JAKARTA - Bill Gates has his own reasons for not supporting bitcoin cryptocurrency. The views of the former Microsoft boss are clearly at odds with Elon Musk, who openly wrote his support in his Twitter bio.
Gates himself revealed that the environment is the main factor that will be affected by bitcoin mining. He also warned of the dangers of bitcoin for crypto currency investors.
Based on the viewpoint of the Microsoft founder, bitcoin has an important role in polluting the environment. Gates argues that the cryptocurrency consumes enormous amounts of electricity per year. The power consumed can match Argentina's electricity consumption.
The reason is, miners or bitcoin miners use computers with enormous power consumption all day long, and it lasts for a week. Meanwhile, power plants today still use fossil fuels, including coal and petroleum.
The process of burning fossil fuels also releases carbon dioxide or CO2. This means that the more carbon dioxide produced the more polluted the environment.
Bill Gates' warning does not stop with environmental concerns, he also added that investing in bitcoin is risky because of its volatility. The rate of increase and decrease is considered very extreme. A bitcoin investor can suddenly get rich in a short time, on the other hand, an investor can fall into poverty as quickly as he is rich.
"Elon Musk has a lot of money and he's very sophisticated, so I'm not worried about his bitcoin fluctuating randomly," Gates told Bloomberg as quoted by Business Insider, Wednesday, February 24.
Bill Gates also regretted the general public who had very little money and suddenly invested in bitcoin because of the euphoria it caused.
“I think of the people who are carried away by this euphoria, who may not have a lot of money to spare. So I'm not a bitcoin supporter. To my mind, if you were less wealthy than Elon Musk, it might be better to be careful, "said Gates.
The third richest person in the world also expressed his positive opinion regarding bitcoin. According to him, crypto currency is essentially a good thing but it is not good because of mining activities.
Last week, the value of bitcoin touched the highest price in bitcoin history at 58 thousand US dollars per chip. A few days later the crypto money declined to reach 45 US dollars. Now, bitcoin has again increased up to 50 thousand US dollars per chip.
The increase in the bitcoin currency was triggered by Tesla's action to buy up as much as US $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin. This value is equivalent to the cash of the electric car company, which is 7-8 percent. Tesla also revealed the reasons for the decision, to maximize the company's cash returns.
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