let's go over beliefs:
> high proportion of all Bitcoins are owned by insiders
same as any other asset in the world, think pareto distribution - vast majority is owned by few entities. so since this point applies to everything pretty much equally - it can be discarded.
> Bitcoin is not usable as a currency because the transaction costs and latency are both too high. (Yes, I know about the Lightning network.)
mentions the working solution but chooses to ignore it without reason. not the best strategy in investing.
> There are repeated allegations that Tethers are created out of thin air to prop up the price of Bitcoin
prophecies of Tether collapse have been around so long, even broken clock theory proponents are getting grey in their hair waiting for anything to happen. but more importantly - if tethers are printed without backing, it doesn't mean there isn't demand for BTC. if BTC were bought with USDT, somebody in the world wanted those BTC and somebody else is stuck with USDT. what do you think happens when Tether collpases and USDT starts trading at discount, what do you think people will be dumping their USDT for?
> much of the trading is seriously sketchy, whether that’s based on ad-hoc Tether creation, wash trading, or other well-known pump/dump schemes
best argument not to short bitcoin. highly volatile asset will either trigger your stop-loss during a random 5-minute fluctuation or leave you devastated with debts orders of magnitude larger than your original investment if you choose full-idiot strategy of shorting without stop-loss.
> The net effect is that money flows in from, in effect, suckers and rubes, then into the pockets of the insiders.
again, applies to literally everything.
> Bitcoin’s Byzantine-generals solution, based on proof-of-waste, is unacceptable in the face of the oncoming climate crisis.
in fact absolutely opposite is true. bitcoin mining is the most green industry around and is driving development of green energy capacity faster than anything else. burning coal or oil for mining is expensive even politically (see china driving away all the miners, citing environmental concerns even though the real reason is inability to control flight of capital).
to all people concerned about bitcoin's environmental impact: in the end, it's not your business what i do with the energy i purchase on a market, if you actually cared about the environment - you'd direct your anger at dirty energy producers, go do something useful with your lives instead of faking rage for virtue signalling.
> Since Bitcoin has no practical uses
absolutely false belief in my opinion.
> Puts are pretty cheap. If I’m totally wrong and Bitcoin is still sailing along at the end of 2021, I’ll be annoyed but not impoverished. If it crashes I’ll be sad for the unfortunates who lost their stakes, and entirely unsympathetic to the insider community
the author didn't cover another possible scenario: if bitcoin blows up the other direction, the author loses 100% of their investment (if they are smart) or unlimited amount of money (if they are stupid).
so yeah, the entire belief set is wrong and author is most likely going to lose money unless they get very lucky.