Not for nothing, but when a "mainstream" economist says something negative about crypto, it oughta be perceived as a positive. If they thought a decentralized system had value, they'd of come up with it by now. Plus, if a decentralized system is a threat to their dominance, they'd have nothing but negative to say about it. I remember back when bitcoin's market cap was in the tens of millions. It was a utopian idea that it'd one day mount any kind of threat to, let alone be noticed by, the mainstream finaincial power structure. Fast-forward about 5 years and now they're getting pretty vocal. Seems like 5 years from now, the crypto early adopters will be the ones calling the shots.