Boris Johnson, former British prime minister, has called Bitcoin (BTC) a “Ponzi scheme” that has less value than Pokémon cards, collectibles that he says are in high demand and have a decades-long history.
Johnson wrote an opinion piece article published Friday in the Daily Mail, which began with a story about a friend who gave 500 British pounds, or about $661, to a man who promised to “double his money” by investing it in BTC.
The friend continued to pay additional “fees” to the program organizer over the next three and a half years, but was never able to recover his funds despite sinking 20,000 British pounds, or about $26,474, which led to financial difficulties, Johnson said.
“He was having trouble paying his bills. He wasn’t the only one, my friend said. Other people in the area were going through the same nightmare,” Johnson added. Johnson then argued that Pokémon collectible cards are a more tradable asset than BTC:
“These curious little Japanese cartoon beasts seem to fascinate the five-year-old’s mind just as much as they did 30 years ago. Kids drool over them. They brag about them and argue about them.
Even if you remain fairly immune to Pikachu’s charm, you can almost see why a decades-old Pikachu card is still being traded,” he added.
The opinion piece sparked a wave of criticism online from the Bitcoin community and cryptocurrency industry executives, who pushed back against it by explaining Bitcoin’s basic properties and arguing that debt-based fiat currency systems are Ponzi schemes.
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Bitcoiners educate and ridicule Johnson for his approach
“Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi requires a central operator promising returns and paying early investors with funds from later ones” – strategy co-founder Michael Saylor he said in response.
“Bitcoin has no issuer, promoter, or guaranteed return, merely an open, decentralized monetary network driven by code and market demand,” Saylor continued.
Pierre Rochard, CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company, an issuer of financial products backed by BTC, said the UK is a “giant Ponzi scheme” financed by debt.
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