Renowned Israeli philosopher Yuval Noah Harari, author of the international bestseller Sapiens, has labeled digital gold as a “currency of distrust,” which does not align with his vision of finance.
When I say that Bitcoin is a currency of distrust, I’m just repeating what Bitcoin fans themselves say. There may be good reasons not to trust the banks and governments that create dollars, yens, and other currencies – but that doesn’t change the fact that the preference for… pic.twitter.com/dntBOWPQhz
— Yuval Noah Harari (@harari_yuval) May 21, 2024
“There may be good reasons not to trust the banks and governments that create dollars, yens, and other currencies — but that doesn’t change the fact that the preference for Bitcoin is based on distrust of public institutions,” he noted.
In his view, this is a worrying trend, as money should create “trust between strangers.” Existing financial instruments like currencies, stocks, and bonds are aimed at enabling people to pool knowledge, resources, and collaborate, Harari believes.
“Humans control the world because they have learned to do so. […] I hope humanity finds a way to build trustworthy public institutions instead of adopting technologies oriented towards the opposite,” he stated.
The philosopher emphasized that in today’s economy with division of labor, the function of the financial system is to create trust.
“Initially, there was very little trust in institutions like banks and governments, so money was minted from gold. Since precious metals were scarce, this limited the amount of money and hindered economic cooperation,” he added.
General partner at Castle Island Ventures, Nic Carter, commented that Harari “literally inverted everything.”
You have this literally inverted
The point of hard money is to facilitate trade between mutually nontrusting counterparties; that’s why gold and silver were the settlement medium for global trade historically and not IOUs
Bitcoin is just the modern version for a world in…
— nic carter (@nic__carter) May 21, 2024
“The point of hard money is to facilitate trade between counterparties that do not trust each other. That’s why historically gold and silver were the settlement medium for global trade, not IOUs. Bitcoin is just the modern version [of precious metals] for a world where fiat is a tool of control and power projection,” he wrote.
MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor responded to the philosopher, stating that humanity has already found a way to create trustworthy institutions, which are called “Bitcoin technology.”
We don’t necessarily distrust. We seek to verify. Only #Bitcoin allows for verification at all levels of the system. When you understand that, the rest will fall in place.
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) May 21, 2024
“We don’t necessarily distrust. We seek to verify. And only the first cryptocurrency provides this at all levels of the system. When you understand that, everything else will fall into place,” supported similar views CEO of JAN3, Samson Mow.
In May, the author of the bestseller “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki once again predicted the collapse of the dollar and urged investment in Bitcoin, gold, and silver.
Prior to this, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon again labeled the cryptocurrency as a fraud and Ponzi scheme.