A former head of SEC bashes Crypto, it made Mark Cuban angry.
Mark Cuban has taken issue with several comments made by John Reed Stark. He is the former chief of the Office of Internet Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Stark stated that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum bear “no utility,” which is something that Cuban strongly disagrees with.
Mark Cuban to the Rescue!
Not so long ago, Cuban said that he owned Bitcoin and also believed that it might be a serious hedge in the future against inflation and other brutal conditions. He then claimed to be a massive fan of Ethereum because of its capabilities with smart contracts and the production of its decentralized apps (dapps). In contrast, Stark is not even praising digital currencies, and he said in a recent interview with CNBC that the assets have no practical use.
Cuban responded on Twitter quickly, explaining:
“Watching CNBC and the guest who used to work at the SEC has absolutely no understanding of crypto. Says there is zero utility. One certainty is crypto will continue to positively impact business more than the SEC. I am happy to educate him on the applications we are developing.”
However, the billionaire faced his own opposition. A user on Twitter quickly challenged him and asked where crypto has done better than its financial competitors. Cuban answered with a very long list that involved the following:
“Weather insurance. Money transfer. Provenance for digital files. Marketplace efficiency for digital content. Personal banking. Prediction markets. Non-fractionalized banking. Structured financial products. Fractionalization of assets. Gaming rewards. Soon ticketing.”
All of this came from a man who at some point appeared to have a hostile attitude to Bitcoin and crypto. Cuban also went so far as to say that he would rather have “bananas” instead of bitcoin. Still, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team has done a 360 and became one of the world’s largest crypto advocates.
Why Did Stark attacked Crypto?
Stark stated that one of his issues with digital currencies is that they have probably been “enabling” ransomware attacks in the last decade. He said:
“Ransomware is hitting everywhere, and they are all collecting it in bitcoin because there is no way they are going to get caught. So, you are also enabling it. The country is kind of falling apart from ransomware all because of crypto and the main reason people own crypto is because they think someone else will buy it and make the price higher.”
Stark Still Likes Blockchain
Stark also defend himself against Cuban, saying:
“Just because I cannot think of a single U.S. societal benefit (social, economic, or otherwise) of crypto and the untraceable financial transactions it facilitates does not mean I cannot appreciate the many potential benefits of blockchain, but I think Mr. Cuban misunderstood my commentary. Being anti-crypto does not mean I am anti-blockchain. The two philosophies are too often mistakenly conflated.”
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