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Paul Krugman

By Paul Krugman

Opinion Columnist

I didn’t anticipate the political twists and turns of the past few weeks, but then, who did? One thing I do blame myself for not seeing coming, however, is the extent to which this has become a crypto election.

Six years ago I argued that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies served no useful purpose, that their market value rested on nothing but “technobabble and libertarian derp.” I stand by that judgment, which has actually been reinforced by the passage of time.

But I didn’t foresee how big a deal crypto would nonetheless become — not because it would fulfill its promise of replacing conventional money, which it hasn’t and never will, but because it has become a powerful force that is, among other things, warping our politics.

What is crypto? Donald Trump recently said, “Most people have no idea what the hell it is.” Indeed. Even now, it’s hard to explain exactly what Bitcoin and other crypto assets really are.

But maybe this will help: Who guarantees that the money in my bank account belongs to me? Why can’t the bank tell me, “Sorry, we used that money to pay other people”? The answer is that doing so would be illegal.

What Bitcoin and its emulators try to do is sidestep the need for a legal framework with a technological fix that doesn’t depend on banks’ centralized record-keeping. You “own” a Bitcoin if you have access to a code that effectively turns a........

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