Is there a future for Bitcoin? An investor and a skeptic make their case

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Business

4.2 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2021

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nilay Patel interviews two experts on different sides of the bitcoin argument: a bitcoin investor and bitcoin skeptic. The investor is Nic Carter. He’s a general partner at Castle Island Ventures, which funds startups that are building on top of the bitcoin infrastructure to make payments more accessible — basically, making sure bitcoin can function like a currency. The skeptic is Steve Hanke. He is a professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University, senior fellow and director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the Cato Institute, a former member of President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, and was the president of Toronto Trust Argentina in Buenos Aires when it was the world’s best performing mutual fund in 1995. He has also advised other countries on how to deal with hyperinflation and how to stabilize currencies. Nilay asks them both questions about bitcoin’s place in the market and pushes them on the shakier parts of their arguments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's your friend Eli. I just want to tell you about our new newsletter. It's called Command Line.
0:03.6	It's written by the Verge's Alex Heath and it's all about the tech industry's inside conversation.
0:07.6	The scoops, interviews, and analysis. You won't get anywhere else. Here's Alex.
0:11.2	Each week you'll get scoops about what's coming next from tech giants like Apple and Meta
0:15.6	and hear about the product and people moves that matter.
0:18.0	And I want you to be part of the conversation, so I'll be answering questions and
0:21.3	featuring what you have to say. Head on over to theverge.com slash command line to subscribe today.
0:25.8	That's theverge.com slash command line.
0:27.7	Hello and welcome to decoder. I'm Neil Appetel, Editor and Chief of the Verge.
0:32.3	And decoder is my new podcast about big ideas and other problems.
0:36.8	This episode is about a very big idea. Bitcoin. The Verge has been covering Bitcoin since we launched
0:43.3	in 2011. And since then I've heard many loud, powerful voices, talking about how it's going to be
0:49.5	the future of everything. Some of the biggest names in tech are convinced that Bitcoin is going to
0:55.4	radically reshape our relationship to money somehow. Good evening. Tonight Elon Musk makes one of his
1:02.4	riskiest bets ever linking Tesla's fortunes to Bitcoin. I sat down with a famous tech investor
1:08.1	Mark and Dresan earlier today and he's saying the praises of the digital currency. Jack Dorsey going
1:12.6	all in on Bitcoin, revealing in a podcast interview that he's maxing out the $10,000 weekly spending
1:17.9	limit on Bitcoin established versus. To be honest, I'm a little bit of a Bitcoin skeptic.
1:23.1	The Verge has been covering Bitcoin since the beginning. And over the past 10 years we've seen
1:28.2	the value of Bitcoin's skyrocket. There are very few actual uses for what should be a revolutionary
1:34.8	digital currency. But that value keeps going up and people are more and more interested in Bitcoin.
1:41.2	So it feels like maybe we're at an inflection point for the Bitcoin story. And there doesn't seem
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