With critics attacking the Bitcoin plethora off-late with hard hitting words such as “fraud” and “bubble” comes words of comfort from Billionaire investor Peter Thiel, Co-founder of Payapl who feels that Bitcoin critics are “underestimating” the “great potential” of this cryptocurrency which might as well become the “cyber equivalent of gold” if nurtured properly.
Bitcoin had clocked in 800% price rise in the last year and is being traded around $5800 at the time of publishing this article . This has caused many analysts to believe that Bitcoin is a “speculative bubble”.
During a recent interview held at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and showcased on Fox Business Network’s (FBN) Mornings with Maria, Peter Thiel an early Facebook investor and PayPal co-founder pointed out that:
“If bitcoin ends up being the cyber equivalent of gold and it has a great potential left and it’s a very different kind of thing from what people in Silicon Valley focus on—companies, not algorithms not protocols, but this might be maybe one exception that is very underestimated. You can ask the same questions about gold. What is gold based on? Why is gold valuable?… It’s a tangible asset but it’s also hard to mine. So if it was easy to mine then it wouldn’t be that valuable and we would just have way more gold. So bitcoin is also, it’s mineable, like gold it’s hard to mine, it’s actually harder to mine than gold and so in that sense it’s more constrained.”
However Theil was quick to add that he is not equally confident about the performance of the other cryptocurrencies plying the market. “I’m skeptical of most of them (cryptocurrencies), I do think people are a little bit … underestimating bitcoin especially because … it’s like a reserve form of money, it’s like gold, and it’s just a store of value. You don’t need to use it to make payments,” Thiel said.
With this announcement, Thiel joins the list of Silicon Valley honchos who have softened towards Bitcoin after being initially skeptic about the same. Back in 2014, Thiel stated that he is not much optimistic about Bitcoin being adopted for mainstream operations until it was “used to make more legal transactions”.
However, the recent turn of events have made him take back his word and start rooting for this crypto mode. Since its creation in 2009, this controversial cryptocurrency based on an anonymous peer-to-peer network has established a market capitalization worth $96 Billion
Fellow Silicon Valley icon and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently announced his open support for the crypto plethora during Money 20/20 conference held earlier this week in Las Vegas. Steve Woznaik says “Bitcoin is better than Gold”.
Wazniak feels that fiat currencies which can be printed as per the government’s will is “kind of phony”. He was quick to add that the mathematical properties of Bitcoin make it all the more lucrative in comparison to the yellow metal or U.S. gold. He was quoted as saying, “gold gets mined and mined and mined. Maybe there’s a finite amount of gold in the world, but Bitcoin is even more mathematical and regulated and nobody can change mathematics.”
Hedge Fund legend Mike Novogratz is quite bullish about Bitcoin and says :
“I’m pretty confident to say it’s going higher. It would not surprise [me] if in the next six to 10 months we’re over $10,000.”
Overstock’s CEO Patrick Byrne agree to Thiel’s school of thought and has gone ahead to showcase his support towards Bitcoin by slamming haters during a recent interview on FOX Business. Byrne is also hopeful that Bitcoin will pave a glorious future for all its investors. His company made the announcement of opening a fully regulated digital coin trading exchange in September.
However Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal diverged from Thiel’s comments and stated earlier this week that Bitcoin is “going to implode” given its lack of regulatory supervision. Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock also gave it a tag of being an “index for money laundering.” Back in September, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon stated during an investor conference, “the currency isn’t going to work. You can’t have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart.”
The real wold of Wall street, Jordarn Belfort also backed Jamie Dimon. He also claims Bitcoin to be a bubble and thinks it is not a great model.
The famous Stock Market Investor, Warren Buffet also quoted that Bitcoin is a bubble”
The time will tell the fate and future of Bitcoins. Till the, stay updated with KryptoMoney.com, where you will get latest news about Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology.
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