Collecting Bitcoin is like collecting Beanie Babies

In a recent interview on the Real Vision platform, Peter Schiff and Mike Green gave their views on Bitcoin. Peter Schiff is recognised as being one of the most vehement Bitcoin sceptics – his views remain entrenched. 

Ash Bennington, the host for the interview, began by introducing his guests as “2 of the 3 most prominent Bitcoin sceptics in the world”. The other one being Nouriel Roubini.  

In answer, Peter Schiff responded “I’m not even sceptical”. He clarified by saying that if he was sceptical then there would be some doubt in his mind as to whether Bitcoin would work – he said, “I know Bitcoin won’t work”.  

He went on to explain that Bitcoin was not a currency. He said that the dollar was a currency, but that it only had legitimacy when it was backed by gold. At least, in his eyes, the dollar was a currency, while Bitcoin was not. 

Schiff elaborated by stating that Bitcoin was not really used as a medium of exchange and wasn’t a unit of account. He said that it wasn’t a proper asset like real estate and was just used solely for speculative purposes. 

“What it really is, is a collectible token. So right now, you have a bunch of people collecting Bitcoin. Why are they collecting Bitcoin? Well, for the same reason that people collected Beanie Babies. Because the price was going up, and they thought the price would keep going up. But you know what, there are 21 million Bitcoins, and they’re all exactly the same. To me they don’t seem very scarce - they seem very abundant. I don’t think these Bitcoin collections are going to be worth anything when the music stops.” 

He said that you can’t do anything with a Bitcoin and once nobody wants your Bitcoin then it’s completely worthless. In his view, Bitcoin was worth something right now because there is still a fool who will buy it, and an even greater fool who will buy it from them. 

“I personally think that the Bitcoin bubble will pop before the dollar bubble. So, we may have a cryptocurrency crisis before we have a dollar crisis.” 

Whilst agreeing with his co-guest, Mike Green, that cryptography and blockchain did have some legitimate applications, he reiterated that there was a “belief that a digital token would be worth millions of dollars some day” and that “it was a religion”.  

He ended his thoughts on Bitcoin by saying that his son had been “indoctrinated into the cult”, but that he had the excuse that he was only 18. In his view, older people don’t really have an excuse. 

“Some of the people out there are just pumping and dumping. This has been a huge marketing success for the people who got in early and who continue to pump this thing so that they can get out, cash out, and make a bunch of digital money selling what amounts to digital snake oil.” 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.