Despite rumors, there seems to be no evidence that Mr. Robinson is actually old man Statler from the Muppet Show.
Crime novelist and author Jeffrey Robinson has been making appearances lately to promote his new book “Bitcon, the Naked Truth”. He appears to be attempting to draw attention to himself and his book by attempting to stir up controversy in hopes of selling a few more books. He repeats the same comments and insults that many early bitcoin adopters may find offensive. The article is intended to clear up some of the FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) he threw around during the interviews. Jeffrey was once respected as a expert on financial crimes and money laundering writing widely respected books on the topic. He seems happy to repeatedly remind the viewers that it was he that wrote the “definitive book” on it. This was two decades ago – long before the world would ever learn of digital currencies and the beginning of a new monetary paradigm he was ill prepared to cover.
His new book is available for electronic download -if you want to blow a few bucks to purchase a download. If you read it, find some way to protect your eyes for the strain caused by repeated involuntary eye-rolling. His specialty for the past decades has been writing books of money laundering and con men. Perhaps now he fits the description of the carpenter who carries a hammer all day long to the point where all problems begin to look like nails. By now most Bitcoiners know what to look out for, but for newcomers to the space they would be better off reading material from somebody from inside the bitcoin community that have first hand knowledge of the warning signs.
Actual Screen Capture of the interview of the author who claims early bitcoin fans are “Lunatic Delusional People”. Pot? Kettle?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eiGGfLtntM
It is becoming clear that the blockchain invention will change the world. How would Mr. Robinson prefer the word of this invention get out? His “lunatic delusional people” themselves could hardly believe it but once the amazing possibilities were realized what were they expected to do, keep quiet? Is the representative of Jeffrey Robinson logic? The old school economic professors or mainstream academia like Krugman can’t seem to help themselves from using disparaging terms about bitcoin even today after almost six years. If up to the stuffy sweater wearing economist, bitcoin would have lasted about six hours before the plug was pulled. Should Satoshi have sent the white paper to the press to disseminate – those who were laughing about it last year? Who would be included in any of the established economic channels wouldn’t have killed the bitcoin baby in the cradle if given the chance?
Fate would dictate that the message would be delivered from people who knew how to think differently than the very same establishment that had gotten the world into the economic mess to begin with. Albert Einstein said “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them“. Bitcoiners are the ghost that live outside of the machine. Without them making loud noises and demanding attention is it possible that fate would have allowed it to surface through the system? That’s not how huge world changing paradigm shifts work based on a history full of examples. There must be a break with the past. Seventy year old irrelevant crime book writers might not be comfortable with this.
So here’s to the lunatics. Here’s to the delusional. If some of these early forward thinking ‘crazies’ are included in the top 1,000 ‘owners’ of bitcoin – more power to them. Thank you for your service and keeping the blockchain alive when it was but a pup. For all of those that disconnected their computers or erased their hard drives or buried them in landfills, we honor your sacrifice in making ours even more rare and valuable. Based on Jeffrey’s accusation about the wealth inequality found in bitcoin, it appears Mr. Robinson has new insight, that would make him the first in the world to divine which bitcoin wallets are usable from those with unrecoverable lost private keys. Yet he admits in the first chapter of his book he still doesn’t even get how ‘mining’ works.
He refers to bitcoin as the “pretend currency”. He also calls it a “pretend commodity”. The CFTC doesn’t agree. The Commodity Futures Trading and Exchange Commission held hearing and has issued rulings that it considers bitcoin a commodity. They will now have oversight for bitcoin trading in financial instruments and have issued guidance to new businesses creating financial investment products. The CFTC Commissioner (Mark Wetjen) wrote about it in a piece for the Wall Street Journal proclaiming its virtues and amazing worlds of possibilities in this new realm of commodities. The fact that bitcoin will trade along legal tender currencies on the FOREX markets are an indication of the credibility gaps Mr. Robinson has created for himself. Note to Jeffrey: You can watch the hearing here: try not to weep at the thought of your book being considered the definitive work of a has-been who got it wrong. If forced to decide who gets it right between the guy who writes crime novels for a living or the Commissioner of the CFTC… I’m going to have to go with the Commissioner on that.
Jeffrey frequently compares the number of active bitcoin holders as being less than the membership of the Kuwait Airlines Frequent Fliers Club. He also compares companies holding bitcoin to the number of piano tuners in Canada. How he knows this is a mystery. Was he preparing plans for a flight from the Middle East to Canada to have his “piano tuned”… if that’s what they’re calling it these days? It does not mention that these numbers are a snapshot taken in the beginning stages of a parabolic increase of use.
He labels, Bitcoiner a scammers trying to find the “greater fool”. For his ‘research’ he chose to pick a few overly optimistic nerds on Reddit as his ‘experts’ representing bitcoin community. He then found a handful of infamous scammers to use as his narrative and painted the entire bitcoin community with that paint brush. He told the audience that he’s on the ‘most hated’ list of the bitcoin community. It would be fun to see who he thinks keeps this mysterious ‘list’ and how the nomination process works – if there actually were such a thing.
To his credit – he does admit that blockchain technology itself is going to revolutionize the world but without bitcoin the currency. Once again we have another critic who fails to explain how you separate the Bitcoin blockchain from the bitcoin token.
This writer taken it upon himself as an unelected committee of one – to speak on behalf of all Bitcoiners who stand united in cause and one with purpose as we all rise to the occasion and and speak with one voice when we respond to him…
*Yawn*
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