Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft (MS) and chairman of the Bill & Malinda Foundation, has expressed a “neutral stance” towards Bitcoin.
In an interview with CNBC on the 18th, he said, “I don’t have bitcoin,” he said.
Moreover, he admitted that the Gates Foundation “does a job digitizing currencies and reducing transaction costs” in developing countries. However, the Gates Foundation explained that it was focusing on “transparency and reversal technology rather than protecting anonymity.” The Gates Foundation is known as the world’s largest private foundation.
“I don’t own #Bitcoin. I’m not short Bitcoin,” says @BillGates. “I do think moving money into a more digital form and getting transaction costs down, that’s something the Gates Foundation does in developing countries.” pic.twitter.com/DDe5X196ax
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) February 18, 2021
Gates has so far taken a negative stance on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. In an interview with CNBC in 2018, Bitcoin “produced nothing” and warned that “don’t expect the price to rise.” They even said they would sell bitcoins “if there was an easy way.” A few years ago, he confessed that he had received Bitcoin as a birthday gift and sold it right away.
Gates answered in the’Ask Me Anything (AMA)’ event held at the online community Reddit in 2018, saying, “Since cryptocurrency is highly anonymous, it is mainly used for criminal activities such as money counting and terrorism support.” He has been heavily criticized in the cryptocurrency industry for writing.
Considering the past moves that were very negative, the contents of Gates’ interview are unusual. However, this negative position has not completely disappeared. In an interview that day, he affirmed that the price of bitcoin is still “moving in madness” and that “we don’t know what will happen.” Even in an interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which was filed on the same day as the CNBC interview, bitcoin was pointed to the question of what would be eliminated if one of the world’s innovative technologies could be eliminated.
Translation: Lim Junhyuk/Coindesk Korea
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