By David Wagner
Former Fed chief Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen's predecessor, spoke out yesterday about cryptocurrencies, and specifically Bitcoin, stating that he does not think Bitcoin would take over "as an alternative form of currency."
During an interview with CNBC, he pointed out that BTC and cryptos, in general, have been "successful as a speculative asset," Bernanke said in an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box that aired Monday morning. "You see the negative side of that right now," Bernanke said.
"If bitcoin was a substitute for fiat currency, you could use bitcoin to go shopping. No one buys groceries with bitcoin because it's too expensive and inconvenient to do so," he explained, using an example:
"The price of celery varies drastically from day to day in terms of bitcoin and so there is no stability in the value of bitcoin either."
Bernanke also said he did not believe bitcoin could serve as a "store of value" or "digital gold," contrary to what many cryptocurrency supporters claim (hope).
"Gold has an underlying use value. You can use it to fill cavities. The underlying use value of a bitcoin is to do ransomware or something like that," said Bernanke in the interview joining the other officials (or former officials) who associate cryptos with illegal activities.