Paul Krugman, a big name in economics and even winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, has been known for years as a great Bitcoin (BTC) skeptic. According to him, bitcoin actually has no value at all for normal people, and is only useful for criminals. Yet personally, he was recently confronted with a major problem within the traditional financial system. A problem for which bitcoin seems to have the solution.
Paul Krugman blacklisted
Krugman announced on Twitter that he was no longer able to make payments via the wildly popular Venmo in the United States. Millions of Americans use Venmo to make payments, and Krugman was suddenly and without explanation banned from this platform.
Too busy to tweet. But not to guy. I’ve been using Venmo for years, but now it won’t allow me to make payments. I spent a long time in chat with representatives, and they told me that they can’t explain why — or fix it. The software has taken control.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 8, 2023
This was nothing short of shocking to him. According to Krugman, the platform is not even willing to explain why he is no longer able to make payments. According to Krugman, “the software has taken control.” In the past, Krugman stated that only people who commit criminal transactions are at risk of losing their Venmo account. For this statement Krugman, of course, was now being tricked.
Bitcoin to the rescue
Someone who can be unceremoniously, and seemingly for no good reason, excluded from the traditional financial system? Let that be one of the reasons why the Bitcoin network was launched years ago by one Satoshi Nakamoto.
It’s a glorious moment for proponents of cryptocurrency, and they also show this on Twitter. One of their most prominent opponents bumps his head against the very problem they continue to warn about: the threat of seemingly arbitrary financial censorship.
Also Michael Saylor, former CEO of MicroStrategy and one of the best known bitcoin bulls in the world, responded to Krugman’s message. His message was simple: “Bitcoin solves this problem.”
Not much later, Krugman tweeted that his Venmo account had been restored.