“They think ‘oh, there’s twenty-one million Bitcoins’, and they think that that means they’re scarce. Well they’re not scarce, there’s so many other currencies out there, and it’s only scarce because… it’s coded to be scarce. Gold is scarce because it really is scarce.”
So said investment broker and financial commentator Peter Schiff on July 17th’s episode #1145 of the Joe Rogan Experience. Schiff fully believes that Bitcoin will drop below $1,000 in the near future, at which point it will disintegrate entirely. Funnily enough, Bitcoin’s recent surge began the same day that Schiff conducted the interview.
“There’s nothing that any other cryptocurrency can’t do that Bitcoin is doing… it doesn’t have any actual value. There’s lots of things I can do with gold that shows it has value…”
Lack of Real Value
Schiff went on to list the myriad of industrial, mechanical, medical and personal uses for gold which give it a real-world value – a value which he says Bitcoin lacks.
“All you can do with it is give it to somebody else. That’s its whole purpose is to give it to somebody else.”
At one point in the interview Rogan reminds Peter of the comments he made earlier regarding the state of the dollar economy, and questions why a crypto-based economy couldn’t be feasible.
Schiff, ever the proponent of small-government, pointed out that it would certainly be possible for the government to issue a digital currency in much the same way that they currently issue paper fiat currency, and that such a move would eventually tighten the government’s grip on the whole economy. Whereas before you could receive a $50 from your neighbour for some yard work and not have anyone know, now all of a sudden it would be tracked.
Fatalistic Predictions
It may seem like Schiff dodged the question by pushing everything towards the government angle, but his answer actually revealed his deeper thoughts on the issue. It’s clear from listening to Schiff speak that he doesn’t even question whether governmental regulators will get their paws on crypto – he naturally assumes it to be the case. He goes back to emphasize crypto’s lack of inherent value, saying:
“I don’t think any of these currencies can ever be stable because there’s no value to stable them. There’s no value to store. The only cryptocurrencies that would work are cryptocurrencies that are backed by a real commodity, like gold.”
What followed was an advert for his own gold-backed value transfer platform, Gold Money.
Coming away from the interview, one gets the impression that Peter is tied to a very traditional ethos regarding what qualifies as an effective currency, and may end up surprised by what’s to come.
With that said, I’m sure everyone reading this would agree that he has a point – after all, people don’t really use crypto as currency at the moment. At least not yet. But a quick glance at the crypto headlines reveals several prominent coins opening up crypto-fiat ATM’s, while online marketplaces are popping up where people can make purchases using crypto just as though they were on eBay or Amazon.
Note: This is a repost of my original article on Hacked.com, where I am a regular contributor. Read the original article here: https://hacked.com/peter-schiff-tells-joe-rogan-bitcoin-price-will-hit-1000/