TL;DR: The author of popular philosophy books such as Skin in the Game, Fooled by Randomness, Antifragile, and Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb blasted recently how the failure of banks especially during the recent protests in Lebanon offers the “most potent case for cryptocurrencies.”



Nassim Nicholas Taleb Makes the Case for Crypto

The chairman of ABL and Bank of Beirut told Reuters, “Once normalcy is restored, we are very confident that we can resume servicing our customers in full capacity. We have operated in the past in the darkest and most difficult moments, and never defaulted or neglected our obligations.”

It was enough to send the Lebanese-American intellectual onto social media, where Taleb proclaimed, “The most potent case for cryptocurrencies: banks are never there when you need them. And they are trying to bully the public so they avoid accountability and profit disbursements. Bankers are legal crooks,” hashtagging “#bottomup #bitcoin #Lebanon.”

Only days ago the so-called Tax Intifada kicked off in the country, thanks in part to a series of proposals by the government to expropriate more from the domestic population by way of higher prices for everything from gas and tobacco to even usage of the popular messaging application WhatsApp for VOIP calls.

In truth, protests have been on and off since before the turn of the present century, and have gathered greater steam as few as three years ago due to poor economic management by local politicians. Various policy measures have been instituted, from bailouts and international aid, pegging the Lebanese pound to the US dollar, culminating in recent austerity measures aimed at regressive forms of taxation. As of publication, it is unclear how many Lebanese are engaging in cryptocurrency, but daily reports, such as bank ATMs being unavailable or empty, can only ripen interest if recent history in places such as Hong Kong is any indication.

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