From the start, I’ve always said the same thing: Bitcoin is an experiment and like all experiments, it can fail. So don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose, says Mike Hearn, who spent five years developing software for Bitcoin. By Staff Writer
In an article on Medium, Hearn writes that despite knowing that Bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that “it has failed still saddens me greatly”.
Hearn has sold his coins and will no longer be taking part in Bitcoin development.
He warns that the fundamentals are broken and whatever happens to the price in the short term, the long term trend should probably be downwards.
Bitcoin, which began in 2009, is a decentralised digital commodity that provides an alternative to transacting with traditional currencies. Bitcoin is like digital cash, and can be transferred from person to person or from a person to a business, instantly, securely and irreversibly, without going via a processing house.
Why has Bitcoin failed?
Hearn writes that Bitcoin has failed because the community has failed.
“What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked ‘systemically important institutions’ and ‘too big to fail’ has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people.
“Worse still, the network is on the brink of technical collapse. The mechanisms that should have prevented this outcome have broken down, and as a result there’s no longer much reason to think Bitcoin can actually be better than the existing financial system.”
For multitude of reasons why Bitcoin has ultimately failed visit Hearn’s article on Medium
