Earlier, Gates, was positive about Bitcoin, what changed?

[Alejvarto]

Bill Gates Says Cryptocurrencies Super Risky, Anonymity Harmful.

Cryptocurrencies are super risky over the long term, and the anonymity they provide to buyers could actually be very harmful as it encourages illicit activities, according to Bill Gates.

While talking at Tuesday's "Ask Me Anything" session on news and discussion site Reddit, he said "The main feature of crypto currencies is their anonymity. I don't think this is a good thing. The Governments ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing. 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."

Earlier, Gates, the second-wealthiest person in the world, was positive about bitcoin. In an interview with Bloomberg in 2014, he had said bitcoin was exciting because it showed how cheap it can be. At the time of the interview, bitcoin was priced at $371.

Bitcoin most recently was trading at around $10,900.

Among the eminent personalities, who do not subscribe to the idea of bitcoin investment, is Billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

In an interview with CNBC earlier, Buffett said, "In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending. When it happens or how or anything else, I don't know."

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

All credits to RTTnews.com

2/28/2018 2:17 AM ET

[pooya87]

absolutely nothing has changed!
first of all Gates is a human like anybody else and has his own opinions like anybody else, people have to form their own opinion not follow others like a sheep.

second, it is an old story that you are pulling out which was discussed hundreds of times here. and the funny part is that the thing you wrote is a lot bigger than what Gates wrote. it was simply a comment on Reddit and you don't know why he said it, maybe somebody close to him used cryptocurrencies to buy "fentanyl" and died because of it

and bringing Buffett thing into this is just poor FUDing and it shows the cancer in crypto world known as "news sites" and you are a part of it!

[Nilda]

Take it from the 2nd richest in the world despite being retired. Anonymity is what attracts the criminal types to cryptocurrency. Giving the impression to a lot people that bitcoin is illegal. Government regulation can somehow assure these skeptics that they have protection and security.

[HabBear]

"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."

So this was a Bill Gates quote? How foolish. It's political rhetoric at best, nonsense at worst.

I just used crypto currencies to buy a book, are people really using Bitcoin to buy fentanyl and other drugs? I feel like Bill's analogy is 3 years late (or maybe he's the next Dread Pirate Roberts??!!)

I've read so much criticism about Bitcoin solely because "it doesn't exist as a growing currency". Well, guess what, the market is deciding what Bitcoin's utility is and for more than a year now that utility has been as an investment class, not a currency. And shockingly I don't see any criticism about Bitcoin as an investment, only as a currency.

Either these critics are blind or they're simply not ready to admit that Bitcoin has staying power.

[Kakmakr]

You can see that these rich people move in the same circles. I think the rich bankers of the world are busy talking and influencing the richest people in the world, with the largest following to scare people. These people are easy targets for them, because they can baffle them with bullshit.

Remember most of these people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet has no idea what Bitcoin is. They are so busy with their foundations and businesses that they have very little time to do some research on their own. They rely on their advisors to formulate their knowledge on the subject.

Bankers know this and they will most definitely infiltrate these people to be able to brainwash the celebrities, like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

*Taking tinfoil hat off.  ^smile^

[irenegaming]

Everyone has their fears and concerns about cryptocurrency, Most are in favor of the technology that Bitcoin runs on but not for BTC itself quite rhetoric, But gates as respected as he is is not super human, hes entitled to his own opinion and can change his mind as much as he wants, i just don't think these Billionaires thoughts should matter so much. we too are headed there anyway.

[vv181]

Remember most of these people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet has no idea what Bitcoin is. They are so busy with their foundations and businesses that they have very little time to do some research on their own. They rely on their advisors to formulate their knowledge on the subject.

I don't think Bill Gates with a strong technologies background doesn't know about Bitcoin nor isn't interested to look up in depth about Bitcoin. It is a ludicrous statement to say both amazing people only relying upon their advisors about the subject, well, maybe we can understand about Buffet because he is lack of technologies background and curiosity, but Bill Gates is no.

[Pursuer]

this Bill Gates news is becoming way bigger than it should be and it is the copy pasting news sites fault that this is happening. they enjoy making everything bigger specially when there is a sideways action going on. otherwise things like this are happening all the time and there is always someone who is talking shit about bitcoin but nobody cares as long as price is rising.

[Wind_FURY]

and bringing Buffett thing into this is just poor FUDing and it shows the cancer in crypto world known as "news sites" and you are a part of it!

In case you did not know, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are close friends and they could be exchanging investment advice with each other.

Maybe Buffet influenced Gates about Bitcoin instead of the other way around? Or maybe they really have and agenda.

Just something to think about.  

[jseverson]

Nothing changed. Let's break it down.

First, he said, as you quoted:

In an interview with Bloomberg in 2014, he had said bitcoin was exciting because it showed how cheap it can be.

To clarify, he was talking about how cheap it is to move money with them.

Next, he said, from his reddit comment:

The main feature of crypto currencies is their anonymity. I don't think this is a good thing. The Governments ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing. 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.

He didn't change his position at all. He can say that Crypto can be a cheap and easy way of moving money and at the same time be a risky technology that can cause death, and be consistent in his stand. From my point of view, he's just telling it like he sees it. This isn't a Top 10 Anime Betrayals moment.

Why are people still talking about this?

[Reid]

What is this some kind off reverse psychology?

If there is one that can maximize the usage of bitcoin then it is him. Keeping all that money in bitcoin to avoid the tax from getting more higher will be the solution for him to stay at the place of being one of the richest man of the world.
Yes, those rich people they can now keep it, that is the bright side of it. You can all do business in bulks with a faster transaction without any risk of robbery.

[btcprospecter]

The funny thing is all this happens with fiat too.
We don't see as much bad publicity for fiat when it is as damaging if not more so.
Bill Gates managed to treble his investment and I'm sure we can be certain that he didn't just buy a couple of bitcoins.

[timerland]

His main argument seems to be that people can buy drugs with bitcoin.

However, when he made comments about bitcoin before which were positive, bitcoin's uses were actually a lot more limited to the illicit drug markets on the deep web. Right now, there are all kinds of legitimate uses of bitcoin and clearly there are more legitimate uses than illegitimate uses. And the potential bitcoin has shown clearly have grown outside of dark webs and stereotypes like that.

Nothing has changed, indeed. But his opinion has.

I'm assuming that he may think that bitcoin is overpriced at the moment. Obviously commenting about bitcoin's positives at $300 would make more sense, but no so much when it's $10k(at least for him). Dunno what he's trying to achieve here, though?