Ivo Arnold, professor of monetary economics at Erasmus School of Economics, says that ‘Bitcoins won’t generate a cash flow at some point in the future – it is pure speculation and you can compare it to other speculative investments such as postage stamps or gold.
’ According to Arnold the bitcoin became an exciting investment product for the masses in 2017, ‘once the prices have risen spectacularly, everyone is interested.’
However, ‘its huge success cannot be explained by its supposedly being new, since it has been around since 2009, and it is not a wonderfully modern and efficient payment technology either: we still cannot use it to buy bread.’ As said by Arnold, the huge success of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies ‘have aspects of a typical soap bubble’s course: success stories, people who are afraid of missing the boat and price trends that go through the roof. At a certain stage, the bubble could burst. The warning signs are when people start making money by giving courses to novices instead of trading.’
You can read the whole article on the website of Erasmus Magazine, 22 February 2018.