Chief officers of International Monetary Fund and of J.P. Morgan Chase, the biggest bank in the US, both spoke about bitcoin, telling that the virtual currency has no chance to disrupt the global finance.

Bitcoin enthusiasts may pretend that price of bitcoin does not matter but its sudden growth in last two weeks again focused the eyes of general public on bitcoin. And the great financial magnates could not stay away from the topic.

Christine Lagarde, managing officer of IMF, spoke about bitcoin at a banking conference in New York, say Financial Times. She told that financial industry should not worry about becoming obsolete with the advent of new technologies. Bitcoin, according to Lagarde, is anonymous and trustless while people need trust, “without which no trade, no transaction, no business can take place.” 

Similar opinion was expressed by Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, even more vividly. He regretted that some circles of society are wasting their time with bitcoin. He believes that the virtual currency can be tolerated by the government for a while but sooner or later law enforcement would come to bitcoin users and say: “'it's an illegal currency and it's against the laws of the land, and if you do it again, we will put you in jail.” As for the new technology, it will be examined by banks and adopted if needed. The blockchain, says Dimon, “could be used to transport currency, but it will be dollars, not bitcoins.”

Bitcoin enthusiasts, far from being discouraged by Lagarde and Chase, have reacted ironically to their comments. Marc Andreessen tweeted: “The fact that my friend Jamie feels the need to say this increases my confidence level even further.” Redditor evoorhees commented: “Not sure if we can get a better endorsement than condemnation from the heads of JP Morgan and the IMF. Justice will arrive at their doorstep soon.” Another Redditor, prgrigor, added: “Nothing's more entertaining than watching fossils get buried.”

Alexey Tereshchenko