Crypto Is More Centralized Than North Korea, Says ‘Dr. Doom’ Economist Roubini

American Economist Nouriel Roubini has stated that cryptocurrency is more centralized than North Korea in a tweet October 7.

New York University professor Roubini, better known as "Dr. Doom" for his alleged prediction of the 2008 Financial crisis, has repeatedly criticized claims that decentralized in cryptocurrency exists.

In his tweet today, the Harvard-educated economist again repeated his argument, this time calling crypto’s decentralization a “myth” and provocatively comparing the phenomenon to North Korea:

"Decentralization in crypto is a myth. It is a system more centralized than North Korea: miners are centralized, exchanges are centralized, developers are centralized dictators (Buterin is "dictator for life" ) & the Gini inequality coefficient of bitcoin is worse than North Korea."

The so-called Gini index is a measure of distribution, often used to evaluate economic inequality in a particular country or region. Roubini continued his comparison in another tweet several minutes later, claiming this time more specifically that Bitcoin’s (BTC) inequality coefficient was the worst in the world:

"Miners, exchanges, developers are centralized [...] the inequality coefficient of BTC is worse than North Korea that has the worst inequality on earth. Crypto beats Kim Jong-un in regards to centralization and inequality."

As Cointelegraph reported in May of this year, Roubini called BTC a "gigantic speculative bubble" that "feeds on itself," calling claims crypto could be decentralized “just bulls**t.” Back in November 2017, he predicted that Bitcoin would "find its end" as more countries establish stricter regulation modelled on China’s current approach to crypto.

In August, speaking as a panelist at BlockShow Americas, Roubini attacked blockchain technology, saying that fintech had "zero" to do with blockchain or crypto, arguing that people were doing just fine with traditional, fiat digital payment systems.