“Once you have given real money for crypto

Calcalist Podcast

Cryptocurrencies have been found to be useful in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Cookies podcast examines whether this is a promise that really holds true or a lot of turmoil with few real options for consumers.

Omar Kabir and Shirley Singer 15:1820.03.22

The Russian invasion of Ukraine gave a significant boost to the use of cryptocurrencies, whether by raising donations of about $ 100 million in crypto for Ukraine or by various citizens stuck without “real” money and the use of crypto saved the situation. These testimonies moved Omar Kabir a bit from his skepticism about cryptocurrencies and their relevance to the real world. We invited Erez Raviv, the economics and infrastructure correspondent of the Davar website, to argue about it.

“The fees for buying a cup of coffee in Bitcoin are higher than the cost of a cup of coffee,” Raviv lowered us to the ground of reality. “It’s a very noisy community, but it’s more a matter of PR than something that has consumer demand or value. The best-known currency, Bitcoin, is theoretically limited to seven operations Clearing “In a second, and in practice it is between three and four operations, when the power consumption for it is more than a million times the power consumption of Visa, for example in clearing payments, so it is a tool that is not practical.”

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Where does the crypto do succeed? “In the area of ​​investments, crypto manages to circumvent regulation and then we are faced with a significant problem, which is difficult to prove financial fraud because the acts are very similar to bad investments or financial stupidity,” Raviv claims. “This is how an industry develops that rolls in quite a bit of real money, almost without regulation, and there are few who gain a lot and many who lose.”

So how come the bubble still does not burst? Raviv says: “Bitcoin is like Bernie Madoff’s scam. Any bubble can continue to exist as long as you continue to inject new money that is higher in value. The rule of thumb is that once you have given real money for crypto – you have been robbed. Someone will come in value and put real money in exchange for your crypto. ”

And this week in cookies: Omar recommends a book series that mixes fantasy and economics, and Shirley Sacrit of his mountain lupine and purple carpets.

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