The futurist, Ray Kurzweil, told an audience at the Exponential Finance conference – via one of those weird screens on wheels – that he wouldn't put his money into bitcoin. While he appears to like the blockchain technology, he sees bitcoin in particular as unstable, putting it at a disadvantage against existing currencies, at least in his mind.
Ray Kurzweil is famous for his books in which he makes predictions about the state of technology in future years. He has largely been correct in the predictions he has made, but is sometimes off slightly regarding the actual year when a technology will be available, or how the technology is actually implemented.
While expressing his doubts about bitcoin, Kurzweil said:
“Ultimately, people need to have confidence in their currency and bitcoin in particular has not really demonstrated that. It’s had a good year, but a very rocky life before that… I wouldn't put my money into it.”
Kurzweil does have a fair point, since the price of bitcoin in the last few months has broken several records, with the currency now sitting at $2,821, a big increase from just $580 a mere year ago. While he’s not so optimistic about bitcoin itself, he believes that blockchain currency may get picked up by national governments. Russia's central bank and the State of Palestine's Monetary Authority have already commented on wanting national cryptocurrencies. Describing the blockchain’s potential, Kurzweil said:
“Providing greater transparency, and blockchain does provide that, could be something adopted by leading currencies like the existing national currencies.”
Do you think blockchain currencies could at one point surpass their regular counterparts in terms of adoption, or are you still on the fence about the whole phenomenon? Sound off in the comments below!
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