If he was around today, he may have been forced into a rethink.
Except for debt instruments like government bonds that collapsed from record highs in February and March.
Nothing, however, can quite match the boom in cryptocurrencies.
Lately, there’s been a surge of interest from institutions that have taken a fresh look at Bitcoin and the vast array of competing cryptocurrencies, and a reluctant acceptance.
That alone should have been enough to put him in the history books.
For much of the past decade, crypto devotees have predicted the demise of fiat currencies; the system by which individual nations run separate currencies.
For thousands of years, gold was used as a means of exchange, in coins, and as a store of wealth.
The US dollar became the global currency standard and all other currencies were priced against it.
Not surprisingly, investors would flock to it at the first hint of inflation or any other political or economic upheaval.
And the pace at which the tokens are released periodically is slowed, so that the final coin won’t be minted until around 2140.
As a result, it becomes increasingly more difficult and more expensive to “mine” new Bitcoin.
It’s not just blockchain that unites cryptocurrencies.
Government bond prices cratered on fears of a return of global inflation, the kind of news that ordinarily would see gold spike.
Bitcoin, in contrast, tanked as stocks and most risky assets plummeted.