![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bill-gates-768x432.jpg\")
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Microsoft founder Bill Gates is no longer a bitcoin bear. He has now taken a neutral stance on bitcoin as an investment. However, as an innovation, he says that cryptocurrency is one that the world would be better off without because it allows for certain criminal activities.<\/strong><\/p>\n Bill Gates spoke about bitcoin and cryptocurrency in two separate interviews Thursday. One was with CNBC where he was asked what he thinks about bitcoin \u201cin the context of climate change seeing how bitcoin takes an enormous amount of energy to digitally mine.\u201d Gates simply replied:<\/p>\n I don\u2019t own bitcoin. I\u2019m not short bitcoin. So, I\u2019ve taken a neutral view.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cBitcoin can go up and down just based on the mania or whatever the views are, and I don\u2019t have a way of predicting how that will progress,\u201d Gates continued.<\/p>\n The Microsoft founder added: \u201cI do think moving money into a more digital form and getting transaction costs down, that\u2019s something the Gates Foundation does in developing countries. But there, we do it so you can reverse the transactions so we have total visibility of who\u2019s doing what. It\u2019s not about tax avoidance or illegal activities.\u201d<\/p>\n Gates has been no fan of bitcoin. In an interview with CNBC in 2018, he, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, and vice chairman Charlie Munger talked about bitcoin being worthless.<\/p>\n \u201cAs an asset class, you\u2019re not producing anything and so you shouldn\u2019t expect it to go up. It\u2019s kind of a pure \u2018greater fool theory\u2019 type of investment,\u201d Gates remarked. \u201cI would short it if there was an easy way to do it.\u201d BTC<\/a> was trading at around $9,300 on that day. Since then, the price of the cryptocurrency has risen almost 511% to $56,805 at the time of writing.<\/p>\n <\/ins> <\/ins> <\/p>\n Another interview published Thursday where Gates talked about cryptocurrency was with The Wall Street Journal. Responding to the question, \u201cWhat\u2019s the one tech innovation the world would be better off without?\u201d he said:<\/p>\n The way cryptocurrency works today allows for certain criminal activities. It\u2019d be good to get rid of that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n However, Gates quickly added, \u201cI probably should have said bioweapons. That\u2019s a really bad thing. We shouldn\u2019t have technology for that.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Forbes\u2019 real-time list of billionaires, Gates ranks fourth with a net worth of $124 billion. The first on the list is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos with $189 billion in net worth, followed by Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk with $182 billion, and then Bernard Arnault with $159 billion.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Microsoft has been granted a patent<\/a> for a \u201ccryptocurrency system using body activity data.\u201d This crypto-mining system leverages human activities, including brain waves and body heat, when performing online tasks such as using search engines, chatbots, and reading ads.<\/p>\nBill Gates Changes His Mind About Bitcoin<\/h2>\n
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Bill Gates Thinks the World Is Better Off Without Cryptocurrency Innovation<\/h2>\n
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