Jamie Dimon is back in the news talking about Bitcoin – but he promises it's really for the very last time.
The CEO of JPMorgan Chase gave his usual crypto talk at CNBC in Davos (again) today: he loves blockchain and smart contracts, and thinks bitcoin is useless. As Dimon says, Bitcoin is just a “pet” (something he has said at least twice in the past few years).
While Dimon often blasphemous views on bitcoin are nowhere near as vitriolic as, say, Charlie Munger – who called bitcoin trading “baby brain harvesting” – or Warren Buffett – who called bitcoin “rat poison squared” – he has still made the headlines countless times for his little one-liners on bitcoin.
I should know: I have been covering what Jamie Dimon has been telling the media about bitcoin for six years now, back when I used to capitalize “Blockchain”.
But unlike January 2018, when what JPMorgan did with crypto seemed to have much more to balance — Dimon's anti-bitcoin comments just don't have as much bite anymore. The crypto space has moved on from the nastiness of Dimon and his damn centralized banking token (which somehow, appears still exist) to the evil Gary Gensler.
Because Gensler, even if I think personally he's just a big stand-up guy, and he actually has the ability to actively prevent Bitcoin adoption through his role at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Dimon, even though he runs one of America's largest banks, doesn't wield that kind of power.
Learn more in our reviews section: Gary Gensler has absolutely no importance
So even though Dimon made the news today for his one-liners about Bitcoin, his frustration at being asked about Bitcoin once again rings a little hollow:
“So please stop talking about this bullshit… People have opinions, and this is the last time I'm going to express my opinion.”
For someone who has been saying the exact same thing about bitcoin and blockchain for six years, who has no real influence on what anyone in the world does with bitcoin or blockchain, and who continues to make one of the newspapers for these same points of view, why protest like this? a lot?
Who really believes that the next time Dimon is asked about Bitcoin, he will remain impassive and curtly say “no comment”?
Not me.
I'm not very interested in technology, nor in finance either. I love writing stories and watching strange things happen. And that’s why I ended up in crypto.
But because I miss that passion for what crypto and blockchain are – finance, technology, privacy, yadda yadda – I'm going to write about what actually interests me instead. All about crypto that has very little going for it. with crypto.
This is what this column will be about. All the tangential stories coming out of the blockchain and crypto space, what I think about them and how I get there as a skeptical former Russian literature student.
It is precisely my status as an outsider that allows me to do what I do: give my opinion on all sides of any crypto issue, without any strings attached, without any stake in the game.
If you want to talk crypto with me, let's get off topic.
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