Gold bug Peter Schiff drew attention to the exorbitant fees charged for Bitcoin transactions after the halving. The famous economist called this development a failure for Bitcoin. BitMEX Research strongly disagreed with Peter Schiff, questioning the effectiveness of Bitcoin.

Peter Schiff criticizes Bitcoin transaction fees

Following the completion of the fourth Halving event, renowned economist Peter Schiff set the stage for a heated debate on the efficacy of Bitcoin (BTC) as a digital currency. Schiff criticized Bitcoin’s rising transaction fees and slow transaction times. The gold bug cast doubt on BTC’s ability to function as a viable medium of exchange. Moreover, Schiff’s first post highlighted the staggering cost of completing a Bitcoin transaction. In this regard, Schiff stated the following:

The cost to complete a Bitcoin transaction is now $128 and the transaction takes half an hour to complete. This is another reason why Bitcoin cannot function as a digital currency. The cost of actually using Bitcoin as a currency is prohibitively high for almost all transactions. This is a failure.

BitMEX Research responds to the gold bug

However, users said that these statistics are incorrect. Accordingly, they stated that the average Bitcoin transaction time ranges from 10 to 20 minutes. Also, amidst Schiff’s scathing assessment, BitMEX Research came out with a dissenting viewpoint. Quoting Schiff’s tweet, BitMEX Research challenged the economist’s narrative on Bitcoin’s “failure”.

“The high cost of $128 to send Bitcoin is a sign of success, not failure,” BitMEX Research analysts said. They likened the situation to a crowded restaurant. BitMEX Research also acknowledged that while increased fees are an indicator of popularity, high fees could discourage usage and hinder future adoption.

Peter Schiff: Gold works better than Bitcoin!

In the midst of these debates, a Bitcoin supporter questioned the cost of sending 1 lb of gold securely around the world. Economist Peter Schiff felt the need to answer this question. Schiff emphasized the utility of gold as a currency. In this context, he argued that such costs are meaningless. Schiff expressed his thoughts on this issue as follows:

This is irrelevant. People are not currently using gold as a currency. But if they wanted to, gold could be tokenized on a Blockchain. The transaction time would be almost instantaneous and the cost would be minimized. Gold works much better on the Blockchain than Bitcoin.

Cryptocoin.comshared a sarcastic comment after the Bitcoin Halving event ended. Schiff suggested that Bitcoin investors will soon see their net worth ‘halved’. Therefore, he implied that investors will be disappointed. Schiff’s behavior drew backlash from the cryptocurrency community.