"Rakoff repeatedly treats "crypto" as a monolith, collapsing decentralized networks, centralized frauds, meme tokens, and algorithmic stablecoins into a single object of derision. This is not analysis; it is rhetorical convenience. The Terraform Labs fraud he describes depended on secrecy, centralization, and false representations - the very features Bitcoin was designed to eliminate. Rakoff describes Bitcoin as gambling "untethered to economic reality." But his definition of economic reality is faith-based: central bank discretion, elastic supply, and institutional trust."
"I watched the regulated financial system collapse in 2008 from inside a New York law firm. The catastrophe occurred not in unregulated back alleys but in the most supervised institutions on earth. When it ended, almost no one responsible was punished. Courts enforced the settlements. Central banks created money to paper over the wreckage. Bitcoin refuses that bargain. That is why central planners hate it."
The core assumption is that money is legitimate only when sanctioned, supervised, and reversible at the discretion of the state. Bitcoin arose to exit a regulated financial system that socialized losses during the 2008 bank bailouts, with the Genesis Block timestamping that moment. Centralized frauds depended on secrecy, centralization, and false representations, which Bitcoin's design aims to eliminate. Bitcoin imposes a fixed supply, prevents monetary debasement, and exposes institutional failure rather than masking it. Courts enforced settlements and central banks created money to paper over wreckage; Bitcoin refuses that bargain.
Read at Bitcoin Magazine
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