By Garrett Baldwin
On Wednesday, three heavyweights in the cryptocurrency debate weighed in at the SALT Conference in Las Vegas. Noted Bitcoin bull Michael Novogratz, Ethereum co-Founder Joseph Lubin, and NYU Economics professor Dr. Nouriel Roubini discussed a variety of topics in the cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors.
Moderator Rana Yared, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, framed the debate on four topics: Cryptocurrencies as a store of value and a method of payment; challenges associated with the adoption of cryptocurrencies; the impact of digital currencies on monetary policy; the applicability of distributed ledger technologies away from the cryptocurrencies themselves.
Here are the key highlights of the discussion.
The Legitimacy of Cryptocurrency as a Store of Value
The conversation quickly centered on the price of Bitcoin and its sharp decline from record levels since 2017.
Novogratz had previously projected that Bitcoin would hit a market capitalization of $8 trillion in 20 years, a level that would see the price of the cryptocurrency hit $350,000 per unit.
The Galaxy Digital chief began the conversation with a quick recap of bubbles in technology and markets and dismissed concerns about Bitcoin’s downturn from nearly $20,000.
Despite criticism about Bitcoin, he noted that the world’s largest cryptocurrency has a $100 billion market cap.
“It is a store of value,” Novogratz said. “Bitcoin already won. It is now seen by people all around the world as legitimate to place to preserve their value. Not necessary as a currency but as a proxy to gold.”
But NYU professor Dr. Nouriel Roubini quickly challenged the idea that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, in general, have any a store of value.
Roubini has been a highly outspoken critic of the cryptocurrency space. Yared cited his October 2018 testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking where he referred to cryptocurrencies as “the mother of all scams and bubbles.”