The world-renowned expert on the history of economics, a former professor of history at Harvard University and a senior fellow at Oxford University Nial Ferguson admitted that he was wrong about Bitcoin, once calling him "an illusion." This writes the Australian Financial Review .

A British scientist learned about Bitcoin five years ago from his son, but refused to follow his advice and acquire cryptocurrency. As Ferguson said then, all this is nothing more than an illusion and another eccentricity, and the technology itself has no future.

However, speaking this week at The Australian Financial Review Business Summit in Sydney, he acknowledged that he now regrets that he did not listen to the words of his son. And it’s not even a lost investment opportunity that Ferguson realized when he saw how Bitcoin grew in price from $ 400 to $ 16000, but also in the most fundamental technology.

“I was very wrong. I was mistaken when I said that blockchain-based currency cannot be used, ”said the scientist.

Admitting that his initial prejudices against Bitcoin were based on previously gained knowledge of the history of financial innovations and fiat currencies, Ferguson also noted that the market decline that followed December 2017 is not something terrible. Moreover, if you look at the levels to which dropped in the last year with a little bitcoin, then they say that the cryptocurrency is quite stable.

“The current $ 3,000 – $ 4,000 is very far from a price collapse. And I don’t think that this is all an illusion, ”said Ferguson.

Noting that certain investors can certainly be attracted by the fact that the cryptocurrency does not correlate with traditional asset classes, he also raised the issue of broader Bitcoin prospects. In particular, Ferguson said, the next ten years are more likely to be more innovative for finance, since in many ways their development was constrained by strict regulatory rules adopted by world governments after the 2008 crisis.

"This will be a truly revolutionary time," the scientist added.

Earlier, the author of the famous work “The Black Swan” Nassim Taleb said that in the long run, he would prefer to keep Bitcoin rather than the dollar, although he admitted that he would choose the latter between cryptocurrency and gold.

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