Australian senator enrages Bitcoin community with brutal take on cryptocurrency

News.com.au

4 days ago

An Australian senator has managed to enrage the entire Bitcoin community after branding the wildly popular cryptocurrency as a 'Ponzi scheme'.
Gerard Rennick made the comments last week after Bitcoin (BTC) reached an all-time high of $111,977, driven by a wave of optimism over cryptocurrency legislation in the United States.
Experts hailed the surge as a 'major milestone'. However, Senator Rennick dismissed this recent development, saying Bitcoin will ultimately go to $1 million.
He said this was because the cryptocurrency is a Ponzi scheme, which is a fraudulent investment scheme that relies on recruiting new investors to pay returns to earlier investors.
The People First Party founder then suggested BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager and one of the largest Bitcoin holders, would 'pump more and more dollars into a supply constrained product'.
'What exactly will this product produce? Absolutely nothing and nor will the thousands of people buying and selling it,' Senator Rennick wrote on X.
'Australia needs real engineers not financial engineers. We need infrastructure that delivers essential services particularly energy, water and transport. You can't eat Bitcoin.'
His comments immediately drew ire from the wider cryptocurrency community, but the senator refused to back down.
'What a spectacularly stupid response. I look forward to plastering it everywhere when you try and make yourself relevant in the next election,' one person said.
To which Senator Rennick noted the role 'of a politician isn't to engage in promoting a speculative asset'.
When another person claimed he was 'embarrassing' himself and told him to study Bitcoin further, he questioned why he should, asking, 'What difference does it matter to you if I understand it or not. If you believe in it then, good for you but mind your own business when it comes to my life and how I choose to live it.'
He added that he understood it enough to 'know it's not going to solve Australia's economic problems'.
In response to his claims that you 'can't eat Bitcoin', one person pointed out that you 'also can't eat the internet' and asked the politician whether he was 'opposed to that too'.
'No but I'm not claiming the internet is the solution to all our problems. Bitcoiners seem to think Bitcoin is the solution to our monetary problems. It's not. Securing credit against hard assets that generate goods and services is the solution,' Senator Rennick said.
'Whether Bitcoin is worth $10 or $1 million is irrelevant if a nation can't feed itself.'
When another social media user told him to read some books on Bitcoin, he responded by telling them to 'get a life'.
'The fact that you care about my views on Bitcoin shows your hypocrisy. I don't pretend to be an expert - I was trolled by a Bitcoin grifter. I prefer to deal in real objects - it's my right to choose that,' he said.
'On the other hand you Bitcoiners claim to want to be free from political interference yet crave my opinion on it. What does it matter. It will go to a million dollars and you will be happy. On the other hand I will be happy enjoying the real world of Mother Nature and being trained in skills that matter.'
This is just a small section of the lengthy online bickering that ensued in the wake of Senator Rennick's initial comment.
In fact, the reaction was so large that the Australian Bitcoin Industry Body (ABIB) released a lengthy statement admonishing the senator for engaging in such a debate.
The body claimed that, as a public representative, he has a duty to engage with the concerns of Australians in an intellectually honest way, rather than 'dismiss them from a place of confusion or authority'.
It accused Senator Rennick of having a 'deep misunderstanding' of Bitcoin, warning this could ultimately lead to bad policy.
'This isn't about whether Australians can use Bitcoin — we already do. This is about whether our government is capable of understanding how Bitcoin can enrich the nation, drive innovation, and build long-term resilience for Australians,' ABIB said.