- SBF said that Bitcoin doesn’t work as a payment network
- The comments drew scrutiny from major crypto proponents and other members of the community
- The FTX CEO claims the report does not represent the full scope of his opinion
CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried has responded to comments from the community following a story regarding the future of the world’s largest crypto.
In a recent report, the Financial Times quoted SBF saying that Bitcoin has no future as a payments network. Furthermore, the FTX Boss also said that the network isn’t built for heavy transactions and does not boast scalability properties present in Proof-of-Stake blockchains, per the report from FT.
Things that you’re doing millions of transactions a second with have to be extremely efficient and lightweight and lower energy cost. Proof of stake networks are.
Bankman-Fried has since responded to the story and claims that the media outlet cherry-picked their words in the report. SBF tweeted from his verified account on Monday that he also highlighted how Bitcoin could be leveraged as a store of value and has the potential to serve as a sort of decentralized gold.
Crypto Twitter Contrasts FTX CEO’s Bitcoin Stance
Both the initial report from the Financial Times and Sam Bankman-Fried’s response have triggered heavy backlash from the crypto community. While the FTX CEO stressed that the report was selective with words, the comments about Bitcoin as a payment network could be seen as critical and counterproductive considering the ongoing market slump.
Also, the recent debacle with LUNA and UST has supposedly fueled increased pressure from regulators lobbying for tighter crypto policies and stablecoin regulations. Some Twitter users opined that SBF’s comments reinforce the narrative against Proof-of-work blockchains propagated by European Union lawmakers.
Crypto proponents also argued against SBF’s opinions, citing a decentralized protocol designed to facilitate super fast Bitcoin transactions – Lightning Network. Data from Blockstream shows that Lightning offers faster throughput speeds compared to PoS networks like Solana and mainstream payment portals like Visa and Paypal.