Jimmy Wales, the creator of Wikipedia, has recently sparked a lively debate within the Bitcoin community with some of his statements, which compare traditional banks with Bitcoin.
His observations quickly elicited responses from key figures within the crypto community, highlighting divergent perspectives on financial systems. Let’s see all the details below.
Summary
The criticisms of the founder of Wikipedia on Bitcoin
As anticipated, the founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales recently shared his point of view on Bitcoin through a recent tweet, stating:
“I forgot the password to my bank and lost all my net worth. No, actually, that didn’t happen because banks work and Bitcoin doesn’t.”
This statement quickly gained popularity, attracting the attention of influential figures within the Bitcoin community.
The responses to Wales’ statements have been varied. Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, highlighted the missed opportunity for Wikipedia to profit from Bitcoin instead of constantly relying on donations.
Even Eric Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift, has supported Mow’s position, highlighting how an investment in Bitcoin could have eliminated the need for ongoing donations on the platform.
Dan Held, former Growth Marketing Director at Kraken, expressed his point of view in a brief and clear manner.
Unexpectedly, a user named X Walker revealed that Wales may still own some Bitcoin, referring to a tweet from 2014. Walker is the host of “THE Bitcoin Podcast“.
Bruce Fenton instead responded to Jimmy Wales’ statements by suggesting the return of all previously received Bitcoin donations, considering that Wikipedia had accepted Bitcoin donations from 2014 to 2022.
BTC Sessions finally shared a chart illustrating the depreciation of the USD value over time, emphasizing that protecting one’s net worth goes beyond the mere reliability of a password.
Reflections on finance, inflation, and bank exclusions
Going forward, we see that the response from Yves Bennaïm has encouraged reflection on broader financial issues, including banking exclusions, inflation, and systemic limitations.
The investor and educator Lyn Alden highlighted the detrimental effect of inflation on savings, narrating a distressing anecdote about a Lebanese doctor who lost 95% of their net worth due to hyperinflation in the traditional banking system.
The debate has extended to involve the unbanked population, with Brandon Quittem highlighting that over one billion people worldwide do not have access to traditional banking systems, highlighting the limitations faced by many due to financial exclusions.
Collaborators like Alex Gladstein have highlighted the limitations of traditional banks, emphasizing their reliability linked to the presence of a rule of law and a strong currency in the country of residence. They have also raised concerns about access and functionality for the majority of the global population.
Finally, Bit Paine raised an important question, suggesting that accessibility to wealth without requiring a password does not represent an advantage, but rather a flaw, indicating a potential vulnerability in the system.
Brief focus on the price of Bitcoin
Recently, the value of Bitcoin has dropped below $41,000, while Ethereum has reached $2,200, marking a sharp decline in the crypto markets after a period of recovery that lasted for most of the past two months.
Bitcoin is currently trading at around $40,758, recording a 7% decline in the last day.
This drop came after the market had already witnessed the liquidation of cryptocurrency futures contracts worth 330 million dollars on Monday morning, when BTC reached a value below 43,000 dollars.
According to CoinGlass, the total liquidations have reached 516 million dollars.
Despite the drop in one day, the current values are still over 5% higher than at the beginning of the month, when BTC was traded at $38,688.
The global market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, which has hovered around the trillion-dollar mark for most of the year, is now at 1.6 trillion dollars, showing a 6% decrease compared to the previous day.
