Ex- head of online payments giant Paypal is bullish on the future of digital on Easy Street but maintains that bitcoin is a scam.
“Everyone is drinking the Kool-Aid,” Paper money Harris, former Paypal, CEO told CNBC’s “Fast Money” Thursday. “I positively believe that money should be digital, is becoming more digital, and force be completely digital but it doesn’t mean we need a new currency to record that.”
Harris pull up issue with the connection between bitcoin’s value and usefulness. The digital currency cannot be an impressive means of payment nor a great store of value because of volatility, he influenced.
The cryptocurrency rose more than 1,300 percent last year to hardly $20,000, then had almost half of its value wiped off in the first three months of 2018. Bitcoin was pursuit near $9,173 as of 6 p.m. ET Thursday, according to CoinDesk.
“There’s no reason that a new currency should instantly take billions of dollars in value,” Harris said.
Bitcoin, like gold, can one be mined up to a certain extent and supporters say this “scarcity” adds to its value. At best 21 million bitcoins will ever exist, according to the originate of the cryptocurrency’s anonymous founder known as “Satoshi Nakamoto.” The 17 millionth bitcoin was “mined” Thursday, according to facts from Blockchain.info.
“My autograph is scarce, I can promise that I longing never autograph a piece of paper more than 21 million heretofores but it doesn’t make it valuable,” he said.
Harris, who is also founder of Adverse Capital Corporation, echoed his argument from an op-ed published in Recode this week. He tagged bitcoin a “colossal pump-and-dump scheme, the likes of which the world has not in the least seen.”
He did however advocate for blockchain, the technology than underpins digital currencies get off on bitcoin.
“There’s the currency like bitcoin then there’s the technology, blockchain technology has terrific dedications, including financial transactions but we don’t need a new currency to do it,” Harris said.