Standing in the perspective of the world's four richest people: look at what they think of cryptocurrencies

Throughout history, the public's ideas are often shaped by leaders in politics, industry, and entertainment.

The greatest thinkers of our time often predict and tout some novel innovations. And thanks to the support of these voices, these innovations have changed the way the world works.

One of the best examples is the internet. The technology revolutionized the way people communicated in the 1990s, causing a surge in social investment in Internet companies.

This is followed by the so-called Internet bubble: social speculative investments in these Internet companies have caused stocks to rise rapidly, which eventually led to a stock market crash, and many companies that once had a market value of millions of dollars eventually became worthless.

However, there are still many companies that have managed to survive. In particular, Amazon is currently the world's largest Internet retailer and the third most valuable listed company in the world.

Ironically, the greatest investors of our time have missed the Amazon and other technology companies, which shows that even the most respected industry leaders will make mistakes from time to time.

Let's take a look at how these thought leaders have evaluated some emerging technologies over the past 25 years, which is interesting. Four of the world's five richest people have very different views, just as they have seen the Internet on the 20th year ago.

In 1996, Microsoft founder Bill Gates wrote a famous article titled "Content is King," in which he outlined what he predicted to make the Internet an invention that changed the world. On the question of how to make money from the Internet, his opening remarks hit the nail:

“I expect that the content on the Internet will generate a lot of money, it is like broadcasting.”

At the same time, world-renowned investor Warren Buffett admitted that he regretted investing in Internet companies in the 1990s.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is more confident than most people, enough to make him a full-time job and start his own Internet company. According to CNBC's report, Bezos recalled in a speech at Princeton University in 2010 that he saw the potential of the Internet due to the rapid development of the Internet field:

“I found that network usage is growing at a rate of 2300% per year. I have never seen or heard of anything that has developed so rapidly, and I have never heard of trying to build an online bookstore with millions of books. The idea. This is impossible in the real world. It makes me very excited."

These contrasting perspectives highlight the differences between revolutionaries in various industries over the years. The same is true of recent cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin. As the industry thrives, these smartest people have predicted, thought and evaluated virtual currency.

Some of them are positive and some are negative. Still, let's take a look at four of the world's four richest people and their overall view of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The following rankings are based on the Forbes Rich List, ranked by top level.

In 2018 Jeff Bezos became the world's first billionaire. As the founder, chairman and CEO of Amazon, his net worth now exceeds $100 billion, making him the richest man in the world.

Over the years, his Amazon has grown and now Amazon has become the world's largest online shopping platform.

However, we can hardly find any direct comments from Bezos on cryptocurrency or blockchain technology such as Bitcoin.

The most rumor we've heard is that Amazon will accept Bitcoin as a payment option on its platform, but it hasn't happened yet.

When Amazon bought three cryptocurrency-related domain names in October 2017, there was further speculation that Amazon would begin accepting cryptocurrencies.

In the second half of 2017, Amazon Web Services (AWS) partnered with the US R3 Blockchain Alliance to formally launch the Corda Distributed Books (DLT) platform on its AWS cloud services. Ironically, just a week before, Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Yaxi said that Amazon will not launch blockchain-based services.

Despite this, we have not heard Bezos' view of cryptocurrency and blockchain. Given the size of his company and his own influence, comments from the world's richest man will undoubtedly have an impact on the cryptocurrency sector.

Bill Gates is the founder of Microsoft and currently the second richest in the world. Microsoft's Windows system is one of the most popular operating systems in the world. From 2014 to 2017, Gates has always topped the list of richest people.

His wealth is the result of his ingenuity, and now he has turned his attention to charity. Some of the projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are using blockchain technology to solve problems that plague developing countries.

The foundation supports the Bitsoko project in Ghana, which pioneered the introduction of Bitcoin merchant payment processing and Bitcoin wallet services in Ghana and other African countries.

Having said that, let's take a look at Gates' most striking remarks about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies over the past few years.

Gates slammed the anonymity of virtual currency, saying that these currencies were "not good things" because they hindered the identification of anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, and anti-tax evasion. He also said that cryptocurrencies "cause death in a fairly straightforward way" because they enable people to buy potent drugs anonymously:

“Now cryptocurrencies are used to buy fentanyl and other drugs, which have caused death in a fairly straightforward way, so this is a rare technology. I think the speculative frenzy of ICO and cryptocurrencies is for long-term investments. It is very dangerous for people who want this."

In an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box, Gates published his latest opinion on Bitcoin, saying that "if there is a simple way, he will short the bitcoin." Gates added that as an asset class, investing in bitcoin does not produce anything, and one should not expect it to appreciate.

Although he is quite demanding on Bitcoin and ICO, he gives more comments on blockchain technology:

“When it comes to blockchain technology, it is a very good technology for database sharing and transaction verification.”

These views are a far cry from his optimism about Bitcoin in his interview with Bloomberg TV's Smart Street show in 2014. At the time, Gates praised the low cost of bitcoin transactions:

“Bitcoin is exciting because it shows very low transaction costs. Bitcoin is better than traditional currencies, you don’t need to store them in the same place, and for large transactions, trading in traditional currencies is quite inconvenient. ."

The black market sites such as the Silk Road were recently closed, but Gates still believes that Bitcoin has many advantages to learn from:

“Most of the customers we talked about have not tried to be anonymous, they are willing to be known, so the technology of Bitcoin is the key, you can use it, or develop a similar technology, and then with terrorism and any money laundering activities. Clearing the relationship makes people feel that it is acceptable."

In addition, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has long supported blockchain projects, especially in Africa. For example, in 2015, the Foundation donated $100,000 to the Kenya Bitcoin merchant payment platform Bitsoko.

The Foundation has been promoting the development of virtual currency in Africa because they can provide low-cost trading services for the poor.

Although Gates is at a distance from Bitcoin, Microsoft has long-standing relationships with Bitcoin and blockchain technology.

As early as 2014, the company's website began accepting Bitcoin as a payment method. Its cloud computing platform, Azure, also launched the Blockchain Workbench, which is designed to allow companies to develop tests and launch blockchain applications.

At present, Buffett is the third richest man in the world after Jeff Bezos and Gates. His name is well-known in the fields of investment and finance.

Buffett, the current CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, a multinational company, is considered one of the best investors in the world. People will pay attention to his speech, especially when it comes to money and investment.

The "Prophet of Omaha" has long been skeptical about Bitcoin. As early as 2014, Buffett always believed that Bitcoin only had the value as a trading tool, and he believed that the tool could be copied, as he told CNBC:

“Beyond the distance. Bitcoin is a mirage. It is a means of transferring funds and can be done anonymously. But cheques are also a means of transferring funds. Just because checks can transfer funds, is it worth the price? Post What about money orders? You can transfer funds through postal remittances. People do the same. I hope Bitcoin can be a better means of transferring funds, but you can copy similar tools in many ways, and this will happen in the future. In my opinion, the idea that Bitcoin has some great intrinsic value is very ridiculous."

After three years, Buffett made headlines again because of the bitcoin, because the cryptocurrency market began the largest bull market in history, and eventually Bitcoin hit a record high of $20,000.

In January 2018, Buffett said bluntly in an interview with CNBC that he would not trade Bitcoin and predicted that cryptocurrencies would end in failure:

"Overall, as far as cryptocurrencies are concerned, I can almost certainly say that they will have a bad ending... I don't know when it happened or how it happened."

Ironically, Buffett subsequently issued a statement saying that he does not know much about the technical aspects of Bitcoin:

"We don't have bitcoin, we don't short bitcoin, we will never be related to it. I am in too much trouble because of some things I know. Why do I need to be optimistic or bearish what I don't understand? ”

"Now, if you buy something like cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, then you don't have assets that can produce anything, you just want the next person to spend more money to buy it."

"When you do this, you are not investing. You are speculating. There is nothing wrong with this. If you want to bet someone will spend more money to pick up, this is a game. This is not an investment."

When asked about his latest views on cryptocurrencies, the 87-year-old man slammed at the annual general meeting that "the end of the cryptocurrency would be bad."

Although his position on cryptocurrency is very clear, in 2017, Buffett admitted that he missed some technology stocks on the train for years, as reported by Fortune magazine.

Although Berkshire Hathaway recently invested heavily in Apple, Buffett regretted at the 2017 annual general meeting of shareholders that he missed the 2004 initial public offering of Google.

When talking about technology companies, Buffett’s views have changed. He said that the market has “substantially changed”. According to Fortune magazine, in 2017, the top five technology companies in the United States (Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook) had a total market capitalization of more than $250 million.

When talking about Amazon, Buffett said bluntly: "I am too stupid, I don't know what will happen."

This raises the question: Will Buffett and his closest business partners, such as Charlie Munger, miss the opportunity now? As always, only time can tell us.

Currently, Forbes is the fifth richest man in the world. Mark Zuckerberg is the co-founder of Facebook and the current chairman and CEO.

He has been reported by the news recently because of Facebook’s involvement in Cambridge Analytics’ data privacy scandal.

Surprisingly, Zuckerberg’s views on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin have hardly been cited by the media.

In fact, in addition to his own post on Facebook in January 2018, it is difficult to find information about his topic related to cryptocurrency.

In that article, Zuckerberg expressed his 2018 goal, focusing on how to make his social media platform a better tool for people's daily lives. He pointed out that the inspiration comes from cryptocurrency

"There are some important trends that are contrary to this. For example, encryption technology and cryptocurrency. Get energy from a centralized system and put it back in people's hands... I am interested in delving into the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how to best Use them well in our services."

It’s also understandable that Facebook’s ban on the publication of these ads is intended to prevent fraudulent investors from being tricked or defrauded by fraudulent services.

However, it eventually banned all cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based services and company-delivered advertising, "denying" that they are one of the world's largest advertising platforms.

As we have seen, these influential leaders cannot predict the future, but almost every one has left an indelible mark on their respective spheres of influence.

However, although progress has been slow, it is almost certain that blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies appear to be quietly entering these areas, and these people will undoubtedly make a completely different view on this topic in the coming years.