Joe Nocera, Columnist

Sorry, Bitcoin Fans. Digital Currency Is Still a Dream.

I've been waiting for decades for someone to invent a currency for online purchases. And still am.

January 16, 2018 at 4:15 PM UTC

Joe Nocera is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He has written business columns for Esquire, GQ and the New York Times, and is the former editorial director of Fortune. He is the host and writer of the Bloomberg-Wondery podcast "The Shrink Next Door."

Maybe some day ...
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

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Bitcoin breaks my heart.

Not because I missed the great run-up (though I did) and not because I fear that the Bitcoin bubble will end badly (it will, but that’s not my problem). Rather, it is because I have been waiting for decades for someone to invent a purely digital currency, a currency for online purchases that wasn’t linked to a credit card. It was the killer app (as we used to say) that no one ever figured out.