Netherlands must ban cryptocurrencies immediately: CPB head

> How is this different from money or the financial markets?

A big difference is that the sovereign requires you to pay taxes in a given currency at the threat of punishment. So long as everyone needs to pay the taxman, the currency that the tax man accepts is gonna have at least some value.

Depends. Is Shiller recommending to buy vitamin C?

Fiat is slightly different in that the government can guarantee a certain level of demand for it by requiring taxes to be paid in it. If you you don't like jail and have a tax liability in US, you can't think dollars are worthless.

So wait ... this guy wants 2 things:

1) banning bitcoin

2) massive money injections into Dutch companies, Dutch government, and "in between" (ie. private companies in e.g. healthcare that effectively work exclusively for government). He has an article on how "basically every last Dutch political party wants a massive increase in spending" ( https://www.cpb.nl/column-een-ruk-aan-het-stuur )

And with Bitcoin his main argument is that it may present the government with even more debt (no explanation as to why a crash in Bitcoin would increase the Dutch government's debt burden)

However the last of his problems with Bitcoin is very out of step with the other ones: "financial instability". He is afraid, in other words, of the effect of Bitcoin's existence on the currencies he (helps) control. NOT of it's effect on people (it would be very weird of the "government bank" (that's what CPB is) to care about the effect of anything on people. That is very much not his job).

So the obvious explanation for this combination of behaviors is simple: he wants to use Dutch (or European) funds that aren't his (say pension funds, perhaps even savings accounts) for government policy, and is afraid of Bitcoin providing a way out of his measures. He is afraid of a massive RISE in Bitcoin, not a drop. He wants to safeguard his ability to take extreme measures (like confiscating things) to make massive government spending possible. That must mean concrete plans exist.

So I would say this guy is on the philosophical side of the Bitcoin "lunatics". He's just on the other side of the battle, and afraid of the effect on his own policies. He is afraid of the protection that Bitcoin offers.

> Maybe a tiny minority

Wait, what? That’s like the main reason people give when pumping it - “Bitcoin will replace fiat and it’s a good hedge against normal money.”