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Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

reuters.com

11–20 of 189 posts

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#11
post #5
post #3

The experimentation of ideas around what money is is certainly not "nonproductive" and to dismiss it like that is silly. He might not like it for any reason at all and that's fine, but to call it nonproductive is ridiculous.

All right, then - how is it productive?

Seeking ways to improve existing systems, financial or not, is a productive activity in my book. How successful the effort is, is another discussion entirely.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#12
post #5
post #3

The experimentation of ideas around what money is is certainly not "nonproductive" and to dismiss it like that is silly. He might not like it for any reason at all and that's fine, but to call it nonproductive is ridiculous.

All right, then - how is it productive?

We have a global conversation about technology and money backed by large scale experiments. The production value is the basis for the future of trust and money in a digital world.

More productive work has been done by Bitcoin devs and users than much of the normal finace work and money spent when it comes to investment and future value creation though experimentation right now. To dismiss all of that as nonproductive is ridiculous because it is very clearly extremely productive. This is true regardless of how much money an investment in Bitcoin might make.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#13
post #6

He's thinking of it in investing terms, underlying asset value, cash flows, etc. Because the media asks him "Should we buy bitcoin?" every damn day of the year. I'd be more interested to hear what he thinks makes for a good currency, inflation vs. deflation, freedom of transfer, protection against forfeiture, etc. Does he also think that the US Dollar is rat poison because it's not a productive asset? He holds like $…

>cash is dead

lol

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#14

He has always said he doesnt understand technology and has resisted investing in it. While the value is fluctuating heavily due to speculation, over time it will stabilize. Bitcoin will resist inflation and is somewhat out of control of governments or any central authority. People in countries where the govt has screwed up the currency can use it to get money out of the country or as a stable store even if dollars or…

He's the third-largest shareholder of Apple behind Vanguard and Blackrock.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#15
post #5
post #3

The experimentation of ideas around what money is is certainly not "nonproductive" and to dismiss it like that is silly. He might not like it for any reason at all and that's fine, but to call it nonproductive is ridiculous.

All right, then - how is it productive?

It depends on your definition of productive but in my opinion it's creating wealth, companies, & jobs.

People are going into work every day to work on crypto-related products. Bitcoin & other cryptocurrencies are putting food on the table for those people.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#16
post #6

He's thinking of it in investing terms, underlying asset value, cash flows, etc. Because the media asks him "Should we buy bitcoin?" every damn day of the year. I'd be more interested to hear what he thinks makes for a good currency, inflation vs. deflation, freedom of transfer, protection against forfeiture, etc. Does he also think that the US Dollar is rat poison because it's not a productive asset? He holds like $…

>cash is dead lol

> He holds like $80b cash > ... > now cash is dead

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#17
post #7

I can't agree or disagree on any investment recommendations as I have no expertise in the area, but I have that is pretty much what my gut reaction to Bitcoin/crypto has always been

As I've learned a bit about blockchain, I feel cryptocurrency is distracting from the broader implications of the technology. It's going to be hard enough for non-technical users to see the underlying value of immutable, distributed data and applications, so that conflation is unfortunate.

As we've seen many times now immutability is not a strong property (indeed, none of the properties provided by blockchains are) of them, so not all that useful. E.g. Ethereum's various hard forks to un-do things.

In a manner of speaking, "history is written by the victors" applies to blockchains in more way than one (miners, orgs, hardforks, ...)

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#18

I can't agree or disagree on any investment recommendations as I have no expertise in the area, but I have that is pretty much what my gut reaction to Bitcoin/crypto has always been

It's actually very similar to the stock market, it's just that there's no company backing it and there's no rules. It's why people were warned against investing so much not that long ago.

In Europe meanwhile, investing in the stock market is getting harder and harder, as new european rules (e.g. MIFID II) make any stock broker require to fill in a test and whatnot to prove basic stock market knowledge and competency, plus accept the risk to lose money explicitly.

There's a lot of people that invested money in the stock market they couldn't lose, due to promises of huge returns. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#19
post #6

He's thinking of it in investing terms, underlying asset value, cash flows, etc. Because the media asks him "Should we buy bitcoin?" every damn day of the year. I'd be more interested to hear what he thinks makes for a good currency, inflation vs. deflation, freedom of transfer, protection against forfeiture, etc. Does he also think that the US Dollar is rat poison because it's not a productive asset? He holds like $…

Do you really think he's going to come out as friendly to bitcoin on any of these?

> I'd be more interested to hear what he thinks makes for a good currency, inflation vs. deflation, freedom of transfer, protection against forfeiture, etc.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#20
post #6

He's thinking of it in investing terms, underlying asset value, cash flows, etc. Because the media asks him "Should we buy bitcoin?" every damn day of the year. I'd be more interested to hear what he thinks makes for a good currency, inflation vs. deflation, freedom of transfer, protection against forfeiture, etc. Does he also think that the US Dollar is rat poison because it's not a productive asset? He holds like $…

>cash is dead lol

Somewhat of a class-based statement, definitely not dead among the working/lower class.

If anything it was the 'tap-to-pay' feature of debit/credit cards that is finally putting some death-knell pressure on cash. It's so much faster than paying with a pin card or cash...

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