Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has trashed bitcoin as useless, inefficient, and largely a Ponzi scheme. Here are his 12 best quotes about crypto from the past decade.

Cryptocurrencies are useless, wasteful, niche, and only valuable due to hype and speculation, according to Paul Krugman.

The author of the New York Times column has been critical of the industry for enabling criminals, complicating transactions, and operating as a pyramid scheme.

Here are Krugman's 12 best quotes about crypto over the past decade, lightly edited for length and clarity:

This is the first thing. It's smart, cutting-edge, to create a sort of virtual currency whose creation requires wasting real resources in a way that Adam Smith thought was foolish and outdated in 1776. Adam Smith doesn't like digital currency.

There are two Money needs to be both a store of value and a media of exchange to be successful. It's not clear why there should be a stable store of value for the digital currency. "Bitcoin is evil."

There are three. The enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies goes against the long run trend. We have high costs of doing business due to the fact that we have to provide a complete history of past transactions in order to transfer a coin. Money created by the click of a mouse can't be mined through resource- intensive computations. There are transaction costs and tethers.

There are four. There is no tether to reality. Total collapse is a real possibility because of the self-fulfilling expectations. If speculators suddenly thought that bitcoins were worthless, it would make them lose their money. There are transaction costs and tethers.

There are five. It would be hard to get to an equilibrium in whichbitcoin remained in use for black market transactions and tax evasion, even if it were possible. There are transaction costs and tethers.

There are six. It seems futuristic and appealing to old-style goldbug fears that the government will inflate your savings, which has drawn in investors worried about missing out. Even though nobody can explain what legitimate purpose it's for, it's become a big asset class. The new subprime became the new coin.

There are seven. The crisis of the 2000s is similar to the crisis of the 2000s. The numbers are not large enough to threaten the financial system. People who don't know what they're getting into and aren't prepared to handle the downside are more likely to be at risk of losing their money. The new subprime became the new coin.

There are eight. "Bitcoin plays into a fantasy of self-sufficient individualism, of protecting your family with your personal AR-15, treating your Covid with an anti-Parasite drug or urine, and managing your financial affairs with privately created money, untainted by institutions like governments or banks." Guns, Germs, and the AntiSocial Right were mentioned.

There are nine. Cryptocurrencies aren't involved in economic transactions other than speculation. If you want to give it time, bear in mind that bitcoin has been around since 2009, which makes it old by tech standards. Is this time different for crashing cryptocurrencies? May 17th, 2022.

There are ten. This could be the moment when the scheme has run out of new suckers, if I am correct. Wonking Out: Isn't it possible to be a hedge against inflation? The date is June 17, 2022.

There is a new date for the 11th. Jim Chanos called the person a'junkyard'. I wouldn't do that. On second thought I would. Wonking Out: Isn't it possible to be a hedge against inflation? The date is June 17, 2022.

It evolved into a sort of postmodern pyramid scheme. The industry used some of the cash flow to buy the illusion of respectability, which brought in even more investors. Even as the risks increased, it became too large to regulate. The currency is crashing. The regulators were nowhere to be found. July 11, 2020

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