Lionel Laurent, Columnist

As You Mourn Lehman, Spare a Thought for Crypto

Ten years ago, Bitcoin was born. Something about it has died.

September 12, 2018 at 12:05 PM UTC

Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist writing about the future of money and the future of Europe. Previously, he was a reporter for Reuters and Forbes.

The virtual currency.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

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Everyone remembers where they were a decade ago, right? I'm not talking about the collapse of Lehman Brothers. I mean the Bitcoin white paper of Oct. 31, 2008. It outlined a type of online peer-to-peer electronic cash that would bypass financial institutions -- which the author blamed for abusing people's trust, creating credit bubbles, and charging big fees.

Ironically, Bitcoin and its hundreds of cryptocurrency imitators went on to show the world how to replicate the worst excesses of the financial system they were supposed to displace.