Long-Time Bitcoin Critic, Nobel Laureate Gives a Hope to Crypto

“Something good may come out of this,” Nobel-winning economist and Yale professor Robert Shiller said when asked about cryptocurrencies in a recent interview with CNBC.

Also, he stressed that Bitcoin is not a bad thing: “I don’t mean to be dismissive of Bitcoin. It looks like a bubble, but it’s getting people enthusiastic and they’re making different kinds of cryptocurrencies.”

However, in his opinion, Bitcoin might fade away, be renamed and go through many hard forks, and might turn out to be a bubble. “Bitcoin won’t look anything like it is today. It will have a different name, if it exists. There will have been many hard forks, changing it and changing it. And, it’ll be a matter of dispute whether it exists or not.”

When asked whether his students are interested in cryptocurrencies, he laughs and says yes. One even asked him if he could keep his laptop open during a final exam to complete a trade, and he let him as it showed true enthusiasm.

At the end 2017, Shiller stated his certainty that Bitcoin will collapse: “Bitcoin, it’s just absolutely exciting ( …) You’re fast. You’re smart. You’ve figured out nobody else understands. You’re with it. And Bitcoin has this anti-government, anti-regulation feel. It’s such a wonderful story. If it were only true.”

Here is what six Nobel laureate economists have to say about crypto.