Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, said cryptocurrencies are “really dangerous” and “only speculative.” He argued that crypto is for people who “want to gamble for excitement,” but noted that it could be useful for money transfers.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee talks about crypto.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist widely credited with inventing the World Wide Web, shared his thoughts on cryptocurrencies on CNBC’s “Beyond the Valley” podcast, which was released last week.
Berners-Lee called cryptocurrencies “dangerous” and compared them to gambling. He claimed that “cryptocurrencies can be 100% speculative” and opined that they are “not linked to anything at all.
It is only speculative. Obviously, it is really dangerous.
He argued that crypto is for “basically if you want to have a gambling kick.” He also compared cryptocurrencies to the dot-com bubble, noting that people were valuing various Internet stocks, and that “the bubble came about because they imagined other people would value them in the future, in other words, it was not based on earnings or anything real.” He further stressed that.
“Investing in certain things that are purely speculative is not something I want to spend my time on.
However, Berners-Lee said cryptocurrencies could be useful for remittances. He shared.
It seems like the most useful thing to try and use it for remittances, because if you transfer stuff to the blockchain, you can get it to your family right away.
The British computer scientist stressed that.” Just don’t keep the currency … Get rid of it and convert it back to USD.”
Image credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons