Crypto Community Pounces as Economist Paul Krugman Faces Traditional Finance Woes

cryptonews.com:

The crypto community is having a blast with a comment from prominent economist and crypto-critic Paul Krugman after he said he’s been locked out of Venmo and that the “software has taken control.”

The tweet from Krugman was posted on Wednesday and said that although he has been a user of the popular online payment service Venmo for years, making payments had suddenly become impossible for him.

“Too busy to tweet. But not to vent. I've been using Venmo for years, but now it won't allow me to make payments. I spent a long time in chat with representatives, and they told me that they can't explain why — or fix it,” Krugman wrote in the tweet, while adding:

“The software has taken control.”

Two hours later, the economics professor said in a follow-up tweet that a representative from Venmo had now called him and solved the problem.

“[…] we seem to be up again,” he wrote.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for several prominent members of the Bitcoin and broader crypto community to react.

“were you trying to buy drugs or assassination,” asked the popular community member Neeraj K. Agrawal, while sharing a screenshot that showed how Krugman in the past has claimed Venmo and other electronic money transfer services are just as good as crypto “unless you’re buying drugs, assassinations, etc.”

Others also pointed out the irony in how even Krugman, as a privileged economics professor, is struggling to make existing fiat-based financial services work for him.

“Try spending just one second in the shoes of someone without your obscene level of financial privilege,” wrote the popular crypto-focused venture investor Nic Carter.

Similarly, the early Bitcoin evangelist Pierre Rochard also pointed to Krugman’s privilege, saying:

“Your privilege paid