Bill Gates 3 problems with BTC

[cafucafucafu]

Poor people cannot currently rely on bitcoin

“The effort to make sure your bitcoin provider isn’t going to lose your money and your understanding of the volatility of bitcoin — I’d hardly say that it’s ready for, you know, poor people to have it go up and down by a factor of two and, you know — ‘Oops, I was at Mt. Gox. Now that’s not good. Now I’m at Bit-whatever.’”

Lack of transaction reversals

“So that basic technology shows that digital can do these things very cheaply, and the fees that have been building up over time won’t stand up even for small transactions. Now making sure that the thing is fraud-resistant and that money can be refunded – there’s somebody that you call up if you think you transferred to the wrong account or your account balance is not what you’d expect.”

Potential Anonymity

“Also governments, for most transactions, will want attribution, that is, the idea of a system where you can’t see — is that drug money, is it terrorist money? Should that be taxed? You’re going to have some tension between the attributed systems like credit card [or] debit card systems where there’s actually a record of who’s engaging and the purely anonymous ones. The one where I see it getting to critical mass, along with the government regulatory support we need is where it’s attributed; where we can see who actually did this transaction.”

http://insidebitcoins.com/news/bill-gates-3-criticisms-of-bitcoin

The last one isn't a problem for me but the first two are. The bigger problem is having no incentive to adopt BTC for ordinary people.

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[jacktheking]

For the first one. Gotta agree, normal people (non-technology) wont be investing in Bitcoin. Most of them are afraid for the rapid changes in the exchange rate. And.. some of them can't understand how Bitcoin work. Unless Bitcoin is value stable, else, people wont be investing in it.

[colinistheman]

When Bill Gates says these things it shows he doesn't have a very deep understanding of Bitcoin as a protocol. But to give him some credit, he has come a long ways in the past month or two, so I just tell myself that he is still in the learning curve. I think he will get it more and more as time goes on, including the answers to his concerns. At least I sure hope so.

On the other hand, I feel like for him to be such a huge visionary and pioneer, his concerns are pretty short-sighted of him. Solutions to these issues can and will be programmed and developed. It's only a matter of time.

It appears that he only currently thinks with Bitcoin as being a high level layer when he names off these concerns, when in fact Bitcoin is a protocol which is programmable.

As one example, think of all the possible choices of financial intermediaries that will be developed to enable customer safety for transactions reversals. This CAN be implemented and will be. Things like PayPal for Bitcoin. It doesn't mean that will be required, but that's the beauty of Bitcoin, the protocol: You have the power to do whatever you want with it. Why doesn't he see this? I think more education needed on his part.

[seriouscoin]

For the first one. Gotta agree, normal people (non-technology) wont be investing in Bitcoin. Most of them are afraid for the rapid changes in the exchange rate. And.. some of them can't understand how Bitcoin work. Unless Bitcoin is value stable, else, people wont be investing in it.

Chicken and egg problem my friend,

To have stable exchange the market cap of bitcoin must be ALOT higher with many more tx (fiat to BTC and vice versa).

It will get there slowly i'm sure. Ppl who look at bitcoin long term can happily hold btc without worrying about short term fluctuation.

[seriouscoin]

I feel like when Bill Gates says these things it shows he doesn't have a very deep understanding of Bitcoin as a protocol. But to give him some credit, he has come a long ways in the past month or two, so I just tell myself that he is still in the learning curve. I think he will get it more and more, including the answers to his concerns.

On the other hand, I feel like for him to be the richest man on Earth and such a huge visionary and pioneer, his complaints are incredibly short-sighted for him not to see the full potential.

He seems to think of Bitcoin as only a high level layer when he names these issues, when in fact it's a protocol which is programmable. All three of those complaints can be resolved by software being implemented to address these points.

 His complaints are what the uninformed complain about. Yes they are legitimate issues presently, but they can easily be overcome. He seems to think they are complete stops when they are not at all.

As one example, think of all the possible choices of financial intermediaries that will be developed to enable customer safety for transactions reversals. This CAN be implemented and will be. It doesn't have to be also. That's the beauty of Bitcoin. You have the power to do whatever you want with it. Why can't he see this?

+ Exactly, he does not understand bitcoin hence the 2nd and 3rd points are totally moot.

You cant have a trustless system with reversals.... lol thats like he wants to sell windows with opensource code.

[Brewins]

1 - he meant people can't rely on Bitcoin price. Don't trust price and the protocol are two different things. And the same thing can be applied to most investment, if not all. Poor people can't invest much, if at all, by definition.

2 - it is an advantage, but can be solved(?) if you use escrow or a 3rd part processor.

3 - there are clear advantages of not giving away info for some people(they won't steal your identity or clone your cards, for example)

[Rishblitz]

I can see why the 1 and 2 are bad but the 3 is ludicrous.

[colinistheman]

+ Exactly, he does not understand bitcoin hence the 2nd and 3rd points are totally moot.

You cant have a trustless system with reversals.... lol thats like he wants to sell windows with opensource code.

2 - it is an advantage, but can be solved(?) if you use escrow or a 3rd part processor.

Exactly. You could optionally select to use some kind of 3rd party escrow type entity in a bitcoin transaction if you wanted to. It just isn't mandatory. It's one of those higher level layers that CAN be programmed on top of the Bitcoin network. So even that is a POSSIBILITY.

[DoubleTrouble]

+ Exactly, he does not understand bitcoin hence the 2nd and 3rd points are totally moot.

You cant have a trustless system with reversals.... lol thats like he wants to sell windows with opensource code.

2 - it is an advantage, but can be solved(?) if you use escrow or a 3rd part processor.

Exactly. You could optionally select to use some kind of 3rd party escrow type entity in a bitcoin transaction if you wanted to. It just isn't mandatory. It's one of those higher level layers that CAN be programmed on top of the Bitcoin network. So even that is a POSSIBILITY.

Exactly, and that way there is a much lower chance of problems such as paypal reversals. Someone can choose to have escrow or not which makes it their responsibility.

[jonald_fyookball]

+ Exactly, he does not understand bitcoin hence the 2nd and 3rd points are totally moot.

You cant have a trustless system with reversals.... lol thats like he wants to sell windows with opensource code.

2 - it is an advantage, but can be solved(?) if you use escrow or a 3rd part processor.

Exactly. You could optionally select to use some kind of 3rd party escrow type entity in a bitcoin transaction if you wanted to. It just isn't mandatory. It's one of those higher level layers that CAN be programmed on top of the Bitcoin network. So even that is a POSSIBILITY.

this. 

a good interpretation of 'bitcoin can't do it alone'

[chipmadness]

Bill gates wants to say there is three problems with Bitcoin? He has no room to talk at all.

I can name 10 problems with Microsoft, right off the bat.....

Seriously Bill Gates, go back to the 20th century; take your new CEO with you also.

[colinistheman]

Exactly. You could optionally select to use some kind of 3rd party escrow type entity in a bitcoin transaction if you wanted to. It just isn't mandatory. It's one of those higher level layers that CAN be programmed on top of the Bitcoin network. So even that is a POSSIBILITY.

Exactly, and that way there is a much lower chance of problems such as paypal reversals. Someone can choose to have escrow or not which makes it their responsibility.

I hope Bill Gates sees this sooner rather than later. Because he can make big decisions that can move industries. If he gets it then he can assist it.

[Q7]

If poor people cannot rely on bitcoin similarly they can't rely on fiat as well. At least with bitcoin you have chance that one day the price is going to go up although you still have equal chance it will drop as well. So it's not exclusively bitcoin's problem

Second do we need reversals? How many times sellers get scammed and get forced out of legit business because of preferences towards customers. Isn't that counter productive? Can't we solve that with escrow if amount is really big...

[jacktheking]

For the first one. Gotta agree, normal people (non-technology) wont be investing in Bitcoin. Most of them are afraid for the rapid changes in the exchange rate. And.. some of them can't understand how Bitcoin work. Unless Bitcoin is value stable, else, people wont be investing in it.

Chicken and egg problem my friend,

To have stable exchange the market cap of bitcoin must be ALOT higher with many more tx (fiat to BTC and vice versa).

It will get there slowly i'm sure. Ppl who look at bitcoin long term can happily hold btc without worrying about short term fluctuation.

Agree. Bitcoin may be unstable now but.. when "Bitcoin took over the world", it might become a very stable currency. Most people buy Bitcoin for investment, however, it not gonna be the case in the future. They buy Bitcoin because it is a currency.

[cafucafucafu]

If poor people cannot rely on bitcoin similarly they can't rely on fiat as well.

Why do so many bitcoiners says ridiculous things? I am bullish in BTC but really I think we need to stop lying to ourselves.

[oyasumi]

Bill Gates know nothing about Bitcoin.
He doesn't know the real problems with BTC,but take the Benefits as problems,that's stupid.
He also doesn't know the real cost of Bitcoin system.

[Rishblitz]

Bill gates wants to say there is three problems with Bitcoin? He has no room to talk at all.

I can name 10 problems with Microsoft, right off the bat.....

Seriously Bill Gates, go back to the 20th century; take your new CEO with you also.

Its funny when rich people get huge egos huh?

[el kaka22]

im just watching this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6KRp91YAw8&sns=fb

[cbeast]

Poor people cannot currently rely on bitcoin

“The effort to make sure your bitcoin provider isn’t going to lose your money and your understanding of the volatility of bitcoin — I’d hardly say that it’s ready for, you know, poor people to have it go up and down by a factor of two and, you know — ‘Oops, I was at Mt. Gox. Now that’s not good. Now I’m at Bit-whatever.’”

A true visionary. "640K ought to be enough for anybody." Does he really think Bitcoin exchanges are always going to be run by children with no interest in security? His partners include VISA and MasterCard. His idea of poor people are those that make only a few million a year. Exchanges need to take responsibility for market manipulation and learn to cool down panics.

Lack of transaction reversals

“So that basic technology shows that digital can do these things very cheaply, and the fees that have been building up over time won’t stand up even for small transactions. Now making sure that the thing is fraud-resistant and that money can be refunded – there’s somebody that you call up if you think you transferred to the wrong account or your account balance is not what you’d expect.”

How often do you reverse transactions? More people go to court to get their money back than reverse charges. Usually just asking for it is enough. You can't (realistically) accidentally send bitcoins to a random address. There is parity checking.

Potential Anonymity

“Also governments, for most transactions, will want attribution, that is, the idea of a system where you can’t see — is that drug money, is it terrorist money? Should that be taxed? You’re going to have some tension between the attributed systems like credit card [or] debit card systems where there’s actually a record of who’s engaging and the purely anonymous ones. The one where I see it getting to critical mass, along with the government regulatory support we need is where it’s attributed; where we can see who actually did this transaction.”

http://insidebitcoins.com/news/bill-gates-3-criticisms-of-bitcoin

The last one isn't a problem for me but the first two are. The bigger problem is having no incentive to adopt BTC for ordinary people.

Right Bill, you are concerned about poor people sponsoring terrorists. This is your true agenda. You don't care about poor people at all.

[mercistheman]

He probably owns 100K btc for kicks