The downward spiral the prices of most cryptos in the market has found themselves has led to doubters coming out in droves to accuse cryptocurrency of being a scam. A recent update to the list of people tagging crypto as a scam in recent time is Ehud Barak, the prime minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001.
Ehud Barak Calls Out Crypto
Barak who is now a full-time investor and co-founder of startup companies in fields such as cannabis and cyber espionage has called out cryptocurrency to be illegal.
Barak made this known at a startup event where he was a keynote speaker.
The former prime minister was recently appointed as the chairman of a medical marijuana company. As a result of his new position, he was asked if the cannabis industry can be compared to the hottest trend amongst Israeli investors— Cryptocurrency. To the shock of many, he made it clear that Bitcoin and other cryptos are nothing but Ponzi schemes. He made this known in a statement which reads:
“Blockchain is a technological-mathematical concept, an interesting and important method, and one that will have many uses. The coins — Bitcoin and others — is a Ponzi scheme. I do not believe that it will be possible to make a coin like this in the current generation and I will not invest in anything related to cryptocurrencies,” Barak stated. “Anyone who has patience and understands the depth of blockchain will find many uses, from holding sensitive medical information to contracts.”
Isreal Crypto Community Won’t Stand For This
His statements have however brought about massive criticism from the Israeli technology community and the entire crypto industry.
Ophir Gertner — founder of blockchain advisory company Smartologic has also issued some statements regarding this.
He stated that:
“The crypto market as a whole has become a punching bag. Such opinions, including the views of many companies in Israel, have become especially popular against the backdrop of the sharp fluctuations and devaluations in the currencies recently,”