Well, this escalated quickly.
In July, Arthur Hayes, founder of the Hong Kong-based but Seychelles-registered bitcoin exchange BitMEX, agreed to a debate with economist Nouriel Roubini in Taipei. With Andrew Neil moderating, the organizers billed it “The Tangle in Taipei”.
Shortly after the debate finished, Roubini took to Twitter to cry foul. “Crypto is a mafia hush money racket,” he wrote. “The blockchain conference organizers cowed and caved to BitMEX’s censorship and didn’t tape or broadcast my debate with @CryptoHayes; he had his underlings make the only tape of the debate and is hiding it from view. Release that tape, coward!”
Hayes responded: “Don’t worry, our tapes will exposure [sic] your thin grasp of economics and technology. After seeing these tapes, I would be surprised if you were allowed into any higher learning institution.”
Then he moved on to other things. “Now that I dusted @Nouriel it’s time to party. I will see everyone at AI club circa 11pm. You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
'Blood-sucking leeches'
After some delay, the video did emerge, but Roubini was not convinced, accusing them of hiding the whole video and concluding: “These folks are worse than blood-sucking leeches.”