Bitcoin took a beating on Tuesday, extending losses all the way down to $29,300, a level not seen since January, before climbing back, ending the day at $32,000.
The main concern that spooked Bitcoin investors was news that China is tightening its grip on crypto transactions and mining, shutting down 90% of the country’s mining capability.
Additionally, the People’s Bank of China ordered a halt to over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.
Saifedean Ammous, author of “The Bitcoin Standard”, told David Lin, anchor for Kitco News, that you can’t technically “ban” Bitcoin and that historically, even following an 80% correction, the price has always bounced back.
Ammous is an independent educator at Saifedean.com, on which he teaches courses on economics and Bitcoin, a former Assistant Professor of Economics at the Lebanese American University, and the author of his upcoming book “The Fiat Standard”.
“Bitcoin thrives on adversity,” he said. “Whatever they’re going to try to do, ultimately – and this is what’s different between Bitcoin and gold [and traditional financial assets] – Bitcoin’s clearance happens independently of political and banking systems.”
Therefore, you can’t really “ban” Bitcoin per se, you can only “ban yourself” from the network, he said.
“You can’t stop the network. You can either try and impose terms on people who use the network, and if people can accept those terms they can continue to use it and deal with your network, but if you impose terms that are unacceptable for users or that people cannot accommodate…then you’ve just kicked all of the users off your network,” he said. “You can’t really ban Bitcoin, you can ban yourself from Bitcoin, but Bitcoin continues to operate and I think even if it’s going to be a 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% crash, ultimately, the ability to bounce back is what’s going to win the day for Bitcoin.”
To see how Ammous rebuts some commonly held concerns about Bitcoin as a currency or store of value, watch the video above. Follow David Lin on Twitter @davidlin_TV (https://twitter.com/davidlin_TV).
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