Bitcoin Scarcity Argument Smashed by Black Swan Author, Here’s How

Prominent scholar, intellectual and author of a series of best-selling books on risk management, including “Black Swan” and “Antifragile,” Nassim Nicholas Taleb has found a new angle from which to attack Bitcoin.

Taleb has been going on about this since yesterday, when he stated that Bitcoin’s major advantage — its limited supply of 21 million coins — does not make this asset valuable in any way.

He tweeted: “There is an infinite number of things in finite supply.” On Sept. 13, Taleb published a more detailed post to show what he meant, again mentioning “bitdiots”; this is how he prefers to refer to supporters of flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

There is an infinite number of things in finite supply.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) September 14, 2023

His earlier tweet says that the idea that something must be a good investment only because of a limited supply of this asset “is confused” since “necessary” does not mean the same as “sufficient,” per Taleb.

The scholar insists that there are a lot of things that are strictly limited in supply, similarly to Bitcoin, and they include “pebbles from Skorpios, underwear worn by Churchill, books owned by Cary Grant.”

The idea by #bitdiots that something Convex (antifragile) must be a good investment BECAUSE of limited supply is confused: NECESSARY ≠ SUFFICIENT.

Near Infinite # of things in limited supply: pebbles from Skorpios, underwear worn by Churchill, books owned by Cary Grant…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) September 13, 2023

In a comment thread, when answering a commentator, Taleb noted that anyone can create any number of electronic things and make each of them by design be “limited in supply.”

Three years ago, Nassim Taleb was still a Bitcoin supporter who was fascinated by it during the bank crisis and the so-called “WhatsApp Revolution” in in his homeland, Lebanon. However, later on, he became disappointed in BTC as a safe haven or even as an asset altogether.

From time to time, Taleb keeps taking a jab at Bitcoin. A couple of weeks ago, he tweeted about BTC, calling it a fad. In November, he praised the crypto crash that still continues, expressing joy that he will not live in a world run by “cryptocrats.”

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