Economists Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, creators of Marginal Revolution, recently made their picks for who might win the upcoming 2024 Nobel Prize for economics.

The discussion came during an Oct. 8 episode of the duo’s Marginal Revolution podcast. 

In what he referred to as an “unusual pick,” Cowen said, given the opportunity, he’d pick Ethereum co-founder and computer scientist Vitalik Buterin.

While he and co-host Tabarrok discussed their views on the merits of theoretical economics, the duo agreed that Buterin deserved the award because “he actually did something in monetary economics.”

Per Cowen:

 “Vitalik built a platform, created a currency, you could say, refuted Mises’ regression theorem in the process, obviously following in the footsteps of Satoshi, but my goodness, what does someone have to do to get a Nobel Prize?”

Tabarrok expressed his agreement, adding “Not only that, but Vitalik has continued to contribute toward the mechanism design of Ethereum by going to proof-of-stake.” 

He likened the development of Ethereum’s proof-of-work into a proof-of-stake mechanism to “those videos of these guys in Saudi Arabia where they change the car tires while the car is moving.”

“That’s what Ethereum did,” Tabarrok added.

The pair also discussed Buterin’s seemingly agreeable nature, describing him as a representative of the cryptocurrency world who’s seen as an intellectual and likable person.

Tabarrok, however, did point out that Buterin’s contributions to cryptocurrency were second only to the anonymous creator of Bitcoin. “Yes, I agree. Satoshi, of course, should have gotten it as well, but I’m sure he’s dead,” he said, prompting Cowen to retort, “I’m not sure he’s dead.” 

An HBO documentary was purported to have revealed the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the supposed creator behind Bitcoin, as computer scientist Peter Todd on Oct. 8.

However, by and large, the cryptocurrency community doesn’t appear to have been convinced and Todd himself denies the veracity of the filmmaker’s claims. 

The winner(s) of the Nobel Prize for Economics will be announced on Oct. 14.

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