In 2022 the director of the UDEM said that bitcoin was a bubble; Now that vision is behind us.
“Inflation is only generated by governments by printing money without limits,” said José Carlos Flor.
Bitcoin (BTC) arrived at the University of Monterrey (UDEM) in Mexico as part of the third edition of its ActuaLECzación conference cycle aimed at Economics students. Attention has focused on the currency created by Satoshi Nakamoto, a move reflecting a shift in local academic perception that in 2022 considered the pioneering digital asset a bubble.
José Carlos Flores, CEO of the bitcoiner company ArcadiaB, and Adrián Treviño, co-founder of Bitcoin Network Monterrey, they exposed before hundreds of Economics students. The event, organized by the Society of Economics Students (SALEC), sold out and during the event speakers broke down bitcoin’s role as a store of value against inflation.
Flores stressed that “inflation is only generated by governments by printing money without limit.” Treviño added that the Bitcoin network operates with more than 23,000 visible nodes and processes transactions of up to $2.1 billion in minutes, with commissions under one dollar.
During the talk, hard data was cited when pointing out that bitcoin dominates 60% of the digital asset market, with a capitalization of about 2 trillion dollars. They also stated that more than 50% of its mining uses renewable sourcesconsuming energy that would otherwise be wasted. The latter contrasts with past criticisms about its environmental impact.
This level of academic discussion is not accidental, but the result of a maturation that has been brewing for years in other key institutions, such as the Tecnológico de Monterrey. There, seven years ago, figures such as José Rodríguez (then at Bitso) and Eduardo Guraieb (FinTech México) analyzed a panorama where Mexico was beginning to emerge as a leader in transactional volume in Latin America, as reported by CriptoNoticias at the time.
The contrast between that scenario and the current cycle in the UDEM is evident, especially in the regulatory narrative. While today bitcoin is being studied as a refuge of value, in 2018 the climate was one of warning with global entities and important figures such as Agustín Carstens, former governor of Banxico, urging banking authorities to “take care of bitcoin.”
Despite that early institutional skepticism, Rodríguez’s prediction of accelerated and unstoppable growth in the region has materialized, transforming the warnings of the past into the university professorships of the present.