Sir Bob Geldof has sharply dismissed the prospects of Bitcoin succeeding as an alternative payment system, warning that the digital currency "simply won't work".
The rockstar political activist made his attack on Bitcoin as he explained why he backed Russell Brand's call for political revolution, but did not want it replaced with anarchy.
"You can't just have a free for all. It just won't work because we will form structural organisations within that as it's the kind of thing we do."
"You couldn't have a system that deals with value through cash or money or any other value system. It won't work. Bitcoin is a type of that, It simply won't work. Nice but it won't work."
Bitcoin has shot to fame as a new digital currency thanks to its notoriously volatile value, with a single bitcoin now worth hundreds of pounds. Previously it has fallen to a mere fraction in value in a matter of days.
Max Keiser, a major Bitcoin evangelist and TV presenter for Russia Today, reacted scathingly to Geldof's assessment of Bitcoin.
He told HuffPostUK: "The Bitcoin revolution is happening with or without Bob Geldof or Russell Brand.
"When I interviewed Bob on my radio show in Paris a few years back, I asked him if he thought he had enough basic knowledge about economics to make weighty proclamations and he said, "Yes," wherein I asked him a very simple question that any first year economics student would know; "what is the relationship between interest rates and bond prices" and he hadn't a clue.
"If you listen to Russell, it's clear he is equally clueless when it comes to economics and finance. So to ask these guys what their opinion is on Bitcoin is a worthless exercise, it's like asking a blind man his opinion on a Turner."