Nouriel Roubini Says Billions Are Lost to Bitcoin Scams Every Day, But He Forgets Something

Popular American economist Nouriel Roubini took it to Twitter to once again bash Bitcoin. This time, his criticism was set off by a phishing scam that saw a podcast owner lose his BTC savings.

Nouriel Roubini Bashes Bitcoin… Again

According to the popular American economist and well-known nocoiner Nouriel Roubini, also commonly referred to as “Dr. Doom” by the crypto community, billions are lost every day to “scams and crypto robberies.”

He asserted that there is “zero security” in the cryptocurrency fields while claiming that there’s 100% security in legacy financial systems.

roubini_spiegel-min — Nouriel Roubini. Image by: Spiegel DE

What set him off this time was the fact that the host of the Protocol Podcast, Eric Savics, shared how he lost 12 BTC, comprising his 7-year worth of savings for a new apartment, in a phishing scam. As CryptoPotato reported, Savics had downloaded a fake Keep Key plugin for Google Chrome and input his recovery phrase, thus providing access to the hackers.

To this, Roubini commented:

“1 of the 1000s of daily scams in Bitcoin/Shitcoins world. There is zero security in shitcoin land! Billions lost daily to such scams & crypto robberies. If anyone steals my credit card or bank account info, I get 100% refunded with a 1 min call. 100% security in legacy fin systems!”

While Roubini is a well-known Bitcoin critic who has bashed the cryptocurrency on countless occasions, the merits in this particular statement are close to non-existent.

Billions Lost Daily?

One of the first things that makes an impression is the claim that there are “billions lost daily to such scams & crypto robberies.”

This is where we should mention that Nouriel Roubini is a professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Making baseless claims doesn’t look like a very academic thing to do.

A cryptocurrency intelligence company tracking crimes involving digital assets recently reported that the first five months of 2020 saw approximately about $1.4 billion lost to scams in the field. It’s really interesting to see where Roubini gets his number as his statement is evidently biased and wildly exaggerated.

It’s also worth noting that Eric Savics himself admitted that he hasn’t been responsible enough to protect his funds and that it’s ultimately his fault he fell victim to this phishing scam.

Still, there’s truth to Roubini’s words. It’s highly unlikely that Savics will be able to recover his funds unless he identifies the perpetrators. What Bitcoin offers is complete and untampered decentralization, and this comes with certain drawbacks, at least for some. In other words, if you lose access to your keys, you won’t be able to recover your bitcoins. That’s what you get for the opportunity to truly own your wealth.

Featured image courtesy of CNBC