitcoin-as-mirage-stay-away.html#close

“Stay away from it. It’s a mirage, basically,”

November 6th 2017 - https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2017/11/06/why-buffett-sees-bitcoin-bubble/?sh=38f186e462a8

“You can’t value bitcoin because it’s not a value-producing asset...it's a real bubble in that sort of thing.”

"It doesn't make sense. This thing is not regulated. It's not under control. It's not under the supervision
[of] any...United States Federal Reserve or any other central bank. I don't believe in this whole thing at all.
I think it's going to implode."

January 10th 2018 - https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/buffett-says-cyrptocurrencies-will-almost-certainly-end-badly.html

“In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending,”

“Why in the world should I take a long or short position in something I don’t know anything about.”

May 1st 2018 - https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/01/warren-buffett-bitcoin-isnt-an-investment.html

“If you buy something like bitcoin or some cryptocurrency, you don’t have anything that is producing anything,”

“You’re just hoping the next guy pays more. And you only feel you’ll find the next guy to pay more if he thinks
he’s going to find someone that’s going to pay more. You aren’t investing when you do that, you’re speculating.”

“The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view,”

May 5th 2018 -  https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/05/warren-buffett-says-bitcoin-is-probably-rat-poison-squared.html#:~:text=%20Warren%20Buffett%20says%20bitcoin%20is%20%E2%80%98probably%20rat,Quick.%20Buffett%20is%20presiding%20at%20Berkshire...%20More%20

“probably rat poison squared,”

February 25th 2019 - https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/25/warren-buffett-says-bitcoin-is-a-delusion.html#close

“Bitcoin has no unique value at all,”

“It is a delusion, basically.”

“It attracts charlatans,”

February 24th 2020 - https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/warren-buffett-blasts-bitcoin-worthless-vows-never-own-crypto-value-2020-2-1028932272

"Cryptocurrencies basically have no value," Buffett said. "They don't produce anything."

"You can't do anything with it except sell it to somebody else," he added. "But then that person's got the problem."

"Bitcoin has been used to move around a fair amount of money illegally,"

Jamie Dimon – CEO JP Morgan Chase

Jamie Dimon was a staunch critic and another interesting figure in regards to Bitcoin,
I say “was” because in a recent interview he doesn’t seem to be as quick to slate it.
His recent comment was “its not my cup of tea” which has softened considerably
from his famous comment “It is worse than tulips bulbs,” which references the massive
speculative Tulip market bubble in Holland in the early 1600’s

Eventhough JD was not a fan of Bitcoin he has an understanding of how it worked and is
interested in Blockchain technology stating “Its a technology which we’ve been studying,
and yes its real, it can probably reduce the cost of doing business. If it proves to be cheap
and secure, it would be adapted for a whole bunch of stuff”

He realized that moving into Blockchain was the least JP Morgan could do and created their
own coin JPMcoin which is pegged to the Dollar unfortunately for them.

Another interesting move by JP Morgan was they added Coinbase and Gemini Trust to their client list.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to take on two Bitcoin exchanges as banking clients in a move that shows
the company getting more comfortable with an industry its top leader once spurned.

Some of Jamie Dimons previous comments

2015 – November 5th –

“This is my personal opinion, there will be no real, non-controlled currency in the world.
There is no government that’s going to put up with it for long …
there will be no currency that gets around government controls.”

2016 – January 10th

 “Bitcoin the currency is going nowhere. There is nothing behind it, and if it was big the governments would stop it,”

2017 – September 21st

“is a fraud.”

“The currency isn’t going to work. You can’t have a business where people can invent a currency
out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart.”

Dimon said that if any JPMorgan traders were trading the crypto-currency, “I would fire them in a second,
for two reasons: It is against our rules and they are stupid, and both are dangerous.”

Commenting on his daughter - “It went up and she thinks she’s a genius now,”

“It is worse than tulips bulbs,”

2017 – October 13th

“If you’re stupid enough to buy it, you’ll pay the price for it one day,”

“Who cares about bitcoin? The world economy is so big,”

2018 – January  

“‘I regret’ calling bitcoin a fraud”

2020 – November  

“bitcoin is just not my cup of tea.”

“some ‘very smart people’ are investing in bitcoin these days”

Dr.Doom - Nouriel Roubini

Dr.Doom is actually a nickname for a number of BEARS over the years, There is a
list of them here on this ARTICLE
but for this thread its all about BItcoin so I’m posting about Nouriel Roubini.

Nouriel Roubini is somebody which has evaded my attention until I started writing an
article on Jamie Dimon. The Name Dr.Doom came up and I was intrigued.

Nouriel Roubini is an American Economist who is known for his gloomy economic
warnings and has been a staunch critic of Bitcoin over the years, so like my threads
on Warren Butffet and Jamie Dimon I would like to list his Bitcoin related statements
which unlike JD have not softened over the years until November of last year where he
seems to acknowledge some understanding of Bitcoin, but I suppose his nickname is there
for a reason.

A lot of his commentary is centered around the 2017/2018 “Bubble” he talks some sense
really and its interesting to hear his views in relation to what happened then.
like all critics of Bitcoin the decentralized nature of it grates against their traditional
FIAT economic view.

Criminality again is mentioned in his statements a lot, it’s the same line we are hearing
already this year from government financiers and is their go to argument for regulation.

2018 February 2nd – Biggest Bubble in History

“We can’t allow it to become the next Swiss bank account for use by criminals and
people evading tax.”

2018 October 11th – Bitcoin is the ‘mother of all scams’

Bitcoin is the ‘mother of all scams’ and blockchain is the most hyped tech ever

2019 April 11th – Most crypto people are totally clueless

They want to reinvent everything about money, but most of them are absolutely totally clueless.
The ratio between arrogant and ignorant is astounding – I have never seen such a gap in my life.
These are fanatics. Some of them, like criminals, zealots, scammers, carnival barkers, insiders
who are just talking their book 24/7.

2020 March 9th – So BTC is a shitty shitcoin hedge in risk-off cases

2020 November 13th – Crypto’s Fiercest Critic—Has Admitted Bitcoin Could Be A ‘Store Of Value’

"[Bitcoin is] maybe a partial store of value, because, unlike thousands of other what I call shitcoins,
 it cannot be so easily debased because there is at least an algorithm that decides how much the
supply of bitcoin raises over time…”

2020 December 24th – Bitcoin's 'hyperbolic bubble is going to go bust'

“First of all, calling it a currency — it’s not a currency. It’s not a unit of account, it’s not a means of
payment.…it’s not a stable store of value. Secondly, it’s not even an asset,”

“While in the case of Bitcoin, there is no income, There is no use. There is no utility. The only thing
is a speculative, self-fulfilling kind of rise, and that rise is driven totally by manipulation.”

“The price of Bitcoin is totally manipulated by a bunch of people, by a bunch of whales. It doesn’t have
any fundamental value,”

“We’re close to the point where the hyperbolic bubble is going to go bust.”

[windpath]

You missed listed the classic....

"RAT POISON SQUARED" by Warren Buffet.

I created a few threads in the past documenting what famous financiers in the past had to
say when interviewed and asked about Bitcoin.

I guess the hosts/interviewers liked asking about their opinions on Bitcoin and Crypto because
it was guaranteed to be 'colourful'

That's exactly what I was hoping for, thank you. The Buffett one is the best of the three because it's a six-year arc with a date on every line, from "mirage" in 2014 to "no value" in 2020, and then Berkshire put $500M into a bank that sells bitcoin. He'll get his own entry rather than a line. The Roubini November 2020 quote is one I didn't have and it's going in the "partly right" section, since a partial store of value is more than he'd conceded in the previous three years. I'll check each quote against the linked piece before it goes up and credit you by handle.

[Davidvictorson]

In my country, the government through the Central Bank, carried out a banking restriction on bitcoin and crypto transactions because they say it was causing serious currency devaluation, these type of digital funds cannot be tracked. It lead the closure of operations of so major centralized exchanges and we had to port to peer-to-peer to keep things going.

[AVE5]

Next Thursday LearnBitcoin publishes a chapter that's a cousin of the Bitcoin obituaries list. Instead of counting the times it was declared dead, it collects the labels: every thing Bitcoin was confidently called, who said it, when, and what happened next. One entry per claim, each with a dated primary source.

I think it's a waste of time for anyone storing data's with the criticism contents on bitcoin.
The journey of trusts started from giving third parties right over your privacy by handling your keys over to the central authorities.
Those who criticizes bitcoin are them that're afraid to take custody of their own securities.
We've so long relied on regulations and we're being taken advantage of with the strict rules of the government policies denying us our rights even at the most time of needs. So so restrictions.
I don't think there's even going to be possible to have a comprehensive data's that had mocked and criticised bitcoin so far. This is also not the end because, more will still troll.

[OgNasty]

A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

[promise444c5]

• Dead. The 99bitcoins obituary list, running since 2010, 477 entries as of this week. The four worth reading, including Hearn's, are in our obituaries entry.

This one has become so normal just like the Bitcoin Cycles 

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

People have called Bitcoin several names; the same applies to the government, because they also attack it in several places, and it is still banned in some countries. You will hear them say words like Bitcoin is like a bubble about to burst.

While our pride is not in all what they have said but in what we have seen bitcoin to remain ever committed to it network protocol, not only this but also serving beyond our expectation on different areas, and Bitcoin is being made applicable for our use.

[Cookdata]

In my country, the government through the Central Bank, carried out a banking restriction on bitcoin and crypto transactions because they say it was causing serious currency devaluation, these type of digital funds cannot be tracked. It lead the closure of operations of so major centralized exchanges and we had to port to peer-to-peer to keep things going.

There are many bank accounts that are still frozen related to this central bank actions during the End Sarz protest. If not for the help of Bitcoin that day, the protest wouldn't have been fruitful. Bitcoin came as alternative and the government later heard their outcry even though some law enforcement open fire that day and today, there is no Sarz in Nigeria as operation. The central bank couldn't stop Bitcoin transaction and after they banned Bitcoin for 2 years.

So many drama during that period. I remembered the government came back and uplift the banned when the election was at the corner. This tells you that the government knows what they are doing, they know how valuable Bitcoin is, but wouldn't let people have freedom.

[boyptc]

“We’re close to the point where the hyperbolic bubble is going to go bust.”

I used to hear it as claimed by this in the past when I was new but we knew it then that these people have been saying that to make it look bad and no one will buy.

Another one is that about it's called as a fad. Jamie Dimon, Warren Buffet and Robert Shiller called it as a fad.

They're wrong in all of the claims that they did for bitcoin and we see how it's just getting stronger and bigger.

[Cryptomultiplier]

"A Hyper-Deflationary Trap" / "Designed to Collapse"
Paul Krugman (Economist / NYT) & Brad DeLong (Economist, UC Berkeley)  
When: December 2010 – July 2011
Source: Krugman’s NYT blog post "Golden Fetters" (Sept 7, 2011) & DeLong's blog "Bitcoin: A Devastating Critique" (May 2011).

"Bitcoin is Evil"
Who: Paul Krugman
Outlet: The New York Times (The Conscience of a Liberal)
Date: December 28, 2013  
Link: [Paul Krugman: Bitcoin Is Evil (NYT)](https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/28/bitcoin-is-evil/)  

Paul Krugman has said more than anyone what Bitcoin isn't because he isn't a believer but a strong critic that has been proven wrong on several counts. Bitcoin seems to be a driving force for major corporations like microstrategy who make profit from investment in it and for most retail investors who still do and use it to fulfil a long term goal. How evil or how much collapse of Bitcoin have been experienced so far with all this hate speech from someone who can't see past his nose.

[Rgram]

A Bubble: Where Bitcoin was regarded as some form balloon where the price would continue to pump (inflate) and keep increasing in value until it would get to a point where the price would suddenly dump (bust), never to rise again.

Most people still continue to see it as a bubble and are still waiting on the time it would bust so they would be the ones laughing and feeling fortunate not to have invested. While they wait, it’s okay to continue being the fortunate ones and perhaps they can hold on for that laugh for now.

[windpath]

In my country, the government through the Central Bank, carried out a banking restriction on bitcoin and crypto transactions because they say it was causing serious currency devaluation, these type of digital funds cannot be tracked. It lead the closure of operations of so major centralized exchanges and we had to port to peer-to-peer to keep things going.

There are many bank accounts that are still frozen related to this central bank actions during the End Sarz protest. If not for the help of Bitcoin that day, the protest wouldn't have been fruitful. Bitcoin came as alternative and the government later heard their outcry even though some law enforcement open fire that day and today, there is no Sarz in Nigeria as operation. The central bank couldn't stop Bitcoin transaction and after they banned Bitcoin for 2 years.

So many drama during that period. I remembered the government came back and uplift the banned when the election was at the corner.

This is the one I was hoping someone would bring, because it's the only "they'll ban it" story where the ban ran its full course. Bank accounts frozen in October 2020, donations move to bitcoin, the central bank orders the banks to cut everyone off in February 2021 and gives "it can't be tracked" as the reason, and then the ban comes off in December 2023 with an election in sight. It's going in as its own entry. Would you both be OK with credit by handle? And if either of you remembers which exchanges shut down in that first week, I'd take the names.

Another one is that about it's called as a fad. Jamie Dimon, Warren Buffet and Robert Shiller called it as a fad.

Shiller's a good addition, I didn't have him. Davos, January 2018, and the same month he was calling it tulip mania in interviews, which puts him in two sections. "Fad" will be its own label. Thanks.

"A Hyper-Deflationary Trap" / "Designed to Collapse"
Paul Krugman (Economist / NYT) & Brad DeLong (Economist, UC Berkeley)
When: December 2010 - July 2011
Source: Krugman's NYT blog post "Golden Fetters" (Sept 7, 2011) & DeLong's blog "Bitcoin: A Devastating Critique" (May 2011).

The 2011 Krugman piece is the better find of the two, and I didn't have it. It's "Golden Cyberfetters," 7 September 2011, and it's a different argument from "Bitcoin Is Evil": that a currency with a fixed supply gets hoarded instead of spent, so it can't work as money. That one goes in the "partly right" section, because he was right that people would hoard it. What he missed was that hoarding it turned out to be the use. On the DeLong post, I can't find anything with that title from May 2011. If you have the link I'll add it; if the title came from somewhere else, the Krugman one carries the point on its own.

A Bubble: Where Bitcoin was regarded as some form a balloon where the price would continue to pump (inflate) and keep increasing in value until it would get to a point where the price would suddenly dump (burst), never to rise again.

"Bubble" is on the list, but it's the one label that's been half right four times, since every one of the four blow-off tops did burst. What it got wrong every time is the "never to rise again" part, which is why it sits next to the tulips. If anyone has a favourite dated "the bubble has finally burst" piece from 2011, 2015, 2018 or 2022, that's the kind of receipt the chapter wants.



This is all fantastic, thank you all and keep them coming. Excited to publish this one...

[boyptc]

Another one is that about it's called as a fad. Jamie Dimon, Warren Buffet and Robert Shiller called it as a fad.

Shiller's a good addition, I didn't have him. Davos, January 2018, and the same month he was calling it tulip mania in interviews, which puts him in two sections. "Fad" will be its own label. Thanks.

This is all fantastic, thank you all and keep them coming. Excited to publish this one...

No problem. We're glad that you've made this thread.

You're free to add all of those additions any time you wish to and we'll get to see a merged information of those people who called bitcoin negatively before.

And we'll get to compare where they are right now and if they have turned into one of us and became an investor too.

[uchegod-21]

We read or hear about the "Bitcoin is dead" claim only when bitcoin is bearish. Even till date, any small bearish move, we still see critics crawl out of their hole to narrate how Bitcoin is dying. None of these people say these things when bitcoin is bullish, that is to show us that these critics hate Bitcoin so badly that they cannot wait to see it die.

Another thing they say about Bitcoin is that bitcoin is used to evade or avoid tax. Fiat users evade tax even when they are using fiat. Bitcoin will be very popular in this aspect because it is bitcoin and some governments don't like bitcoin. They badly want to stop its usage.

[d5000]

One I remember, in particular from the 2016-18 era when altcoins had their first major boom, is "obsolete". There was a time where several journalists wrote that Bitcoin was too slow, too expensive (regarding fees) and too conservative, and that in a few years (or even a few months) it would be "flipped" by Ethereum or another altcoin.

This altcoin hype even "convinced" some well known tech journalists. I remember a German journalist called Sascha Lobo, who is quite well known and well versed in technology, but in 2017 he thought Hedera Hashgraph was the "next step" after Bitcoin and could make it obsolete. (Unfortunately, I haven't found the article again). Of course much more journalists were on the Ethereum hype. It is also related to the "Blockchain is much more than Bitcoin" hype of the late 2010s, like shown in this NY Times article. Well, Bitcoin continues to be the most successful blockchain app, almost 10 years later ...

[notocactus]

Next Thursday LearnBitcoin publishes a chapter that's a cousin of the Bitcoin obituaries list. Instead of counting the times it was declared dead, it collects the labels: every thing Bitcoin was confidently called, who said it, when, and what happened next. One entry per claim, each with a dated primary source.

This forum has the longest memory in Bitcoin, so before it goes up I'd rather ask here than guess.

Generally they are fuds and there are forum threads and sites for debunking Bitcoin fuds.

• End the fud.
• Bitcoin clean up.
• Debunking the "Bitcoin is an environmental disaster" argument
• Bitcoin is not that stupid.
• Bitcoin evidence based

What I'm asking for:

1. Claims we missed, especially from 2010 to 2014. The forum archive is full of them and I'd rather have the ones you remember than the ones I can search for.
2. Name, outlet, date, link. The chapter only includes claims with a dated source.
3. The ones that were partly right. Exchanges do collapse, privacy is worse than the marketing, mining did centralize for a stretch. Those go in with the true part stated plainly. This is not a victory lap.

Sources get credited by handle in the chapter unless you say otherwise. Link goes in this thread the day it's live.

You can find many things from these following resources and perhaps will find something you have missed so far.

• Bitcoin history book.
• I gathered every Satoshi Nakamoto thread.
• A website with a most comprehensive all-time Bitcoin price history chart
• Do you know a first Bitcoin exchange? What is it, How it looks like?
• A first Bitcoin block explorer. How does it look like?
• A first Bitcoin mining calculator tool
• Raw Thai Honey for Bitcoins, another classic just after Bitcoin Pizza trade!

People mostly or only know about Bitcoin pizza trade but there are other early trades after that pizza trade, like this raw Thai honey trade.

[Darker45]

I remember Bitcoin being repeatedly labeled as an investment or asset that's based on the greater fool theory. There are probably many of them who adopted this assessment of Bitcoin, and Bill Gates was one. I searched for the specifics. He made fun of Bitcoin in May of 2018 on CNBC's Squawk Box calling it "pure 'greater fool theory' type of investment." He even added that he'd short it if there was an easy way to. How I wish he actually did it.

I don't know if my country's former central bank governor, Felipe Medalla, only echoed Bill Gates, but I remember watching an interview with him in which he also mentioned that Bitcoin is based on greater fool theory.

[pooya87]

Dimon, the head of one of the most corrupt banks in the world, called bitcoin "fraud".

Also I think Mike Hearn's thing requires a separate field not be part of other "bitcoin is dead" nonsense. Because this one was significant. He was one of the core developers of bitcoin and he sold all his bitcoins (in 2016 I think) and went viral by saying "bitcoin is a failed experiment". That's more than a decade ago already.
It is a good example that needs to be used as an educational material for people to know just because someone is famous or were in a certain important position (in this case a core dev) doesn't mean whatever they say is correct. They too can be full of it sometimes

[Dave1]

How about Peter Schiff's



https://x.com/PeterSchiff/status/2070164020858888459

He keeps on attacking Bitcoin and promoting his Gold as superior. Nevertheless, when Bitcoin is having a bull run, suddenly he keeps mum about it.

Also he has been challenging Michael Saylor and his company on their Bitcoin accumulation.