Bitcoin has its own positives and negatives. Sergei Guriev, a Vladimir Putin critic and professor of Economics at Paris’ Sciences Po, has explained to Cointelegraph how Bitcoin can be used to withstand authoritarian regimes even though it does not consist of any fundamental social value.
Bitcoin is not backed by any institution and that is exactly why Guriev believes that ” Bitcoin is a merely speculative instrument without any fundamental value”.
In addition, he also claimed that unlike company stocks, Bitcoin does not produce or promise to produce cash flow.
“Bitcoin is not producing anything of additional value”, he said. It’s value is “only contingent on all parties being happy to use it as a medium of exchange”, points out Guriev.
According to the report, Guriev said that Bitcoin’s important role in authoritarian regimes. In countries such as Russia, it is used as a valuable tool to support the opposition anonymously.
“The Russian government makes sure that non-anonymous donors of the opposition are somehow harassed or prosecuted”, he told Cointelegraph.
Guriev fled Russia to escape harassment by Russian authorities after he openly supported the local opposition to Vladimir Putin’s regime.
According to Guriev, the pseudonymity of Bitcoin and its censorship resistance are the main reason why Russia is about to pass a law that will crack down on digital currencies in the country, the report mentioned.
“Anonymous fundraising tools like digital currencies are the enemy of the Russian State”, he states.
