The Secret History of Bitcoin: People Who Changed Their Minds About Bitcoin

Source: Hashpai

Author: LucyCheng

2014: Bitcoin is a mirage;

2017: Bitcoin is a bubble and cannot generate value;

2018: Bitcoin is rat poison, and cryptocurrencies will end in tragedy;

2019: Bitcoin is a gambling device, you can't do anything with Bitcoin. It just sits there. It's like shells or something, it's not an investment for me;

2020: Cryptocurrency has no value, I don’t own any, and I never will. I’d rather buy land than Bitcoin.

Image source: Blockchain Technology

Bubble, rat poison, mirage... From 2014 to now, the stock god Buffett's view on Bitcoin remains the same. Similar to Buffett, celebrities such as Lang Xianping, who threatened to not accept Bitcoin even if given to me, Stephen Colbert, a famous American host who called Bitcoin "fool's gold", and the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who compared Bitcoin to a scam, also do not like Bitcoin. However, some of these opponents and critics have gradually changed their views and even started related businesses and transactions.

Image source: Internet

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is a famous representative. In September 2017, when the price of BTC had not yet exceeded 10,000, Jamie described Bitcoin as "a fraud worse than the tulip bubble" and mocked buyers as fools, believing that they would pay the price one day.

But at the end of the same year, when the price of BTC soared to $20,000, he suddenly changed his tough attitude and modestly commented, "Everyone has their own opinions on Bitcoin, and I am still skeptical about it. But as I said before, if it is properly controlled and managed, I am open to the use of virtual currencies." Not only that, at that time, JPMorgan Chase was also interested in supporting Bitcoin futures trading.

When most people thought that Jamie had changed his mind about Bitcoin, he changed his mind again at the end of 2018; at the Axios conference, Jamie said that he "regretted" defining Bitcoin as a scam, but he had never changed his skeptical and opposing views. What he meant between the lines was that rather than changing his mind about Bitcoin, this wave of operations was just to avoid becoming a spokesperson against Bitcoin. After all, he was tired of talking about the topic of cryptocurrency.

Image source: Internet

Not only Jamie, Microsoft founder Bill Gates's comments on Bitcoin are also sometimes good and sometimes bad, which makes people unpredictable. Sometimes he said that digital currency can directly cause death, sometimes he said that Bitcoin's payment convenience is better than legal currency, and sometimes he threatened to short Bitcoin... Although his opinions are inconsistent, Bill Gates is generally not optimistic about BTC; compared with cryptocurrency, he is more interested in blockchain technology.

However, just like the big guys in these fields look down on the small market of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency enthusiasts do not take their comments and doubts seriously. In the eyes of the latter, accusations without actual basis and theoretical support are meaningless and can be regarded as gossip.