Dr. Doom Believes Ethereum Smart Contracts Only Good in ‘Kangaroo Courts’
Professor Nouriel Roubini of the New York University (NYU) is of the view that Ethereum’s smart contracts don’t have much legal backing. Roubini who has been known over the years for his bearish economic prognostications and popularly called “Dr. Doom” has been against Bitcoin and blockchain technology for a long time now.
In his latest comments yesterday, Dr. Doom focused on smart contracts which were event present before the coming of cryptocurrencies but have been associated with Ethereum over the past few years. Roubini wrote on his Twitter page that;
“Smart Contracts” are neither smart nor contracts: they are extremely buggy -100 bugs per 1000 lines of code – & they are not contracts as no court can enforce them. The only courts in crypto land are the crypto developers’ kangaroo courts who randomly decide when to fork or not https://t.co/ZS48y5ZQMu
— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) June 1, 2018
This comment from Roubini was a response though indirectly to a point made by Neu-Ner — CNBC Africa’s resident cryptocurrency bull — that Ethereum’s support for smart contracts will lead to the mass adoption of the ethereum network, which he capped at 100 million users.
Roubini pointed out that smart contracts have 100 bugs per 1,000 lines of code, but even though it is hyperbolic, it is no longer a secret that the immutability of these programs has caused some high profile and expensive code fault. Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin at one point suggested that Solidity, the programming language for Ethereum smart contracts is adored by hackers because of its complexity.
Roubini wasn’t alone though in his assertions, with Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song supporting his point.
Song stated that;
The dirty secret of smart contracts is that they’re of very limited usefulness and extremely hard to secure. More limitation is required here, not more ways to screw up. The hype and the engineering reality are extremely divergent.
Roubini has been a well-spoken critic of cryptocurrencies especially Bitcoin, with the economist calling those who back it as HODL “nuts” and “cyber terrorists.”
