Bill Gates: Bitcoin Is 'Better Than Currency'

An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from Entrepreneur.com: After long remaining mostly mum on Bitcoin, Microsoft's legendary co-founder Bill Gates has spoken. At the Sibos 2014 financial-services industry conference in Boston, America's richest man just threw his weight behind the controversial cryptocash. Well, at least as a low-cost payments solution. ... "Bitcoin is exciting because it shows how cheap it can be," he told Erik Schatzker during a Bloomberg TV's Smart Street show interview yesterday (video). "Bitcoin is better than currency in that you don't have to be physically in the same place and, of course, for large transactions, currency can get pretty inconvenient." ... While he seems relatively bullish on how inexpensive transacting in Bitcoin can be, Gates isn't singing the praises of its anonymity. The billionaire alluded in an oblique, somewhat rambling fashion to some of the more nefarious anonymous uses associated with Bitcoin.

Comments

If Bill Gates likes it

[jd]

Then clearly there are problems.

Re:If Bill Gates likes it

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I can see a huge rush of cognitive dissonance as the bitcoin crowd tries to get their collective heads around the idea of agreeing with Bill Gates

Re:If Bill Gates likes it

[ArcadeMan]

This might explain the recent crash in value.

Re:If Bill Gates likes it

[Teresita]

"640 thousand bitcoins oughta be enough for everybody!"

Re:If Bill Gates likes it

[itzly]

He only bought 640k, claiming that this is enough.

Currency or cash ?

[alexhs]

Bitcoin is better than currency in that you don't have to be physically in the same place

Apparently Bill Gates can't distinguish currency from cash...

Re:Currency or cash ?

[fahrbot-bot]

Bitcoin is better than currency in that you don't have to be physically in the same place

Apparently Bill Gates can't distinguish currency from cash...

Or a credit card, which, I believe, has many "not physically in the same place" uses.

Re:this is a prelude to all people being microchip

[ArcadeMan]

I don't want to be Microchip'ped, I want to be Atmel'ed!

Bill Gates: Bitcoin Is 'Better Than Currency

[The Grim Reefer]

I'm sure those who lost their Bitcoin in the Mt. Gox mess back in February may feel a little differently.

Re:Bill Gates: Bitcoin Is 'Better Than Currency

[BasilBrush]

They put there cash under somebody else's mattress and are complaining they were robbed?

Hey, they were libertarians. They didn't believe they needed their bank to be government regulated.

Re:Bill Gates: Bitcoin Is 'Better Than Currency

[codebonobo]

Most anarchists and libertarians understood bitcoin is p2p and both warned and laughed at those who stored their bitcoins in Mt-Gox. Mt-Gox was mainly used by either the less technical savvy, or daytrade investor types who kept their money in an exchange because they wanted to profit from volatility. Many of us still use exchanges but immediately withdraw the coins upon purchase and store them in mult-sig cold storage.

Since no one reads the friggn article

[SpankiMonki]

Here's what Gates actually said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyAufA2lWn0

I read his comment as: "the [pseudo] anonymity of virtual currency technology is what's holding it back". And since there's little context provided in the FA or the vid, I'm going to go ahead and assume Gates' comments referred to virtual currencies in general - not just bitcoin.

If he put his money where his mouth is...

[gwolf]

Then nobody would be able to listen to him anymore.

Re:Of course,

[ArcadeMan]

That would fit the usual Microsoft-style definition of "early".

Celebrities and IQ ...

[CaptainDork]

... are not always a positive correlation.

Screw Bill.

What does DiCaprio think?

No, wait ...

Paris Hilton.

Electroic transactions

[tomhath]

FTFA:

financial transactions will eventually “be digital, universal and almost free.”

Not so much an endorsement of cryptocurrency as an opinion that physical currency is obsolete. Until security gets a whole lot better I'll continue to carry small amounts of cash when I go out. Of course Gates probably hasn't used any cash in decades.

Re:Electroic transactions

[codebonobo]

If you understand bitcoin how to secure your private keys you will realize that it is much more secure than cash. If my cell phone was stolen I would still have my bitcoins and it would be practically impossible for thieves to use them unlike your wallet filled with cash. I have almost no risk of hackers or thieves stealing my offline multisig wallet either.

Bitcoin's problem right now is mainly the steep learning curve but more hardware wallets are beginning to roll out so users can be more secure without being a security expert.

These have already hit the market:

http://www.bitcointrezor.com/ http://www.hardbit.cn/ http://btchip.com/

This is being released this month-

https://mycelium.com/entropy

And this will shortly follow along with other products- https://mycelium.com/bitcoinca...

Re:Electroic transactions

[SuricouRaven]

I'd think it far too risky to store more than a little spending money on something so insecure as a cellphone. With bitcoin, it falls to the user to make sure their coins are secure against accident or theft - just like with cash. Lots of people lost their coins to dead hard drives because they didn't make proper backups.

I'll take his word for it.

[cyberjock1980]

There's an old Chinese proverb that reads "A wise man will always take his own advice!"

So Bill Gates has owns how many millons/billions of dollars in Bitcoins?

Re:Less savvy?

[codebonobo]

Bitcoin is an open source protocol, with over 60% of the source code already re-written since created; Satoshi's identity is unnecessary. Being pseudo-anonymous simply means the end user ultimately decides which wallets he wants public and completely transparent and which they want private. Stealth addresses and coinjoin used with TOR allow us to be as anonymous as it gets.

P.s... I never suggested I "like" the label libertarian and please look up the definition of a pyramid scheme.