According to Dennis Porter, the government should give debtors $10,000 worth of Bitcoin and lock it away for ten years.
Following the announcement by US President Joe Biden of a plan to forgive millions of Americans’ college debts of up to $20,000, a proponent of Bitcoin (BTC) suggested an alternate way to settle the debt.
There is another option for the US government to address the student loan crisis, according to Dennis Porter, the CEO of the nonprofit Satoshi Action Fund. Porter claimed that Biden could give each creditor $10,000 worth of Bitcoin and lock it away in a smart contract for ten years. The non-profit CEO indicated that once the contract is released, it should be enough to cover the outstanding debt.
Porter’s suggestion of a smart contract drew criticism from the community since some people think the Bitcoin network cannot support this. Porter received a response from a Twitter user who advised him not to “lump odd things together” and another who claimed that BTC wasn’t the answer to all problems.
Porter was informed by fintech executive John Wingate that this cannot be accomplished with simply Bitcoin in response to the Twitter discussion. Porter was also asked by Wingate if he was admitting that BTC needs to broaden its use cases.
Porter defended his concept and his position in the face of accusations over the compatibility of smart contracts with Bitcoin. The CEO also sent a link to a manual outlining a technique for using smart contracts to time-lock Bitcoin:
Porter’s proposal might be predicated on the idea that Bitcoin will serve as a hedge against inflation and that, over time, its value will rise to the point where it can be used to pay off student loan debt. Anthony Scaramucci, CEO of Skybridge Capital, believes that Bitcoin has to reach the “billion-plus zone” in terms of user base before it can serve as a reliable inflation hedge.
