Fidelity Digital Assets, a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, has responded to some of bitcoinâs most frequent criticisms, suggesting clarity is needed amid heightened interest in the cryptocurrency.
In a blog post on Thursday, Director of Research Ria Bhutoria said she was addressing persistent âcriticisms and misconceptionsâ about the cryptocurrency. These include whether bitcoin is too volatile to be a store of value, has failed as a means of payment and is environmentally wasteful.
âBitcoinâs volatility is a trade-off [that] makes for perfect supply inelasticity and an intervention-free market,â she said, but with greater adoption and introduction of derivatives and investment products, volatility may continue to drop.
According to the Bhutoria, the worldâs first cryptocurrencyâs âcoreâ use case isnât in payments. However, it uses its limited capacity for settling transactions that arenât well-served by traditional rails, and offers âhigh settlement assurances.â
âLimited throughput is the trade-off bitcoin makes for decentralization, which is a direct result of cheap and easy validation,â she wrote.
The post responds to bitcoinâs reputation for sucking up vast amounts of energy in the mining process, arguing a âsubstantial portionâ of its power consumption comes from renewable sources. Further, the energy it does expend is a âvalid and importantâ use.
âBitcoin transactions connected to illicit activity are very low,â Bhutoria went on, addressing a common criticism of cryptocurrencies in general. Like cash, bitcoin is âneutral and has properties that may be valuable to good actors and bad actors,â she said.
As for the argument that bitcoin isnât backed by anything, such as real-world assets, it is in fact âbacked by code and the consensus that exists among its key stakeholdersâ was Bhutoriaâs response.
See also: Fidelity Report Says Bitcoinâs Market Cap Is âDrop in the Bucketâ of Potential
Bitcoin is growing because people recognize it offers âperfect scarcity ⦠transaction irreversibility, and seizure and censorship resistance,â she said.
Finally, on the threat that a competitor might someday replace bitcoin, she argued that while alternatives have tried to improve upon bitcoinâs âlimitationsâ (such as limited transaction throughput and volatility), âit has been at the cost of the core properties that make bitcoin valuable.â