{"id":228345,"date":"2018-02-28T09:03:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T07:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=228345"},"modified":"2018-02-28T09:03:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T07:03:01","slug":"bill-gates-on-whats-wrong-with-bitcoin-and-other-cryptocurrencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/228345\/bill-gates-on-whats-wrong-with-bitcoin-and-other-cryptocurrencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Gates on what’s wrong with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft founder and the world’s wealthiest<\/a> <\/strong>man, Bill Gates, recently hosted an AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) thread on social media site Reddit.<\/p>\n

Gates was asked a number of questions on a variety of topics – including philanthropy, coding, Tesla, and Microsoft – but several standout questions dealt with finances and cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n

Notably, Reddit user Askur1337<\/a> <\/strong>simply asked Gates – ‘What’s your opinion on Crypto Currencies?’.<\/p>\n

Gates responded:<\/p>\n

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The main feature of crypto currencies is their anonymity. I don’t think this is a good thing. The Government’s ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing.<\/p>\n

Right now crypto currencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs, so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way. I think the speculative wave around ICOs and crypto currencies is super risky for those who go long.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A quick commenter pointed out that the US dollar could just as easily be used to buy drugs such as ‘fentanyl’, to which Gates replied:<\/p>\n

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Yes – anonymous cash is used for these kinds of things but you have to be physically present to transfer it which makes things like kidnapping payments more difficult.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gates’ comments come after renowned investor Warren Buffett took a strong stance against investing in the technology.<\/p>\n

In January<\/a><\/strong>, Buffett reiterated that investing directly into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is still a bad idea.<\/p>\n

Buffett said that neither he, nor his long-time partner\u00a0Charlie Munger, had taken any position on\u00a0cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe don\u2019t own any, we\u2019re not short any, we\u2019ll never have a position in them. In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a\u00a0bad ending,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Gates also directly mentioned Buffett when asked whether he believes there will be another financial crisis in the future, similar to the global financial market crash seen in 2008:<\/p>\n

Yes. It is hard to say when, but this is a certainty. Fortunately we got through that one reasonably well. Warren (Buffett) has talked about this and he understands this area far better than I do.<\/p>\n

Despite this prediction of bumps ahead, I am quite optimistic about how innovation and capitalism will improve the situation for humans everywhere.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can read the full AMA<\/a> <\/strong>here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/form>\n

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Read: How Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining is hurting astronomers in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft founder and the world’s wealthiest man, Bill Gates, recently spoke out on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":228349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[5537,26],"class_list":["post-228345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-bitcoin","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228345"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228387,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228345\/revisions\/228387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}