Warren Buffett continued to dismiss Bitcoin as an investment and claimed purchasing cryptocurrencies to be more of a gamble. “You aren’t investing when you do that. You’re speculating. There’s nothing wrong with it. If you wanna gamble somebody else will come along and pay more money tomorrow, that’s one kind of game. That is not investing.”
Warren Buffett is an American businessman who is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. His net worth of US 87.5 billion (February 17, 2018), makes him the third richest man in the world.
Warren Buffett, his views on BTC
Buying or not buying into an investment or product, based purely off of what another person says is ill-advised, as thorough research should provide the grounds for a well informed decision. That being said, one cannot dispute that the advice from some of the most successful people in the world may prove just as useful.
Back in March 2014, Warren Buffett was interviewed on CNBC, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO called bitcoin a “mirage”. At the time BTC was around USD 600 according to Coindesk. Bitcoin has since peaked at around USD 20,000 and after a correction in 2018 is currently valued at around USD 9000. Marc Andreessen outlined that bitcoin is another technology Buffett doesn’t understand in regards to the concepts and potential future applications. Although Buffett hasn’t deemed bitcoin as a proper investment, he has previously admitted his limited knowledge about cryptocurrencies, and that bitcoin is a speculative gamble. “Why in the world should I take a long or short position of something I don’t know anything about?”
The basis of his views
Buffett doesn’t often embrace new technologies, as most of Berkshire’s holdings are in food and beverage companies, clothing, materials, insurance, banking, and media. These businesses are all based on the basic goods and services that people require in there day to day lives. Questions are raised in terms of an investment of why bitcoin could be more competitive and will have a market edge over other payment methods and software? For example, there has been around 2,000 car manufacturers in U.S. history and only several remain today. On face value bitcoin isn’t set to affect many peoples lives as a payment option.
The other side of the bitcoin
With global commerce growing, companies are looking for a competitive edge and to streamline processes. Existing systems are under heavy loads from demands of modern trade, this in turn, will spur innovation. Bitcoin is the starting point as it was the proof of concept of blockchain technology. This technology is now being expanded with varying ideologies and developments in functionality. The future of bitcoin is uncertain, but with continuous positive gains over the past several years and an expanding interest in the development of blockchain, the technology is set to bring change to society in one way or another.
