Bill Gates Warns Investors About Bitcoin

I am not optimistic about bitcoin, said Bill Gates. The Microsoft co-founder, critic of the fluctuations, ecological impact and anonymity of bitcoin, advocates for local and transparent digital currencies. 

Why Bill Gates Is Worried About Bitcoin 

Bill Gates is not very optimistic for bitcoin. In an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, February 23, 2021, the Microsoft co-founder - long the richest person in the world - expressed reservations about three key aspects of the famous cryptocurrency: its fluctuations, its environmental impact and its anonymity.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and central player in the current fluctuations of bitcoin, “has a lot of money and is very sophisticated. So I don't worry about his bitcoin increasing or decreasing randomly,” said Bill Gates. “But I think people get sucked into these fads, and maybe they don't have as much money that they can go without. Also, I'm not bullish on bitcoin, and my general opinion is that, if you're less wealthy than Elon Musk, you should be careful,” he cautioned. Recall that Elon Musk regularly fights for the place of the richest person in the world with Jeff Bezos.

Over 20% loss in value in two days

Bill Gates refers in particular to the recent drop in the price of bitcoin. On Saturday, Elon Musk conceded in a tweet that the prices of bitcoin and ethereum (another cryptocurrency) “do indeed seem high”. Earlier this week, Janet Yellen, former president of the Central Bank of the United States, also described in the columns of the New York Times bitcoin as a “highly speculative asset”. She also shared her fears about the “potential losses that investors could suffer”. In just two days, bitcoin has indeed subsequently lost more than 20% of its value. At over $ 58,000 on Sunday night, it came down to $ 45,560 on Tuesday night.

In his interview, Bill Gates, whose Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation seeks to work for protecting the environment, also recalled the environmental impact of bitcoin. “Bitcoin consumes a lot of energy,” he pointed out. According to Digiconomist's Energy Consumption Index , bitcoin's carbon footprint - 36.95 megatons of CO2 per year - is effectively equivalent to that of New Zealand. But Tesla, which prides itself on “accelerating the global transition to a sustainable energy scheme”, recently invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin and may soon accept cryptocurrency as a means of payment for its electric vehicles.

There should be a different approach for digital currencies

Still, the Microsoft co-founder called digital currencies a “good thing”. According to him, “there is a different approach” with local digital currencies that have rules against money laundering and terrorist financing, while retaining the practicalities and low costs of cryptocurrencies. The anonymous aspect of bitcoin does indeed represent a third problem for Bill Gates, who had already said that cryptocurrencies and the non-traceability of some of them “have caused deaths fairly directly”. Bitcoin promotes anonymous transactions, and these are irreversible transactions. The Gates Foundation does a lot of digital currencies, but these are things where you can see who's doing the transaction,” he compared.