News
Bitcoin Gets A C+: Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings Fall Short Of The Mark
Wilma Woo | Jan 24, 2018 | 19:30
International ratings agency Weiss has failed to impress with its new cryptocurrency verdicts after giving Bitcoin a ‘C+.’
Weiss Goes Back To Basics
In a move which was highly anticipated in financial circles, Weiss, which has offered independent ratings since 1971, appeared to offer little insight into cryptocurrencies’ value in the minds of users.
Its scores are reportedly calculated using “thousands of data points on each coin’s technology, usage, and trading patterns.”
For Bitcoin, Weiss delivered the following verdict:
Bitcoin (rated C+) gets excellent scores for security and widespread adoption. But it is encountering major network bottlenecks, causing delays and high transactions costs. Despite intense ongoing efforts that are achieving some initial success, Bitcoin has no immediate mechanism for promptly upgrading its software code.
Ethereum meanwhile gained a B due to “more readily upgradable technology and better speed.”
Bitcoin Cash came away with a C-, just marginally ahead of relatively unknown SaluS and Novacoin, which attained a score of D with advice to “sell.”
Foresight Or FUD?
For Weiss, none of the cryptocurrencies currently in existence are worth an A rating, responses on social media nonetheless criticizing its material as approaching the technology in the same way as traditional stocks.
Looks like garbage to me…https://t.co/i1J5x6FC6J pic.twitter.com/PaMo1FtUqW
— Richard Heart (@RichardHeartWin) January 24, 2018
Founder Martin Weiss nonetheless delivered a refreshingly bullish outlook for the future, commenting in an official release that “despite extreme price volatility, cryptocurrencies have a bright future and the potential to deliver unusually large profits to investors.”
As of press time, the agency’s website was unreachable.
In the week of the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, multiple legacy finance figures have come out with lackluster appraisals of crypto versus fiat currency.
In a presentation, Swiss National Bank chairman Thomas Jordan called for “similar” regulation of Bitcoin and traditional financial instruments.
Economist Joseph Stiglitz meanwhile told Bloomberg at the event that Bitcoin is only used for “secrecy” and that trading can be handled by the US dollar.
He stated:
My feeling is that when you regulate it so that you couldn’t engage in money laundering and all these other things, there would be no demand for bitcoin. […] So by regulating the abuses you are going to regulate it out of existence.
What do you think about Weiss’ cryptocurrency ratings? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of iStockPhoto
