Bitcoin Forum

He thinks bitcoin will not be the distributed payment system used in the future, but that it holds the potential to make a huge impact nonetheless.

"“There’s a lot that bitcoin or Ripple and variants can do to make moving money between countries easier and getting fees down pretty dramatically. But bitcoin won’t be the dominant system.”"

More informations can be found here : http://www.coindesk.com/bill-gates-bitcoin-alone-wont-solve-global-payments-challenges/
What do you guys think about what the richest man on the world just said  ::)

Sounds like a compliment to me. 
To me it seems he likes the idea, tech, and believes it fills a need.  He just doesn't believe in btc due to the volatility and some other crap. 
It was such a vague answer that it could be interpreted in countless ways.

Bitcoin alone is almost nothing.

Bitcoin is not only the currency, It's also the community around it.

I think he is right, bitcoin alone can't change the future, but it will pave the way to the new generation of payment service.

It already did.

From the quote in the article, it seems his objections are relatively superficial i.e. volatility, irreversible transactions. The value will get more stable if the proportion of trade shifts more towards consumer use and less towards speculation, which is what will happen if we ever get out of this stage. Irreversibility is a bit of a stretch for consumers but it's more of a mindset thing: use escrow, and realise that just because you can't force a merchant to give up your funds doesn't mean you can't do it in a civilised manner.

Still, I see these objections raised all the time and even if they aren't showstoppers, I'll accept that having to think about these issues is a barrier to adoption  :P

Would have been more interested to hear some technical criticism about scalability. We're 'only' one order of magnitude from reaching the transaction rate limit now.

yes, bitcoin + bitcoin network will solve these challenges, no variants needed

sounds like he has plans to pump a new digital currency, bitcoin has a wealth of talent and an intelligent community which is worth a lot.

I don't think so , anything Microsoft made is closed source and NSA is always spying on it . so I don't think anyone will use this "new digital currency" unless they don't give a shit about their Privacy of couse which is not the case for the Bitcoin community users .

This still sounds like good news for Bitcoin regardless...

Hey guys, any publicity is good publicity.

There ya go, now Bill's quote is taken in context.   8)

Atleast, Sir Bill Gates considered BTC to be a noteworthy thing which can at least move money and dry down fees... Thanks a lot for giving us the hope... Seems he might invest into this very-much-talked-about crypto...

As time goes by, some solutions will come out! the two front issues mentioned by him is on the table. Many technical experts are working on them!

Maybe he's partly right. By itself, Bitcoin is a tool that just sits there if it isn't actually used and developed to where it needs to be. And we're working on that, right?

I don't think it's far in any other way to say that. Maybe it's true that we can't solve all the payment challenges but more important, bitcoin will pave the way for new and future development. If we imagine years down the road, probably there might be other better systems that would come but the best way forward is still to develop the technology on top of the existing bitcoin blockchain. 

I get a feeling the path is being cleared for the knight in shining armor Ethereum riding in on a white horse to save us all from the dirty druggy Bitcoin.

Fuck em!

Bill Gates was at Jimmy Fallon the other night mentioning how in 2030 everyone will be able to do personal banking on their smartphones. He didn't mention Bitcoin specifically tho, but thats something.

He still fails to realize how open source software is needed tho, so of course he is not going to specifically big up Bitcoin, maybe in microsoft they are trying to come up with their own closed source crypto, who knows.

Or after a future nuclear war we will be ridden of all electronic devices and be back to the old system of exchanging berries and animal hides for items  ;D

When computerization gets to the point that we can compare and trade items and services and labor, based on their average value relationship as sported by the whole, worldwide, free trade process, then we won't need fiat or Bitcoin at all. All we will need do is jump on the computer, show what our job is, show that we labored so many hours last week (a showing that is placed there by collaboration with our employer), and we can trade our labor for whatever goods or services we need.

All of this will be encrypted in a blockchain of blockchains, of course. We will be able to remain reasonably anonymous, just like with Bitcoin. For our purposes, we need only see the first entry of an "address" into the blockchain, and the value attached to the last entry. Probably a computer program will be needed to generate the whole operation. It may not be entirely programmable by people.

Parts of the above are being done right now in airline comparisons, and product and service comparisons. The difference will be that there won't be price comparisons. Products and services and labor will actually become the new money. There won't need to be stated divisions of "coin" like a satoshi is part of a bitcoin. Everything will be expressed as a percentage of value of anything else. The whole operation will be entirely decentralized, yet it will act like centralization in the ways that make centralization beneficial.

:)

That won't work. Work hours does not equal worth. How would I trade a 6 hour workday for a new computer? My 6 hour workday is just numbers, it's not like I'm trading an actual product that the seller can gain a profit off(After all, that's their goal, to get a profit). You will still need money.

Satoshi Nakamoto is way smarter than Gates Bill could ever be.

Hey! I was talking in generalities. I don't have the system built. So, you work at Walmart. Your work hour is worth only 25% of a heavy machine operator's work hour. That's part of the way the system would operate.

A person would be a number in the system. He would be an encrypted address. His labor would be coded regarding the value that his employer uploaded to his address from the company he worked for.

After awhile, the way things are rated might change. Job pay scales might become more equal. Until it happens, we won't know what will happen real world. At least at the beginnings of it, people will still use fiat and bitcoin - Bitcoin is a form of fiat.

:)

EDIT: When you check the airlines for prices on the Net, most are at least a little different. Direct value relationships can be also, even for the same product traded in different locations.

Of course Bill Gates would mention a centralised and regulated altcoin, many of the financial elite are out attacking Bitcoin's strengths and claiming it as a weakness. Don't get me wrong, I too think altcoins have a place and Bitcoin won't necessarily be dominant, but it's obvious a large number of people who say this have an agenda.

Please tell us what part of "But bitcoin won’t be the dominant system." was vague?

Well, it won't solve HIS global payment challenges. It has however solved mine.  ;)

Were people supporting Gates in the first place? The opinions I read about him were mostly negative, as he got bored with innovations long ago, but is still asked for opinions about new technologies.
He was an inventor in the 80's, a celebrity in the 90's and 15 years later he's just a rich man who leaves thinking to others and just finances their ideas.

I saw the Jimmy Fallon interview, here is the full interview and at 3:00 he mentions cryptocurrencies:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2A69Io1VD0

Bitcoin is better when it can exchange with another concurrency , i will not alone i think

Hmm.. I read about this in a blog recently. When Bill Gates say that, Bitcoin sure have a new challenge.. To tell people what Bill Gates said is not true.. Let's see..

I disagree here , Bitcoin is better alone but since the other currencies came first , people are trading it for other currencies .
1BTC = 1BTC . That's sad to be honest but well ...

Bitcoin - and any crypto - needs to be backed with a couple of very big and known payment processors and a couple of insurance companies (insurance against fraud, to offer reverse payments and so on).

Average Joe, when buying goods, will not want to care about multisig. He wants all payment done good and fast.

Bitcoin, together with some kind centralized system such as Paypal which can do transmission reversal and instant transaction (do not need to wait 10 min), is the future.

The first is always bound to see through the front-line, predicted and unforeseen problems alike. And bitcoin is the first of it's kind. I agree somewhat with Bill Gate's comment, that the technology behind Bitcoin could be utilized more ideally. Bitcoin has major ups and downs like most other things. But it's a digital currency that has 2 very big problems as said by Bill Gates, that is generally weighing it down. Irreversibility and price fluctuation.

http://www.betterthancash.org

-B-

i'm agree with bill gates statement
bitcoin needs at least one or two competitor cryptocurrency
but no one know what will be the other cryptocurrency
and  i'm sure time will tell us

Does Bill Gates know how Bitcoin will mutate of the next decade? Does anyone?

This is a very good point actually. Bitcoin could change entirely within 10 years.

Gates is so passive aggressive. I don't think he really believes in Bitcoin at all but the best way to make people believe him is to feign support and then jab at every turn. That's the worst kind of supporter. They're more believable because they really "like Bitcoin" so if they're saying there's a problem it must be true.

This is nothing more that expanding the debit based payment systems to a broader group of people. The key here is: Can a poor, starving, homeless person, accept payment as part of a business transaction using this payment system and then be free to spend these funds anywhere she chooses? More often than not with debit based electronic payment systems the answer is NO. With cash the answer is yes. The answer is also yes with crypto currencies.

I noted that the Coca Cola Company is listed as a private sponsor of this initiative. It is also no secret that the Coca Cola company is an strong supporter of GMOs in food. https://www.change.org/p/coca-cola-stop-funding-anti-gmo-labeling-campaigns (https://www.change.org/p/coca-cola-stop-funding-anti-gmo-labeling-campaigns). So is is safe to assume that this electronic cash can be used to purchase food that contains patented GMO genes. The real question is can this electronic cash be used to purchase food grown organically with GMO free seeds? We know the answer with cash is yes. The answer with crypto currency is also yes. We debit based payment systems the answer more often than not is no.

Edit: Do ALL vendors at all Farmer's Markets in the United States accept EBT? How about the neighbour selling those extra vegetables she grew in the community garden?

Yup, any path breaking feature implemented in an altcoin could easily be adopted by Bitcoin.
Bitcoin could change entirely in 10 years.

Well thank god for that! You would expect some sense from the richest guy in the world. I'd be disappointed if he'd been over optimistic about Bitcoin. What he's saying is what I've always said, price fluctuations is a major deterrent to mass adoption. Without stability BTC is not going anywhere fast. It needs to evolve past it's current form.