Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 189 posts

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#31

Post by jpmattia »

tptacek wrote: post #14
triviatise wrote: post #9

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.

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

He waited until 2016 before investing, not exactly an early adopter.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#32

Post by fixermark »

triviatise wrote: post #9

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…

Buffet may not be deeply knowledgeable of tech, but I think his assessment of a currency is trustworthy.

Just because BTC is electronically transacted doesn't exempt it from rules of supply and demand, speculation, value stabilization, &c.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#34

Post by beefield »

triviatise wrote: post #9

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…

> While the value is fluctuating heavily due to speculation, over time it will stabilize.

Can you describe any mechanism that actually causes the price to stabilize and speculation to disappear? (Please, if possible, also define at least somewhat quantitatively what you mean by stable, and then discuss how successful this mechanism you first described has been stabilizing gold price during the last couple of thousand years when gold has been used as moneylike instrument and store of value.)

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#35

Post by sizzzzlerz »

Cyph0n wrote: post #22
tptacek wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And he regrets not investing in Amazon back in the 90s. I believe that he only recently started to invest in tech.

He bought IBM in 2011. That was his first venture in tech companies. Apple came along in 2016.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#36

Post by voidpointer »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #8

Buffett/Munger have always argued that Gold and other commodities are equally worthless investments based on fear and ponzi like attributes[1]. No surprise then they feel even worse about Bitcoin. The interesting thing here is that the common response here is: "Hey that's a great theory, but in real life, I just paid off my mortgage with my proceeds from bitcoin." While perhaps true, such rebuttals ignore the argumen…

> The interesting thing here is that the common response here is: "Hey that's a great theory, but in real life, I just paid off my mortgage with my proceeds from bitcoin."

Mortgages have been payed off with lottery wins. That doesn't make lottery tickets a good investment.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#37

Post by boomlinde »

triviatise wrote: post #9

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…

That's a lot of "will" without the hows and whys that should go with it to make an interesting point.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#39

Post by gfo »

triviatise wrote: post #9

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…

> It is not unreasonable to argue that fiat currencies around the world are not stable because of inflationary monetary policies.

If you're comparing the stability of the major currencies to Bitcoin you really need to look at the price charts for any digital currency.

> Buffet always holds billions in cash which is constantly depreciating in value.

Buffett is always ready to use that cash to make deals. True, they have a lot of cash, but it's not like he doesn't constantly use it to make investments.

Re: Buffett bashes Bitcoin as nonproductive, thriving on mystique

#40

Post by lmkg »

jpmattia wrote: post #31
tptacek wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

He's the third-largest shareholder of Apple behind Vanguard and Blackrock. He waited until 2016 before investing, not exactly an early adopter.

The comment is replying to a blanket statement that Buffet doesn't invest in tech. He may be conservative about it, but he clearly does invest in tech.
Post reply on HN