It’s almost comical. After the incident, Snowden seemed to have moved on, taking about other things such as the CSAM controversy. Meanwhile Taleb seems to be really hurt, to the point where he attempts to continue the spat, posting boring “debate me” cries[0] and other things I can’t even begin to describe[1].
I know he’s a very intelligent person, but he’s acting like a caricature of a scorned pseudo-intellectual internet personality at the moment.
I had a very similar impression. He has no ability to admit when he doesn't know something or is wrong. His understand of bitcoin was very limited in his earlier tweets yet got reactive and defensive and dug himself into a hole like I've never seen before
And his bullying of critics is a little uncomfortable to watch as this point. The reaction to Snowden is too much
He's not talking about transacting, but rather its basic existence. Gold requires no maintenance to keep existing, hence it will stay around for thousands of years even if civilisation (and utilities infrastructure) collapses. (Securing it is a separate matter; obviously that has costs).
The same can't be said for Bitcoin. It's just a refutation of the assertion that Bitcoin is digital gold; Bitcoin lacks one of gold's most important attributes.
"because people smeared me over bitcoin, its ok to lash out."
TL;DR Summary: he doesn't like the guy and suspects his motives to remain in an economy based on oppositional behaviour wrt to most western democracies.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Snowden/status/142303788789383987...