Pakinomist – It’s not every day that the CEO of a major cryptocurrency exchange and a vocal critic find themselves in a back-and-forth, but here we are. Brian Armstrong, the head of Coinbase (NASDAQ: ), recently pointed out a problem that is both a blessing and a curse for the crypto industry: the sheer volume of new tokens being created.
With around 1 million tokens appearing every week, Armstrong argued that the current system of evaluating each one individually is no longer feasible.
Instead, he proposed a shift from an “allow list” to a “block list,” relying on customer reviews and automated scans of on-chain data to help users navigate the noise. He also hinted at deeper integration with decentralized exchanges (DEXs), with the aim of making the trading experience seamless, whether on a centralized or decentralized platform.
Proof of work? Nothing more than a hole in the ground
Enter Peter Schiff, the gold lawyer and cryptocurrency skeptic who never misses an opportunity to question the value of digital assets. Schiff’s response to Armstrong’s comments was characteristically blunt.
He focused on the idea of ”limited supply,” a cornerstone of Bitcoin’s value proposition, and called it into question. With so many tokens flooding the market, Schiff argued that the inflation rate of digital assets is actually “off the charts.”
He didn’t stop there, however, and took aim at Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mechanism, the process by which new coins are created and transactions are verified. For him, proof of work is a flawed concept.
Schiff compared it to spending $10,000 to dig a hole and then backfill it — energy is used but nothing of value is created. While Bitcoin enthusiasts often tout the energy-intensive process as a feature, the gold advocate sees it as a flaw.
Energy is consumed, yes, but it is not stored or transformed into something useful. Bitcoin, he argued, is not a battery; it does not contain energy that can be tapped later.
