Bitcoin Forum

Al Waleed, Saudi Prince, Announced in an interview with cnbc that bitcoin have no future arguing "It just doesn't make sense. This thing is not regulated, it's not under control, it's not under the supervision".

Also the Saudi government prohibited the use of bitcoin in the country!

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/23/prince-alwaleed-says-bitcoin-will-implode-enron-in-the-making.html

My Comment:
Bitcoin exists 8 years ago, the price of bitcoin is not what real bitcoiners users search. Real bitcoiners joined bitcoin to enjoy privacy, transaction speed, secure ...


Regards,
Bitcoin Boy.

Another Jamie Dimon. These filthy riches at/close to government hate bitcoin for a reason. ::)

He better get to manipulating the ayatollah to release a public statement. cause not alot of people outside of saudia arabia is going to give a crap about what he thinks.

He is a member of the Saudi Family.

How those guys become the richest in their country or having millions and billions is not about a success story, it's just passing the fortune and investing all the oil money that literally come out of the ground with no effort.
Besides, and I really don't want to start a debate here, his religion is in no way encouraging innovation. Nor a lot of others things.

Long story short, his business opinions matter to the world as much as those from the bum in the bus station.

They are not at or close.
They are the government, and the parliament, and the presidents, they are everything.
Honestly, they are worse than having a communist dictatorship.



Saudi Arabia has a mufti not an ayatollah and he is appointed by the king.
And the current one is....really nuts.

He is a Saudi royalty, and hence a member of their government, which we know is all about total control. I wouldn't be surprised about this view since people flocking to bitcoins is the last thing they want. How else can they keep them in line?

It is also possible that he is just bluffing though. The Saudis may be proud and stubborn but they are no idiots. After what happened the last oil  price plunge, they're scrambling to find ways to keep having an income despite the the low price. Who knows, they might be using part of that oil money to buy bitcoins for holding. Once oil is consumed, it's gone forever and they can't keep drilling for oil for eternity. Bitcoin though, they can keep for future use.

Just let them on what they do believe even if they wont invest on bitcoin doesnt really matter at all since we can stand alone without the need of those influencial people.They dont know actually truly about bitcoin why they do say such thing but if they would really make in depth review they will surely changed their mind unless if they are not a close minded person. 8)

I don't think they hate bitcoin so much as deem it unnecessary for their
needs.  People with billions are interested in preserving wealth rather than making
it; they're already very wealthy.   It's the poor people who look to bitcoin as a life
changing innovation, but only because we're in a smoking hot bull market.  The
rich know how risky it is, and their opinions shouldn't necessarily be written off
so easily.  They do know something about money and risk.  That's how they got
rich in the first place, no?

Do you know the real reason why rich and power hungry individuals like Banks very much - why? Because they own them!
You can't own bitcoin like you own a Bank, you can't become a CEO of Bitcoin or shape and influence its future.
The lack of control is what is really putting off rich people from investing in cryptocurrency.
As we know the system is behind rich oligarchs, they are on top ATM, they don't want to change this.

Agreed with all of your post except this point
"Besides, and I really don't want to start a debate here, his religion is in no way encouraging innovation. Nor a lot of others things."

I don't agree with that, religion have nothing to do with bitcoin, give any rule in his religion prohibiting bitcoin. we don't want to make a debate as you said before.

Wow, unbelievably, the richest Middle Eastern businessman can not win the bitcoin investment.
However, I just think this is the situation in the short term

BitCoin has made great strides, the country governments are gradually expanding and developing bitcoin
This is good news

He's even rich enough so he don't want to join the bitcoin revolution and besides he's a ruler to their country so he don't want to pursue people to get into something that's not regulated. I won't blame him with his decisions regarding bitcoin but let's see if their crude and oil will be out of stock they'll finally find some other things that they can make money and bitcoin will be a good choice for them. I respect his decision but it's possible that he'll change his mind.

He'll regret not doing it in the future, just like some here regret not buying bitcoin a couple of years ago. Just because you don't entirely grasp the concept of bitcoin doesn't mean you can't just assume oh well this does that and make a profit out of it. It sounds ridiculous but that's a rule for the dumbest people who can't give you an anwser to 4+4. Just take a look at how many people made off a huge sum with bitcoin, it's best to invest now before the governments around the world attempt to destroy what it currently stands for and diminish it's value. Grab them while they're hot like they say.

Oh well, this doesn't really surprise me anymore to be honest. Because it is way too normal for people who do not understand and cannot rekate to bitcoins and the whole alternative coins to be afraid of it, skeptical about it, and later on be mad at it because they do not understand the mechanics and how things work in the crypto world. That is why they just tend to talk shit about bitcoins and the crypto world as a whole because they simply are jealous or cannot understand how it works.

He is already rich being a member of the saudi royal family.As we already know,saudi also wants to have strict control over its citizens all over the country and bitcoin does totally opposite to it providing financial freedom for every one.

Also,bitcoin is not in need of any person whether its jamie dimon belonging to banking sector or putin,president of a nation or a person from royal saudi family.Bitcoin has already crossed those limits and it has now become uncontrollable.Even the chinese are not able to control it.

I have a feeling that here it's simple - i'm rich royality and you're nobody - i'm smartest and you have no idea about anything whatsoever attitude. I don't really care what they think or say.

Maybe he will change his mind with the crisis KSA is facing right now especially if it becomes more serious. But still he is a Saudi Prince, so there's no need for him to invest in bitcoin since he has a lot of money and resources and he is rich enough to spend his time into it.

And how come Saudi government prohibited bitcoin here. There's already a bitcoin atm machine existing here, and localbitcoins here is very active and a lot of Saudi Nationals are into it doing mining and trading.

Yeah. religion does not have anything to do with the bitcoin. but the general public who are susceptible to manipulative propaganda dont know that.

Saudi arabia is on the USA petrodollar gravy train. The royals are protected under US foreign policy as long as they support USD as the world reserve currency with their oil export.

China has been working to get oil for gold trading going on and it is a big threat to the US. I think the waleed guy has little influence over them but attacking bitcoin is an alternative way to voice support for the United states and their dollar.

Seems the problem isn't Bitcoin itself, it's not the currency what doesn't make sense, the main issue for these big guys is the regulamentation. If they can control, if they can supervise it there isn't problem... But I think it will change sooner or later when he finds a way to regulate it on his country with the help of local authorities.

If he is so well rich already, why he should buy Bitcoin and become even more rich?
That's not fair!
This rich guys should leave Bitcoin to us.
We, Bitcoin holders, would like to become "wealthy" (just a little bit) by holding Bitcoin ling-term.
If all rich sultans gonna buy BTC, there will be nothing left for small fishes like us!
Please keep your hands off bitcoin, you rich wealthy sultans, oil kings and banana sharks.  ;D

Nobody cares what he thinks. Born with a silver spoon up his ass, has probably never done a hard days work in his life. People like him will always be anti bitcoin, he’s not going to want people in his country using it.

He is the richest man already why would he need more money in the first instance. Is it possible for someone to be richer than the richest. He has made his money  already and if he invests, its to make more money which won't make any difference to his with rather the people whom an $10000 would mean the world  for should be concerned about bitcoin.

His argument about not supporting bitcoin is more or less apolitical because a lot of rich people from that end does not have independence from government because his riches is at the mercy of government which therefore means any thing against government position from his mouth is a call for trouble. He might actually be into bitcoin but saying it in a live interview is a no go area.

Yeah he's a prince alright. That explains he's ignorance in money making ideas and views. Well bitcoin world won't need any thoughts from him. People who do not know or even heard about bitcoin won't even matter. As long as they have no idea if the main purpose of bitcoin they may criticize it but their doubts won't have any meaning.

Just leave them they're rich people just let them what ever they're saying and watch your self.  So what if they won't invest with bitcoin. That's not matter we can still survive without them. Same as china they banned the use of bitcoin but still bitcoin user invest with bitcoin and earn a lot profit Those peoples are not really aware about the power of bitcoins.

Looks like we got an update on his royal highness



Source:

https://www.c[Suspicious link removed]m/2017/11/04/billionaire-saudi-prince-alwaleed-bin-talal-arrested-in-corruption-crackdown-local-reports.html

Suspicious link:
cnbc official website, got a point there

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnbc

any person have an own freedom to speak what is their priceple's in life we can't push them to accept bitcoin right away give them some time what is the importance of bitcoin.

people are having different mind in anything i think he do not invest because he have another business to do with and he doesn't need bitcoin.And if you have really big money i think investing in volatile price of bitcoin is risky so he think that's not good for his money.I think the better to do is try business and invest some of your money here not all for more good and safe

Won't invest in bitcoin, but invest a capital to company that using bitcoin to develop to earn the profit,I see many online wallet is given capital from rich man that trading fiat currency, , maybe they still beleive that fiat currency more valuable. Rich men are free to choose what kind of invest they wanted. CMIIW :)

The only weight that this guy has is the amount of attention you give him. If you aren't taking the dude's information to heart then there is nothing he can do about it, and it's not like you have to care about the guy's wealth and investment choices. Just because some billionaires end up never having x stock or y stock in their portfolio doesn't mean it's bad, they just chose to never have it for one reason or another.

Him saying that he will never invest in Bitcoin is two-sided anyways, sure he may never invest in Bitcoin, but I doubt he invests in anything personally anyways. You never know what he'll do.

Plus it could be a move to try and appease the Saudi government so he doesn't get arrested :^)

Well, turns out this is a lesson for me not to speculate about a country where the king is everything and his decisions are absolute.

Even if you're family, even if you're the richest man in the country and the whole middle east you can end in prison in a blink.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/05/alwaleed-bin-talal-billionaire-saudi-prince-at-centre-of-corruption-purge

Of course, the prison turns out to be a room in a 5 star hotel, but the message is clear.
He will probably have to turn most of his wealth to other family members so he won't have 55 Ferraris, only 5.

Seems like the new prince is really trying to change some of the old habits.
Might be something there even about cryptos, god knows.

 

Those were the people who has been rich through the oil wealth. So one who already has made enough through an commodity based asset will never prioritize or believe in the technology. This is what happening with one among the richest person of the East Asian country. Situations will change when everything has dependence upon technology.

The one thing you have to remember about people from conservative communities ( especially islamic ones) is that they are used to a specific way of doing things. The if it ain`t broke don`t fix it model is very strong there, thus being open even to the idea of new thins like crypto currencies and  ICO`s is something unconsiderable. At the worst case you get some islamic people with maybe a lot money not investing in your crypto stuff, but that doesn't make this guys biased opinion an opinion to follow and base your choices on, especially since he is probably born rich. ;)

The anwer is simple
Because he doesnt know about it and never want to know
He is a prince by the way, he doesnt have to think about investing his money ;D

Exactly. The richest man in the world can choose not to invest in bitcoin and it's their choice and right not to. They have the liberty to do what they want, we can't force bitcoin to everyone. Even if they're rich and influential, bitcoin would still go on even without them investing. I think that Saudi is still a very conservative and traditional country. From my understanding, they still practice and kept a lot of their old traditions so they're still probably not that liberated or open to new developments such as bitcoin. Some are just scared of something as decentralized as bitcoin just because it is not regulated and cannot be controlled. We all have our own personal views and investment preferences. We shouldn't take it against him and instead just continue to support bitcoin despite remarks like this. Perhaps they're already too rich that they're no longer interested to invest even further and get even more rich.

we all don't know the truth, he is the middle east richest man so he can manipulate all things on that country. all news that in public about him are manipulated, we don't know that he is just bluffing that he didn't invest in bitcoin but he did. so its easy to him to hide the truth from those people who wants to know him deeply.

it is their perspective, I think it's fine if they say it like that. Because according to them bitcoin not yet legal in the eyes of government. Maybe they want a regulated business and under government control. But we'll see for the next few years whether they will change their thinking about bitcoin, because bitcoin will continue to grow because of the encouragement of many people.

he feels he has missed the boat so of course what else would he say ?

Well, also Warren Buffed didn't believe in Bitcoin.. also many othergreat people say that.. and we can see how btc still running ;D

Exactly as what I'm thinking, nobody cares if he's into bitcoin or not. If he won't invest to bitcoin, there's nothing to deal with it but if he shows his view to invest in bitcoin that's a different thing and that can be beneficial to everyone. But well if that's decided that he won't invest in bitcoin so save it for himself, he grown up rich and he'll die rich so even if he invest with bitcoin it doesn't matter.

Agree Real and initial users of BTC adobt BTC not because they expect it to grow or something. But their motive is to make Peer to peer transaction without the interference of any third party. Features like Transaction privacy and anonymity make it quite famous among the people. And rest is the history. 

Saudi is very similar to North Korea. Their citizens have billions of dollars but they don't have the ability to work. They are banking on Oil, which is going to be depleted over time. Or if someone can create a machine which will let vehicles use water instead of Oil, their economy will be doomed. They don't allow their women to drive or go to play ground to cheer for their favorite team. DO you think their statements will have any value to the tech-savy mass?? I don't think so. Saudi was always a very conservative country. They don't have brains to run their business so they hire from outside to run their business. So their statement on financial matters doesn't hold any weight. Chill and Ignore!

Well it looks like he's already doing pretty well for himself, so he doesn't really need to invest on anything anytime soon. It kind of sucks that he made his comments in public, but where a grown man decides where not to put his money should be none of our business.

Also, Saudi Arabia didn't prohibit the use of Bitcoin. It simply warned its citizens that investing their money into it might impact their finances negatively, as per the article. It's overly pessimistic, as the opposite could also be said, but I'll take that over a prohibition. For as long as things stay that way, we should not be too concerned.

whenever someone bothers to talk about bitcoin and it seems like they have enough information and also says they are not going to invest in bitcoin you have to consider the possibility that something is up! otherwise why would they bother saying it? why not talk about thousand other things they have not invested in?

besides we don't want the rich investing in bitcoin. at least that's what i say. let the rest of us invest as much as we can as long as price is cheap and by the time price went to the moon like 100K-500K let the rich come in and beg us to sell them some satoshis.

Al Waleed, the Saudi Prince, may be a very wealthy businessman but his opinion isn't likely going to count in matters of innovative modern technology such as the blockchain as that is strange to him. So, whether Al Waleed gives a thumbs up or a thumbs down to bitcoin, it really doesn't matter. Ah! It should matter were it a thumbs up, really. But certainly not a thumbs down. He should go consult the JP Morgan boss or even China to find out how their negative comments on Bitcoin didn't pull Bitcoin down.

I think the reason he doesn't want to invest in it because he can't control it. Even he is rich, he doesn't have the power to control it. He is like the other skeptical bank owners and china that says negative words to bitcoin. Never mind them it doesn't matter if he will or he will not invest with bitcoin.

Of course he won't bcz he invests in oil :)

I also think same. If we consider the current volume of crypto currency market, even if you are the richest man on the earth you cannot effect market.

I read about this rich prince that is now on prison because of corruption. It’s better that he said this before going in jail for them to understand that all who against cryptocurrency is not really a good man with legal businesses but those criminals wanted to destroy bitcoin because of insecurity.

I wish they understood more things than oil. Many people have shown their apprehension towards Bitcoin. He isn't new. There are many reasons people don't trust Bitcoin as a currency, the main being it isn't backed by anything. People are jumping in Bitcoin for saving their hard money from inflation. These already extensively rich people hardly need it actually. I think more than the elite society, bitcoin is power to general public. The main use case and demand will rise from here only.

Of course this guy won't invest in Bitcoin. He is old and dying and on the way out and wants to preserve whatever he has left in his world. His wealth probably came from extortion and war and profiting from being greedy so that is all he understands is fake paper money. He will never understand Bitcoin and why it's taking away from his wealth. He's not going to have a happy last couple decades.

That would not effect the price of Bitcoin in any way. When BTC can handle the statement of Jamie Dimon then his statement wouldn't effect BTC at all. There are many people who are against Bitcoin and make such statements without realizing the potential of BTC. Bitcoin has been in the market now for nearly 9 years and it has survived all the bearish moments, recovered from all the price drops and that is what has attracted many others to get involved in Bitcoin. The ones who are not involved are just missing the opportunity.

Al Waleed knows what Bitcoin is, great definition. and Bitcoin is still alive with or without Saudi Arabia, Another Opportunity lost for Saudi Arabia.

I agree that bitcoiners joined Bitcoin to enjoy privacy, transaction speed and security, early adopters does and I disagree because apparently as Bitcoin goes mainstream and Government gives attention to it, Bitcoiners are now joining Bitcoin because of the profit they can get.

I am certain that Al-Walid ben Talal one of middle east billionaire have no clue what bitcoin is and he answered like that because he don't know what to say.
Any way, it seems that bitcoin cursed him since he is lying in prison now because of corruption charges.
Bitcoin network is, basically, managed by intelligent people not wealthy ones.

Maybe he said it because he knows nothing about bitcoin. And how sure are we that he's not holding any? Maybe he's trying to be another Jamie Dimon who is afraid of btc. Besides, I'm not familiar with the prince and that's a fact that not all know him so his statement won't affect us especially btc. Let's not make a fuss over this issue. We all know better.

Richest man in the middle east could be the richest man in the world if he had invested on bitcoin 6 years ago :D investing on bitcoin is risky but it will make you profit, That's the whole point for people investing on bitcoin.

Let him go. He had earn a lot of money already which be enough for life of all his children and grand children. He doesn't need to search any other source for investment, so, I actually understand him.

since when do we talk about rich people investing or not investing in bitcoin? it is not even news-worthy if you ask me to write an article about such things.
and lets not forget that bitcoin is too small for people like that! the marketcap of bitcoin being nearly $120 billion is a bit misleading because when you compare it to the things these rich people invested in (such as Oil related stuff) you can see bitcoin is nothing in their eyes now.

If that was his reason then it would be acceptable I just hope he doesn't want to hinder his people the opportunity to get rich also.

I think that he is represented as a ditractor of Bitcoin in the arab world in the middle east. He should not did  it because as all we know it can open new opportunities for youth and jobless.
We, arabs, still away and we have to be updated to the new crypto currencies and why not to legalize it.

Your argument is really not a valid point as what you are saying are its features about being a currency. It's trading we are talking about they buy Bitcoin not to use it as a currency but it is use as a tool to make money. People don't really invest in Bitcoin they trade with it as  we can only speculate the future of Bitcoin as there is really no fair value for it. The Buying and Selling of Bitcoin must be done in a monitored manner as anytime the price can change quickly

They don't get it. It means we're still on early adopter phase.

Since the dawn of men...

There was always the talk about rich and extremely rich guys investing in bitcoins.
Probably in hundred of threads, like this one:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=884297.0
People where expressing their desire that some guy, mostly Bill Gates or Suckerberg(I hate this one) or Warren Buffett would invest a fee millions in bitcoin.

Especially in the 2013 and 2014 dips that was the easiest way to get rich, convince them to make you rich.
Some guy comes along, buys 100 000 bitcoins , the price rockets to 5000 and we're all loaded.

And about the market cap, that irrelevant.
One push of 1 billion would drive the price to probably well over 10k and the market cap close to 200 billions.
What if you would invest 20?....Let's dream...

yep, its thoughtis clear.
He can't control or he doesn't have enough and the only thing he can do is forbid it or talk bad about it.

Amen, btc will prevail!

Couldn't blame him. He is in a country where the government prohibits the use of bitcoin. And more importantly, he is a royalty and is obviously part of that government. So it's just right for him to say those things about btc. You cannot create a law that you will openly oppose because that will be nonsense.

Agree, being a part of governance, you can't really support Bitcoin as a currency. This will also motivate citizens to adopt BTC as currency, which obviously any govt. did not want to happen.

The Time magazine compared him to Mr. Warren Buffet of Saudi. The same as Mr. Buffet he is not fond of bitcoin, Mr. Alwaleed is very rich person they have a different view about future investment, they are the old school type of investor. Mr. Alwaleed is a visionary investor, but he can't envision the corruption charges that are being served to him.

He may affect their country's economy but he's not attached to bitcoin so there's no effect on whatever he'll do. His statements might give some small effect if he will spread the same FUD as what Jamie Dimon did but for long time bitcoin users and traders, we will no longer buy on that thing.

yeah considering bitcoin are a financial technology , and old mans don't care much about it as they think it's too complicated to understand. then no wonder both warren buffet and alwaleed make a hurt statement like that . big money won't make a big risk move , they would always looking for a secure investment , that's reasonable enough isn't it?

I've heard about this news also, the way he make the statement, we can tell that he don't understand the system of blockchain. Oil have been one of the good reserves for about a couple of decades, but this time it's on the brink of falling (because we are turning into renewable) why I am saying this (because the government of Saudi) makes a lot of money in oil . They are controlling supply and implemeting rules about that, but sooner about 100 years, oil won't be a good reserve anymore and their economy will fall.

Because of that " princely manner " of controlling thinks and regulating people, they can't accept the fact that we have now a technology that bypasses their control.
And I think these leaders (because they are representing their country) must do a proper research instead of just complaining that this thing " doesn't make any sense".

Does his opinion really matter?  or does it encourage rest of the world to hold on investing in bitcoin?

Agreed. He doesn't want to invest in bitcoin. And? Is that the rest of the story? The world is not going to end. The bitcoin community is not going to suffer just because he didn't want to invest in bitcoin. My neighbor didn't want to invest in bitcoin, did I have any sleepless night? Not at all. It's because I know truly that bitcoin is for the people that's been looking for a way to earn some money on the Internet. That man is already the richest man, so why would he even need to risk his money and invest in something that he doesn't fully understand. He can just continue doing what he's doing that made him the richest business man of the Middle East. So it's not entirely bitcoin but rather his position in the economic race. He's at the top so why even diverse his investments especially to a speculative asset. I would do the same thing as him. I will just go all in with the current business that I have.

I mainly believe that relevant people posting things like that or having some "statement" about bitcoin is just low-key spreading FUD so the process of bitcoin going mainstream will be prolonged. I mean, they don't have to announce that at all or make that public but they did. It makes you wonder, right? I bet it's because they are close to the government and they don't want something so revolutionary to take over or at least not in their term.

We are not aware of the truth but for me the bitcoin is true and this will increase the value and the price of the bitcoin at the same time I hope the bitcoin is increasing in the value and the income so that you will see how fast the bitcoin is going to have the future. So if the person is the rich he must be rich for sure. I can proudly say I am the bitcoin user and I am going to earn the high income with the bitcoin by staying in the bitcoin.

Every person has his own point of view, we cannot change his point of view but we can educate them and guide them. But everyone wants to invest in bitcoin they are not concerned with the fact that either bitcoin is supervised or not they are only concerned with the profit they are getting from bitcoin, they want to be financially stable.

In some countries the bitcoin is illegal but they are not providing their mass chances to be rich in short time, so this also don't make any sense

If this prince of Saudi Arabia is not going to invest in bitcoin, this is his own business. However, he can not say this on behalf of all the rich people of the planet. Such rich people, who get billions without much effort, or even inheritance, do not like it if they can not control any processes. Therefore, they do not like the freedom of bitcoin for everyone, they do not need it. They have a completely different life, which is absolutely different from the majority of the world's population.

That prince is already wealthy even before he was conceived by his mother.  They are not interested to bitcoins because maybe they are too busy handling and thinking about their oil business and other things.  As to what he said that it does not make sense, I respected it since he do not know any thing about bitcoin.  For me and to all of us here who uses bitcoin, earns bitcoin, bitcoin makes sense to us.  It gives us the life we want as of now because this is the only online and digital currency which gives us hope to earn more money.

If he's banned all cryptos, then he's setting the country back by a few decades at least. The future is cryptocurrency, as we all know. Projects like nucleus.vision and universa.io are going to take off in a huge way and supplant the existing economic order with crypto- and blockchain-driven technologies. If Saudi Arabia doesn't subscribe to it, they will soon be a microcosm in a world that has already moved on to the next big thing.

It doesn't matter if he invests in bitcoin or not. There's a world of miners & traders out there, even in Saudi Arabia. One questions though: Has he banned bitcoin,  or all cryptocurrencies? 

Whether or not he chooses to invest, bitcoin's price is surging by the day. And the time will come when hebwould wish he had done so.
This centralized thing he talked about... He's wants to continue to command the flow of money as many governments do. Even governments are embracing bitcoin because they realise its potentials.

people have different perspective about bitcoin. me at first I do not believe in bitcoin and I thought this is just like scam or something like networking but no.
after my friend explain me the basics of bitcoin earning and I began to research my mind enlightened and I began to accept bitcoin...

maybe if one person will introduce him and if he began to earn profit maybe he can accept bitcoin too.

He will change his mind once he felt bitcoin is taking over the financial system. He might be a good businessman but I bet he's not great when it comes to innovations.