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The Almighty Buck Bitcoin

Bill Gates, Elon Musk Both Warn 'Don't Go Too Far with Crypto Speculation' (msn.com) 154

From a report: Microsoft CEO Bill Gates has an interesting take on who should buy Bitcoins. He being the third richest man in the world said that Bitcoins are not for him because he has less money than Tesla CEO Elon Musk. So basically anybody who has less money than Musk should not invest in Bitcoin...

Gates during an interview with Bloomberg TV had said that Bitcoin is not for everyone and only the richest person in the world should consider investing in it. "Elon has tons of money and he's very sophisticated, so I don't worry that his Bitcoin will sort of randomly go up or down.I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare. My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out," Gates said in the interview.

Last week Australia's national broadcast reported that even Elon Musk "has made it clear that he views cryptocurrency as 'speculation.'" On February 7 (the night before Tesla revealed its massive bet on crypto), Mr Musk was on his way to have dinner with his children at an upmarket steakhouse in West Hollywood. Before he reached its front door, he was intercepted by a legion of adoring fans — who demanded autographs, while peppering him with questions about the cryptocurrency market.

The world's richest man had been talking up bitcoin, along with a "joke" currency called "dogecoin", which has surged about 900 per cent since the year began. There were signs that Mr Musk was worried that some of his fans might be taking his recent crypto jokes as genuine investment advice.

"People should not invest their life savings in cryptocurrency, to be clear — that's unwise," Mr Musk said, in his clearest warning yet.

"There's a good chance that crypto is the future currency of Earth, and it's like... which one's it going to be? Maybe it'll be multiple. It should be considered speculation at this point.

"So don't go too far with the crypto speculation front."

Later in the video Musk adds, "Don't bet the farm on crypto."
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Bill Gates, Elon Musk Both Warn 'Don't Go Too Far with Crypto Speculation'

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  • by Huitzil ( 7782388 ) on Monday March 01, 2021 @04:43AM (#61110474)
    I presented a topic on the digital divide along a panel of data and IT experts. Was surprised to hear one of the questions be specifically on whether we thought Bitcoin was the future of currency. Bitcoin is NOT the future of currency. The future of currency is on the hands of the US government. If we believe there is value in blockchain, then there will be a future for all crypto in some shape or form, but the US dollar and itâ(TM)s global equivalents are too precious of a macro economic tool to ever go away. Sorry!
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I'd really want an explanation about how a fixed size supply "currency" can be sustainable in the future. Specially when it is exceedingly easy for that supply to be lost forever.

      ~20% of all BTC mined today is lost, either in forgotten wallets or wallets for which passwords were lost.

    • by Anonymous Coward
      People forget the most important point. The decentralization is the only innovation.

      The decentralization is not software related. The decentralization is a consequence of incentives. If you fail the decentralization, the project is pointless.

      Altcoins have leaders, premine, paid shills, perpetual software updates... everything leads to more centralization. In other words, Altcoins are not designed to be decentralized.
      • People forget the most important point. The decentralization is the only innovation

        Actually there's an even more important point. Decentralisation isn't a benefit. We've tried the hands off approach to currencies before by pegging them against physical materials such as the gold standard or other currencies. The end result is when the next banker fucks up the economy again the recovery is far slower and more painful for all as there are reduced handles for the government to enact economic policy.

        The low-IQ answer is "bruh, I don't want the gubbmint to devalue my currency". The reality is

        • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

          The reality is actions such as the cutely named "quantitative easing" minimised damage to the overall economy preserving your job and your cost of living.

          Which is great if you are the type of person that 'has a job' if you are retired, or retired early, got lucky enough to generate independent wealth some how early in life, or inherited, QE is less good for you.

          I would characterize it as "gubbmint picking winners and losers"

          • Which is great if you are the type of person that 'has a job' if you are retired, or retired early, got lucky enough to generate independent wealth some how early in life, or inherited, QE is less good for you.

            That's a pretty long list of people who have more or less benefitted from QE. Admittedly it's "not enough" but at that point what you're really arguing against isn't central bank monetary policy, but central government policy which perpetuates wealth inequality and corporate monopoly power.

            The people who aren't benefitting from the equities markets which QE stabilizes are the people who don't have enough financial surplus to invest in equities markets, and that isn't a problem of central banking, it's a p

          • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

            If you've got your dolla bills stuffed in your mattress you're using currency wrong, and you're *exactly* the reason controlled inflation is a good thing.

            If you're any of the things you mentioned and you've invested your wealth, you don't give a crap about inflation.

            • And yet a lot of people "invest" this way. Not investing in companies, which encourages a growth in the economy, but by grabbing a bunch of cyrpto coins and holding them waiting speculatively for the price to change. How many jobs lost if KittyCoin(tm) crashes overnight? Not enough to even report on. People who buy and hold gold are similar, they're not helping the economy any, and yet there are people actively marketing at people to buy and hold gold mostly because they're the ones getting money from th

          • if you are retired, or retired early

            Let me stop you there and finish the rest of your sentence correctly: "You should be applauding the government even more as your life savings and ability to get income is wholly dependent on the state of the economy and ensuring the financial sector recovers as quickly as possible."

            No sorry, QE is even more important for the group you listed. They are universally the ones who suffer worst during an economic upset. You know what happened to me last week? Nothing. I have a job and an income. You know what hap

            • by dcw3 ( 649211 )

              6 months worth of their retirement was wiped out due to the stock market dip

              Just to be clear, that's 6 months of retirement that they didn't have just about six months earlier, because the market has been mostly climbing steadily (except for the initial COVID drop) since ~2015. You don't lose anything until you sell, and if you need to sell in the near term, you shouldn't be in equities in the first place.

        • People who don't want the government to devalue their money should realize that their bitcoin can be devalued easily, and a big mother lode gold rush would also devalue their gold. The benefit of a government is there to manage the currency who's sole purpose is to aid in the exchange of goods and services and not to have its own inherent value; thus they try to slow the increases or decreases in value and avoid sudden spikes or drops. Bad governments do this badly of course, and they should not serve as

    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      Nice FP, but you're swimming against "gold rush fever" here, which is why I see the story as fundamentally paradoxical. The "value" of Bitcoin is in the minds of the believers, and no one is going to tell them it's fool's gold.

      I'm cross-referencing this entire topic under two paradoxical and old jokes.

      (1) The main lesson of history is that no one learns any lessons from history.

      (2) You shouldn't gamble on math if you can't do the math.

      But maybe the funniest part of this particular story is that the advice i

    • by Kisai ( 213879 )

      Bitcoin has no future. No crypto currency does with the way it's generated presently. Quantum computers may also put an end to it pretty quick. But that's at least 2-10 years off.

      The ideal cryptocoin system would involve dedicated hardware that generates the algorithm seeds, so you could sell a system to each bank that wants in on it, and it would then permit any two customers of any bank to exchange funds without involving the legacy banking infrastructure, while still being obligated to laws on currency t

    • Blockchain causes global warming. It is NOT a technology we should be promoting.

      If anything, we should be attaching a carbon tax to blockchain speculation capital gains. Say about 80%.

  • Bitcoin is the future! Going to infinity! Never sell any! HODLER!!

    They're only saying to us little people not to buy BTC because if we do we will be richer than them! They're trying to HODL us back and keep us down!

    If they say you shouldn't invest everything you have in Bitcoin then that the secret sign for, "it's time!!"

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Black Parrot ( 19622 )

      On the contrary. Nothing screams "alien technology" like cryptocurrency. The question is, why are they giving it to us? It's well known they don't give out anything except for their own advantage.

      My theory is that it's a conspiracy to drain all the value out of Earth's economy and send it back to their homeworld to make some rich alien richer. (The rich getting richer is a universal law of econodynamics.) Then when our economy collapses you'll be shipped off to debtor's prison on Anol Probula IV, and som

  • Oh, come on (Score:5, Insightful)

    by imidan ( 559239 ) on Monday March 01, 2021 @05:20AM (#61110518)

    So basically anybody who has less money than Musk should not invest in Bitcoin...

    Clickbait nonsense. That's not what either of them is saying. They're saying don't bet the farm on speculative gambling, whether on Bitcoin, Gamestop stocks, tulip bulbs, or whatever. Your life savings belongs invested in a diversified portfolio that's somewhat risk tolerent, not on a rollercoaster of wildly fluctuating fad investments. Take some money and play the market, but don't risk more than you can afford to lose.

    • How is that not insider trading ?
    • It's all so confusing. What the average people want is a clear unambiguous statement of where to invest 100% of their money, none of this wishy-washy diversification nonense! Diversity is a liberal plot anyway.

    • by maitas ( 98290 )

      Yep. Markowitz won a Nobel prize explaining why the best (regarding reward/risk) investment is the market protfolio.

      That's why VTI is the best possible investment for 99.9999% of human kind. Every other investment either has way more risk for just a few points of extra possible reward, or if they are safer, reward is way lower.

  • by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Monday March 01, 2021 @05:26AM (#61110532)
    Musk tweets some bullshit about Doge or Bitcoin and idiots go out there and buy it up, inflating the price. I assume that's exactly the moment Musk and his buddies cash out, before allowing things to settle and then repeating again. It's a pump and dump no matter who is doing the pumping.
    • Musk tweets some bullshit about Doge or Bitcoin and idiots go out there and buy it up, inflating the price. I assume that's exactly the moment Musk and his buddies cash out, before allowing things to settle and then repeating again. It's a pump and dump no matter who is doing the pumping.

      Because Bill and Elon are hard up for cash?

      • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Monday March 01, 2021 @06:30AM (#61110644)

        Nope. Elon is probably seeing this as a harmless game. Gives him an ego-boost if he wins and does not matter much if he loses. But I do not see him losing as he is a lot smarter and has a lot more power than the average cryptocurrency gambler. Essentially this guy is having a laugh at the expense of countless morons.

        • Nope. Elon is probably seeing this as a harmless game.

          Then why is he warning people about the harm?

          • by gweihir ( 88907 )

            Harmless game for him. Not harmless for anybody else. But Musk has always been slow in seeing the position of others.

      • Well, how else do you think they got that rich? By giving?

        From my experience, rich people are rich mainly because they take everything and give almost nothing and because they are penny pinchers. Making money is like an addiction to them. Usually because od some childhood trauma. So it does not imply that they are "evil". At least their intentions.
        It's more likely that a poor person will share, than a rich person. And it's more likely that a rich person will pick up $10,000 than a poor person will pick up 1

        • by brunes69 ( 86786 )

          I don't think you have the slightest idea what makes Elon tick. It is certainly not money. If money was his motivator then the last thing he would ever do is bet his entire multi-billion fortune on two "sure-to-fail" companies, work himself to death, and almost go bankrupt multiple times.

      • 'You can never have too much money'

        -Anyone anywhere.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. At least Musk seems to realize on some level that there are complete morons that go into cryptocurrencies with money they cannot afford to lose.

      Gambling with money you can afford to lose is simply entertainment. Gambling with money you cannot afford to lose is deeply stupid. On the other hand, the recent pandemic and the stance some people still maintain on climate-change (or on the earth obviously being flat) shows that there are a lot of deeply stupid people.

  • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

    All the largest institutions and TESLA are buying billions in bitcoin. Meanwhile as the price goes up the news becomes doom and gloom.

    Pay attention folks. This is how you chase away retail investors and save billions on your buy-in.

    • Aw c'mon, if they were hyping it, it would be even easier to say that now that Elon bought his billions in bitcoins he's hyping it to drive up the value of his investment.
  • People should watch thuderfoot where he debunks Elon, just watch his answers to the question of what system should be used within the tunnels.... he hasnt a clue and then says wheels..
    • by Rei ( 128717 )

      People should watch thuderfoot...

      Yes, because when I want lectures on engineering, I always turn to biochemists.

      (I've seen some of Thunderf00t's videos where he plays armchair internet engineer. They're embarrassingly bad)

      • Good thing then, that we judge arguments based on the arguments, not based on who said them... right? ... right?

      • So go watch Elons answer, irrelevant who plays it for you.
      • So why listen to Elon at all, he isnt a rocket scientist, any discipline related to construction or vehicle design or construction.
        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Rei ( 128717 )

          He's quite literally the chief engineer at SpaceX, not to mention having a physics degree. He's famously unusual among CEOs for being deeply involved in the low-level engineering design details of his products.

          • > He's quite literally the chief engineer at SpaceX, not to mention having a physics degree.

            He can call himself whatever he likes, and he may have a physics degree, but if you watch his videos he hasnt a clue.

            > He's famously unusual among CEOs for being deeply involved in the low-level engineering design details of his products.

            And yet he cant actually give a technical answer to any of his hyperloop challenges in numerous videos. His replies are childish.
            • > He's famously unusual among CEOs for being deeply involved in the low-level engineering design details of his products.

              DO you recall his rant when the cafe expert said his "tube" would be useless, who cares if it actually fits in the tiny confines of the twisting cafe which he and none of his team have ever visited.
  • Gamble Responsibly (Score:4, Insightful)

    by adfraggs ( 4718383 ) on Monday March 01, 2021 @05:51AM (#61110578)

    "Speculation" is code for unregulated gambling, but then in most countries gambling itself is heavily regulated. Elon's advice in this case likely has as much impact as the mandatory warnings you see on Ladbrokes ads on the telly.

  • Is that a report from 2000? Gates quit being CEO in January 2000 (that's 21 years ago!) and stayed Chairman of the Board until 2014. Since then, he's been pursuing other things. Or am I missing something?
  • There was a time when bitcoin was being introduced when it was purely a technical discussion. I was thinking that creating credit from running process on your rig seemed very inclusive. Getting a unit value for your computers work? Creating a differential environment for what you choose to process? I guess it was to much to ask a capitalist when in that argument moving piles of bird droppings is just as valuable as moving the patches you create for your own project?
  • by hackertourist ( 2202674 ) on Monday March 01, 2021 @07:26AM (#61110754)

    The current popularity of BTC is idiotic.
    - Its value isn't tied to anything, so its value is random and fluctuates wildly. This makes it unusable as a currency AND as a store of value.
    - BTC in particular is very inefficient (transactions take 10^6 times more energy than credit card transactions), leading to a massive waste of energy. 78 TWh/year.
    - BTC can only process 7 transactions/second. Good luck cashing out when the value crashes again, you'll be queuing for days to get out, while the value keeps dropping.
    - Criminals and kleptocratic governments are running mining operations using stolen electricity. Basically they're counterfeiting - with the nasty twist that the BTC they generate is indistinguishable from legally-mined tokens.
    - The unique proposition of BTC, and the only advantage it has over national currencies, is anonymity. This means its biggest users are criminals. Any hyping of BTC that drives up the price, benefits criminals more than any other group.

    Face it: BTC is a failed experiment. So are the 1000 cryptocurrencies that follow in its wake. There's no scarcity, so there can be no real value.

    Some of the underlying technology has value: a blockchain could be useful. But the current implementations should never have gone beyond a sandbox in someone's lab.

    • Tell me again what the dollar is tied to?

      • The economy and judicial system of the USA. It is legal tender.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        The power of the government of the United States to levy taxes, backed by not only the US legal system, not only the US police, not only the US national guard, but in the worst case, the most powerful military on the planet.

        Unlike Bitcoin, which is backed by literally nothing except for "how much people happen to want digital internet collectibles at any given point in time".

        • So bullshit then, got it.

          • by Rei ( 128717 )

            If you think the United States military is bullshit, try breaking into Cheyenne Mountain Complex some time and see how that goes for you.

      • Quit paying your taxes and you'll find out firsthand what the dollar is tied to.
      • by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
        the presumed physical output of the population.
    • The current popularity of BTC is idiotic.
      - The unique proposition of BTC, and the only advantage it has over national currencies, is anonymity.

      In fact, it doesn’t even offer that. BTC is pseudonymous, not anonymous. There’s a history of every single transaction you make recorded in a public ledger, irrevocably providing evidence of your criminal transactions to anyone and everyone. A government doesn’t even need to issue a warrant to a credit card processor or bank before they can see your transactions. The only thing they need to do is tie your pseudonym to you, but once they do that, it’s game over for you.

      People will poi

    • Face it: BTC is a failed experiment.

      You're presuming the experiement was to create a currency rather than to attempt to use the combined power of human stupidity to fuck up the environment by wasting energy.

      And people wonder why Satoshi hasn't come out to claim his prize yet.

    • This isn't insightful, it's a mix of right, wrong and silly. I'm not a bitcoin fanboi, I've never owned a cryptocurrency in my life and I hope dogecoin wins for the glory of Venice and because it's funny. So:

      - Its value isn't tied to anything, so its value is random and fluctuates wildly.

      Yes and? Currencies can fluctuate wildly if they're not backed by a stable government and so can commodities. Even something like gold is primarily driven by what people think it's worth (also a popularity contest) which do

    • by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
      it's value is clearly tied to how much energy you can waste.
    • by Rinikusu ( 28164 )

      Just a slight correction. Bitcoin isn't anonymous, it's just obscure. The fact that the blockchain is 100% in public view and stored in the ledger means it's rather easy for the feds to start tracing back to the wallet owners. It's how they got a ton of those silk road guys after they took over the site. They just matched up transactions to wallet addresses and delivery addresses and start monitoring activity on those to identify other individuals. Monero, on the other hand, supposedly has a very interestin

  • If you are going to invest in Crypto, treat it like you would treat money spent going to Las Vegas. Assume you are going to lose it, and don't bet more than you have, and have fun. If you win, great! If you lose, well that was expected.

    Or just go ahead and go to Vegas. You will have more fun gambling at traditional games. And you can also eat there.

  • by waspleg ( 316038 )

    Musk, whose board has 0 control, YOLOs 1.5 billion into Bitcoin effectively tying Tesla's stock to fluctuations therein and then cautions others? I sure fucking wish they weren't in the S&P.

  • if the currency of the future is how much energy you can waste instead of what you can contribute to society.

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