Bill Gates Says Crypto Has Caused Deaths In A Fairly Direct Way

[totol05]

“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,” he typed, “so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way.”
Read more https://news.bitcoin.com/bill-gates-crypto-caused-deaths-fairly-direct-way/
It's very sad that the man who is the alleged pioneer in IT technologies denies the value of something with the potential to positively change the world! Is it possible that he feels threatened?

[Welsh]

You need to think your source link as it's not linking to anything, but if he's indeed come out with this statement then I would be surprised unless it's been taken out of context. Every currency in the world has caused deaths in a direct way why would Bitcoin a currency be any different? 

[EcoAmyasel]

I think he can rich again with BTC but he refuse it

[monkeydominicorobin]

“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,” he typed, “so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way.”
Read more https://news.bitcoin.com/bill-gates-crypto-caused-deaths-fairly-direct-way/
It's very sad that the man who is the alleged pioneer in IT technologies denies the value of something with the potential to positively change the world! Is it possible that he feels threatened?

A simple needle and syringe can kill. Fill it with air and stab somebody with it. Death shall come. It is not cryptocurrency that is causing death. Since the buyer basically wanted to die. Besides there are old techniques to obtain fentanyl. Another fake news.

[Washball]

If it's true that Bill Gates actually said that and if it's really that what he meant, then there must be a certain reason for him to come up with a statement like that. Someone like Bill Gates knows best that because of fiat money far more people were killed, this killing for fiat exists since the beginning of mankind. Wars going on in the middle east are a result of people wanting to get more fiat, they sell weapons, they want to profit from the black gold etc. etc. The point is, you can't blame fiat money for this behaviour, as well as you can't blame crypto. You can only blame the greedy people who just want more and more. It's never enough.

[Derek86]

I partly agree with what Bill Gates said, there is frequent news about phising using bitcoin, even FUD about north korea hacking cryptocurrency to fund their money for weapons and stuff.. But I believe this new concept will somehow overcome it's negatives and will be ultimetly used in all areas

[DAVID_BOUNTY]

Yes,BTC will die
I believe BillGate

[ethergod]

Yeah, even smart people make stupid comments now and then. Possibly, like Jamie Dimon, he is scared of the disruptive nature of cryptocurrencies.

[Rockstar1]

Dude,

Do you not know how to use the ****** search function? LOOK: BitcoinTalk.org Thread: BILL GATES SAYS CRYPTO-CURRENCIES CAUSE DEATHS DIRECTLY. HEllo??

[retard75]

Cute Little Crypto was something TPTB used to laugh about.

Until Little Crypto got huge last year.

Crypto became a threat to the banks and the whole "Establishment".

They will destroy decentralized crypto. The FUD wave is just the beginning.

They have ignited wars over wars and didn't care about corpse-covered battlefields
when it was in their interest and you think they'll surrender to some nerds? 

Party's over.

[BitChief]

Cute Little Crypto was something TPTB used to laugh about.

Until Little Crypto got huge last year.

Crypto became a threat to the banks and the whole "Establishment".

They will destroy decentralized crypto. The FUD wave is just the beginning.

They have ignited wars over wars and didn't care about corpse-covered battlefields
when it was in their interest and you think they'll surrender to some nerds? 

Party's over.

I would argue that USD cash has killed far more people in a very direct way, by enabling global drug cartels to launder money. It is very difficult to make the case that crypto is less traceable than dollar bills, I always find establishment comments like this hilarious

[TimtheYoutuber]

You should check out Dougs video regarding this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd6WWOnxyRw&t=1s

[donalfonso]

Nowadays anything can lead to your death, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, what you eat, even your cream or soap. so if cryptos join the ever increasing list . No surprises, I just wish he stated some examples or real life scenarios or gave some empirical data behind his statements

[Xavofat]

if he's indeed come out with this statement then I would be surprised unless it's been taken out of context.

The context is okay - he said it as part of a Reddit AMA here.
A couple of his assessments here are a bit off.  For one thing, his claim that "the main feature of crypto currencies is their anonymity" seems a little off since that wasn't the stated goal in the whitepaper and isn't what most crypto users regard it to be.

I also don't agree with him that Bitcoin's use on darknet markets causes deaths in a "fairly direct way".  Using this logic, I think you could claim that any platform allowing darknet markets to operate is responsible for deaths in a "fairly direct way" - even Reddit themselves, where he is doing the AMA, due to their subreddit r/DarkNetMarkets.

[mimakter]

No, cryptocurrencies enable one to keep his transaction private. And privacy is a basic human right. There's no reason we should abandon our rights just to make life easier for law enforcement agencies or other regulatory bodies. When it comes to basic human rights, there's nothing I detest more than pragmatic arguments and consequentialism . As Bruce Schneier put it in his famous essay that talked about mass surveillance, big data and privacy intrusions.

[Kemarit]

LOL. We have heard that kind of arguments before. I mean how about the old and traditional US dollar though? I speculate that's its been misused through out the history for buying illegal that you can think of. The problem with them is that they just look at the bad side of bitcoin or crypto. And if authorities are really interested to see and caught those people its gonna be easily because everything is written on blockchain. But please stop with this kind of argument because it is really flawed at the very beginning.

[AGD]

FIAT has killed millions, but Mr. Gates still likes it. 

[hurry_hore]

“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,” he typed, “so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way.”
Read more https://news.bitcoin.com/bill-gates-crypto-caused-deaths-fairly-direct-way/
It's very sad that the man who is the alleged pioneer in IT technologies denies the value of something with the potential to positively change the world! Is it possible that he feels threatened?

I do not believe completely with his statement, who knows he is actually learning bitcoin and will show up to public later that he is supporting bitcoin. As recent news for the entering of "giants" person in the world such as George Soros, Rockefeller, Warrent Buffet, etc...This is the sign that Bitcoin is really promising in businessman mindset..

[undeadbitcoiner]

For me there are 2 options
1 Either that is not Bill Gates Statement
Being a IT Giant doesn't he know bitcoin today its not actually fully anonymous?
Being a IT Giant doesn't he know according to various sources Bitcoin was never used in terrorist Funding because they also know it is traceable and Bitcoin is easy to trace than Fiat
2 If the statement was by him than
he is a Fucking Asshole who want to show that he was the only man to develop something new and don't want to accept Bitcoin and Block chain technology was one of the unique technology and development  for the entire world.

[SolutionBase]

It always saddens me to see someone speak outside of their realm of knowledge in an authoritative manner. Bill Gate's estimation of crypto is no more meaningful than that of the guy at the grocery store, or the manager of a bank, or that of a dentist - its not to say that they can't have valid opinions about things - its just that being generally intelligent, or being successful in a single field (or even several fields), doesn't necessarily mean that one has any special credibility outside of their realm of expertise. What I'm trying to say is, I don't really care too much about Bill Gate's opinion on the military tactics, I don't care about his opinion on advancements in aviation, and I don't care about his opinion on crypto, not because I think he's dumb (he's obviously not), its just his success in Microsoft and personal computers doesn't automatically confer him valuable insights into other fields (or, we should say, more valuable of an opinion than any other person).

On the subject of whether or not crypto has led to the deaths of people - that same argument could be applied just as ignorantly as to cash, since, afterall, haven't drug cartels (which have committed horrible crimes) been using cash as a medium? Now the counter to this will be that a feature of crypto's nature is its anonymity, but again - a cash transaction is not immediately tracked nor reported to any authority. Consider this: whether I give a homeless man $10 or $5000, does anyone else know unless I tell them? Of course not. If anything, the fact that to transform crypto into any kind of fiat (which is what these parties need) often requires an exchange, in a certain sense, there may be more identifiers, since its rather hard to mask an exchange's deposit to a bank.