Famed economist Joseph Stiglitz calls for "shutdown" of "the cryptocurrencies"

Famed economist Joseph Stiglitz is calling for a shutdown of cryptocurrencies, according to a report by CNBC. As per CNBC, the Nobel Prize winner said he worries digital assets facilitate criminal behavior, saying in a video he "thinks we should shut down the cryptocurrencies." It is not clear who Stiglitz is referring to when he says "we," nor is it clear how one would go about shutting down a single cryptocurrency, let alone all of them.

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are built on a blockchain, networks that are censorship resistant and distributed across tens of thousands of servers globally. Advocates say cryptocurrencies offer a way to share value quickly without the need for fee-taking middlemen like banks, but Stiglitz says they bring the economy into the shadows. "I think we can actually have a better regulated economy if we had all the data in real time, knowing what people are spending,” Stiglitz said.