Things still don’t seem to be getting better for Bitcoin even after a turbulent few weeks for the leading cryptocurrency and the rest of the crypto market. Some people believe that Bitcoin is completely worthless in comparison to its one time high of nearly $20,000 in December 2017. There are now even claims that Bitcoin is in a ‘death spiral’ as Atulya Sarin wrote today in his opinion piece.

Sarin is a Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University and his arguments come at a time when Bitcoin sunk below the $4,000 key resistance level once again. He argues that the assertion of mining on the Bitcoin network has become a pointless exercise which is unprofitable and so the store of value guarded by the network’s hashing power will soon be unwound by miners leaving the network.

Even though it is right to say that mining Bitcoin is unprofitable for some and miners have begun to leave the network.

The rapture

As reported by CryptoGlobe:

“The ‘Death Spiral’ is new neither in substance nor even in its label. In 2016, the Bitcoin network faced a similar bout of fearful speculation (even making an appearance in a Princeton article) as a Bitcoin halving event coincided with the well-known block size debate.”

Some have been speculating that a ‘rash’ of transactions during the half would be filling up the network at the time when miners’ rewards would be sliced in half resulting in the fearful ‘death spiral’

On top of this, there is worry of a halving anytime soon but the standard response to mining cost problems is that Bitcoin’s software adjusts mining difficulty down as the hashrate leaves the network. The University professor discussed this but didn’t do it ‘justice’ and said: “the cost of mining will algorithmically decrease, but not necessarily to same extent as the decline in prices.”

In the end, Sarin’s article seems to be somewhat enthusiastic about the idea of Bitcoins end but he does conclude that the blockchain economy is here to stay despite the possibility that Bitcoin gets sucked into a ‘death spiral’.

“And after all, I can still give my wife a bouquet of tulips and make her happy. And I can still give Beanie Babies to my grandchildren to play with. But what am I going to do with a set of numbers that I cannot prove makes me an owner of anything?”

What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down below in the comments!