Billionaire Michael Saylor Discusses With Unicamp Professor About Bitcoin

A discussion from last year between Jorge Stolfi and Michael Saylor was revived this week by the Unicamp professor. In the tweets, the two disagree about what Bitcoin is: a fraud or an innovation.

While Stolfi argues that cryptocurrencies are dysfunctional payment systems and technological frauds, Saylor argues that Bitcoin’s innovation is related to its mining model, Proof-of-Work, which enables an open monetary system.

For those unfamiliar with the numbers: Jorge Stolfi is a professor of computer science at Unicamp. On one occasion, he has already stated that Bitcoin will cost thousands of lives.

On the other hand, Michael Saylor is one of the largest Bitcoin investors, with 17,732 BTC (R$2 billion) in his pocket, in addition to another 132,500 BTC (R$15.3 billion) in the cash of his company, MicroStrategy.

Michael Saylor and Jorge Stolfi discuss Bitcoin on Twitter

As noted at the beginning of this article, the fight between Jorge Stolfi and Michael Saylor began in May 2022. On that date, the Unicamp professor argued that cryptocurrencies were a technological fraud.

To the surprise of many, billionaire Michael Saylor showed up to defend Bitcoin, resulting in an unexpected meeting.

“Every computer scientist should be able to see that cryptocurrencies are totally dysfunctional payment systems and that “blockchain technology” (including “smart contracts”) is technological fraud”said Jorge Stolfi, a professor at Unicamp.

“The innovation in Bitcoin is the creation of a digital asset using energy and technology (Proof-of Work) that is conservative and transferable without a trusted intermediary. This creates an open, permissionless monetary protocol, enabling new applications and more efficient global trade.”replied Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy.

The innovation within #bitcoin is to create a digital asset using energy and technology (PoW) that is conservative and transferable without a trusted intermediary. This creates an open, permissionless monetary protocol that enables new applications and more efficient global trade.⚡️

—Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) May 7, 2022

Despite the different likes and retweets of both posts, the discussion seemed to have ended there. Until this Sunday (12) nine months later, Stolfi decided to respond to Saylor.

“If someone wastes $20,000 in resources making something, it doesn’t mean the thing is worth $20,000. It could easily be worth $0.00 or less. Bitcoin‍ is an example”Stolfi replied to Saylor (12) this Sunday. “Bitcoin transfers REQUIRE a trusted intermediary: the 5-6 pools that create the most blocks.”

“And the use of Bitcoin in trading, even after 10 years of intense promotion, is just ZERO.”

>>And the use of #Bitcoin‍💩 for commerce, even after 10 years of intense promotion, it’s just ZERO.

— Jorge Stolfi (@JorgeStolfi) February 12, 2023

While Saylor has yet to respond, perhaps because he forgot about this thread, other users have come to Bitcoin’s defense in his place.

After one of them pointed out examples of establishments accepting Bitcoin, Stolfi claimed that this was a lie. In retrospect, he also called the Lightning Network a fraud, stating that it is not scalable.

“Even that famous pizza purchase in 2010 was fake: someone sent bitcoins to another bitcoiner, and he paid for the pizza in dollars, with a credit card”concluded Stolfi, commenting on Laszlo Hanyecz’s story. “Bitcoiners: Blatantly Misleading People Since 2010.”

>> Even that famous pizza purchase from 2010 was fake: someone sent bitcoins to other bitcoiners, and he paid for the pizza in dollars, with a credit card.

Bitcoiners: shamelessly scamming people since 2010.

— Jorge Stolfi (@JorgeStolfi) February 14, 2023

Finally, this is not the first time that Stolfi has been recognized by big names in the cryptocurrency industry, so to speak. For example, Vitalik Buterin even said in 2018 that the Unicamp professor was providing a necessary service to the sector.