Arte Saloon: Digital gold? Will Bitcoin make us all rich?
A field report by Evelyn Brock as a participant in Arte Saloon: Digital gold? Will Bitcoin make us all rich?
Participants: Prof. Peter Bofinger (former economic expert), Roman Reher (Blocktrainer), Prof. Co-Pierre Georg (Frankfurt School of Finance) and Evelyn Brock (Madame Bitcoin and board member of Bitcoin Bundesverband)
Arte Saloon: Digital gold? Will Bitcoin make us all rich?
I was delighted to be invited to the Arte Saloon live stream panel on the role of Bitcoin in today’s financial world. The controversial debate between Peter Bofinger and Co-Pierre Georg from academia on the one hand and Roman Reher (Blocktrainer) and myself from practice and the Bitcoin community on the other was central here. Although the debate also offered some in-depth technical insights and highlighted the widely divergent perspectives on Bitcoin, it was probably difficult to understand for the actual target group of the format, Bitcoin newcomers, for long stretches.
Which of course also raises the question of what such a format should look like that really picks up a larger audience without prior knowledge. My recommendation here would be to give less space to the scientific side. This is also shown by the feedback and the overwhelming encouragement I receive on my social media channels after the show. This is because I tried to get back to understandable topics in the discussion and also to take my space in the quite heated discussion round again and again. And of course I’m really happy about this so-called candystorm that I received and I’m glad that I didn’t suffer the same fate as co-host Pierre Georg, who was hit by a real shitstorm after the show.
Bitcoin as a speculative bubble – an outdated view
A central point of discussion was Peter Bofinger and co-Pierre Georg’s assessment that Bitcoin is merely a speculative bubble. They argued that Bitcoin has no intrinsic value and must be viewed purely as an object of speculation. Unfortunately, this position is not very nuanced and mainly reflects the traditional view that Bitcoin is a purely financial product with no broader social significance.
The reality, however, shows that Bitcoin is far more than just a speculative asset. Bitcoin is based on a revolutionary technology – the blockchain – that enables a decentralized and transparent currency without central authority. Bitcoin’s value lies not in short-term market speculation, but in its underlying infrastructure and its function as a store of value in an increasingly uncertain financial world. It is a means of hedging against inflation and the increasing distrust in state-controlled currencies. This perspective was clearly emphasized by Roman Reher and myself in the discussion.
Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and loss of financial freedom
Another key argument put forward by Bofinger and Georg was the fear that Bitcoin’s volatility made it impractical as a currency and that it would do more harm in times of crisis. They argued that people should not live with an unstable currency like Bitcoin. This is another classic mistake that fails to take into account that the inflation of fiat currencies poses far greater dangers than Bitcoin’s market volatility. At a time when central banks around the world are printing money uncontrollably, we see traditional monetary policy increasingly reaching its limits. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is deflationary and has a fixed cap of 21 million coins, which gives it a security that no fiat currency can offer.
Inflation, which has been fueled by ECB and Fed policy in recent years, has massively shaken confidence in traditional currencies. In countries with high inflation or unstable currencies, Bitcoin is already being used as an important means of securing personal wealth. This perspective, which Roman and I emphasized in the discussion, shows the growing importance of Bitcoin as a protection mechanism against the financial uncertainties that traditional currencies bring. Bitcoin is the first global, rules-based, digital and non-governmental monetary system
Centralization vs. decentralization: a fundamental difference
The discussion about the centralization of the financial system versus decentralization through Bitcoin produced a clear divergence between us and the critics. Bofinger and Georg argued that a centrally controlled system by the state and central banks was necessary to ensure financial stability. However, this view ignores the numerous abuses that have arisen from centralized systems and institutional actors: from the lack of transparency to the accumulation of power to the recent banking crises.
Bitcoin offers an alternative model – one that takes power out of the hands of a few institutions and puts it in the hands of the users themselves. Bitcoin’s decentralization ensures that no central authority can take control of the monetary system. The idea of putting the individual at the center of the financial system is one of Bitcoin’s greatest potentials and has been strongly emphasized by Roman and myself. Bitcoin ‘s system promotes financial freedom and protects against the ills of the existing financial system, which is based on political power and monetary control.
Bitcoin and women
A big thank you to the Arte editorial team, for whom it was important to have a woman on the panel and not just 4 men. I was glad that the moderator also gave me space to explain the topic of “Women and their access to Bitcoin”. After all, it has been shown time and again how important financial independence is for women. Bitcoin offers an opportunity to build wealth independently of traditional financial systems. I also pointed out that women are often reluctant to deal with financial issues and encouraged them to take advantage of the opportunities offered by Bitcoin to strengthen their financial independence, and not just in regions of the world such as Afghanistan, where women cannot access the financial system without the consent of a man.
I also shared my own experiences and emphasized the importance of education and awareness to help women enter the world of Bitcoin. It was important for me to show how networks like Les Femmes Orange manage to give women space to exchange ideas and support each other. And thus strengthen their financial independence through the use of Bitcoin. This was also my motivation last year to found the training platform www.madame-bitcoin.de, which offers low-threshold free and paid online webinars for Bitcoin beginners. Explaining Bitcoin in simple terms is very important to me so as not to scare women off with too much technology. Unfortunately, this also happened in the Arte program, where the discussion quickly drifted into the technical area and we certainly lost many viewers without prior knowledge.
The Bitcoin Federal Association
I also reported on my work as a board member of the Bitcoin Bundesverband, which mainly represents the interests of Bitcoin companies. Although we were only founded in September 2024, we already have more than 100 members, which speaks for the need for such an association. I emphasized the importance of awareness and education about Bitcoin, especially in politics. I mentioned that the association supports initiatives aimed at spreading knowledge about Bitcoin and facilitating access. www.bitcoin-bundesverband.de
Reactions from the audience and chat
There was clear support for Bitcoin in the chat and from the audience – especially from those who are already familiar with the technology and have recognized its benefits. The majority of the audience could understand that Bitcoin is not just an asset, but an entire movement that focuses on more than just monetary value. This response in the chat showed that more and more people are recognizing the potential of Bitcoin to provide a stable and transparent alternative to the current financial system.
Critics such as Bofinger and Georg were often confronted in the comments with the argument that their perspective was outdated and no longer up to date. In particular, the criticism of Bitcoin as an “object of speculation” was seen by many as unjustified, as the long-term potential of Bitcoin as a store of value and a system of individual freedom is becoming increasingly clear.
I must confess to being quite appalled at how Prof. Co-Pierre Georg, who holds the Chair of Blockchain at the prestigious Frankfurt School of Finance, appeared on the Arte Saloon live stream. It was shocking to see someone with such an academic position and responsibility in such an important discourse on Bitcoin and blockchain resorting to such fundamental and widespread misconceptions and also not too shy to use any attempt to discredit (apartheid in Africa, child pornography in blockchain, Bitcoin claims lives, comparisons with corona bleach recommenders etc.) Bitcoin and the Bitcoin community.
Right at the beginning, Co-Pierre Georg deliberately tried to thwart a discussion at eye level by accusing me and Roman of lacking a scientific basis, which he himself then immediately threw overboard in the further discourse and attracted attention with unobjective arguments and a lack of know-how. In doing so, he turned the entire Bitcoin community against him through his own fault, as well as those who have been supporting Frankfurt School as lecturers or volunteers for many years.
Conclusion:
The discussion in the Arte Saloon made it clear that Bitcoin continues to face many misunderstandings and prejudices. The criticism from Peter Bofinger and co-Pierre Georg falls short and ignores the long-term benefits and transformative power of Bitcoin. Roman Reher and I have worked out the key points in the debate: Bitcoin is more than just a short-term speculation – it is a system that offers financial freedom, transparency and independence in an increasingly uncertain world and a highly inflated financial system.
The biggest flaw in the critics’ argument lies in the underestimation of the importance of decentralization and the innovative power of Bitcoin. Instead of seeing Bitcoin as a threat or a speculative bubble, we should recognize it as one of the most promising technologies of the 21st century. It is completely incomprehensible how some representatives of science do not approach this field, which is so important for the future, in a research-oriented manner, but instead mainly offer rejection and insinuations.
It would have been more helpful for the format as such to have less extreme positions in the talk. This led to lengthy deep-dive explanations, e.g. on mining pools, which were certainly extremely important from a technical point of view to be discussed in detail. However, they were completely incomprehensible for non-experts, i.e. normal Arte viewers, and in the worst case scenario, they led to people leaving the live stream.
Personally, I’m completely overwhelmed by the great encouragement I’ve received in the community and how my X and LinkedIn accounts have exploded in the wake of the show. A thousand thanks for the great support, which really means something to me. And I think Roman and I fought like lions for all of us and the cause. And Roman has taken the discussion to a level of depth that I would not have been able to due to my level of knowledge. Great to have this man on our side.
And when asked what happened after the show, I can say that we all went out for dinner together and behaved like civilized people. That’s how you do it, hard on the matter and soft on the person.
Here you can find the link to the Arte Saloon recording:
