Bitcoin

Every few months the same panic returns. This time it was reignited by an interview clip in which Justin Sun argued that quantum computing and AI breakthroughs are reasons to be bearish on Bitcoin. Social feeds lit up with “quantum panic” all over again. Some were terrified, convinced the countdown to cracking Bitcoin’s private keys had already begun, with talk of it happening within one to one and a half years. On Monday, however, Bitcoin was just grinding along above $80,000 — calm, with no sign of the panic the narrative promised. ...

On Wednesday Bitcoin hovered in a narrow 83k–84k range, the kind of quiet consolidation that gives the tape-watchers little to talk about. Off the chart, a livelier contest was playing out between two economists over whether Bitcoin’s fixed supply is a bug or a feature. The spark was economist Lawrence H. White’s 2023 book Better Money: Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin?, one chapter of which argues that Bitcoin’s fixed supply makes it too volatile to serve as a medium of exchange. Saifedean Ammous, author of The Bitcoin Standard, recently published a point-by-point rebuttal. [1] ...