In the next ten years, bitcoin is more likely to cost $ 100 than $ 100,000, says Harvard economist
Harvard University professor and economist Kenneth Rogoff said on Tuesday that the possibility of bitcoin prices falling to $ 100 is higher than the price of digital currency trading at $ 100,000 a decade from now.
“I think bitcoin will be worth a small part of what it is now if we go beyond ten years from now … I think $ 100 is much more likely than $ 100,000 in ten years,” Rogoff told CNBC’s Squawk Box.
“If you take away the opportunity to launder money and avoid taxes, its actual use as a means of transaction is minimal,” said the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Many illegal transactions are related to Bitcoin, whose estimates vary in proportion to the use of digital currency used in illegal activities. According to Shone Anstey, co-founder and president of Blockchain Intelligence Group, he calculated that the level of illegal transactions was reduced to 20 percent in 2016 and was “significantly less than that” in 2017.
Regulations introduced by the government will cause bitcoin prices to fall, Rogoff said, although he stressed that it will take time to develop a global regulatory framework.
“It should be global regulation. Even if the United States deals with that and China, but not Japan, people will still be able to launder money through Japan,” he said.
According to the industrial site CoinDesk, Bitcoin traded around $ 11,242.61 during the morning trade in Asia. The price of digital currency has fallen from a record $ 19,000 this December.
Authorities are passive about regulating bitcoin, and the reason for that is the prediction of the technology behind the digital currency, says Rogoff.
“They want to see technological advances,” Rogoff said, adding that the private sector has historically “designed everything” in the history of currency, from standardized coins to paper currency.
Bitcoin is a significant area of growth as the application of blockchain technology that enables the maintenance and recording of transactions.
However, there have been claims in the past that bitcoin prices have fallen. Before bitcoin sold out last December, Rogoff said last October that digital currency estimates would “collapse” amid attempts by governments to regulate the area.