I recently listened to this radio show segment on our local station in Philadelphia talking about “The Rise of Bitcoin”, as I am generally interested in hearing what types of things are being discussed and told to the general public about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. With three “experts” on the show I didn’t expect there to be any misinformation conveyed, but boy was I wrong!
At about 33:30 into the segment they take their first question from a caller who says:
“My question is, given there are over 12 million Bitcoins, and a Bitcoin is $18,600, that’s about $230 Trillion of value. How do you justify that?...” (emphasis mine)
Before turning it over to the “experts”, the host then very clearly repeats the $230 Trillion number. I laughed immediately at hearing the caller get his math wrong by only a factor of 1,000 and waited expectantly for the “experts” to correct him. I simply could not believe it when all three “experts” (and yes I am going to use quotes every time I write that word referring to these people) went on to answer the question as though there were nothing wrong with it!
I cut the clip so it starts right at the segment in question which you can listen to here.
I don’t know how many people in the Philadelphia area listened to this, but anyone who did is now walking around thinking the market cap of Bitcoin is $230 Trillion. Sigh.
The “experts” on the show are:
- JOHN COLLINS, former head of policy at Coinbase
- JOSHUA ASHLEY KLAYMAN of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance Legal Working Group
- ANGELA WALCH, law professor at St. Mary’s University
I really just don’t know what else to say...