Pat Gelsinger is the latest skeptic in a long line of bitcoin haters to step up to the plate and take aim at the flagship cryptocurrency.
Speaking with Fortune , the VMWare CEO wasn’t shy when he unintelligently proclaimed:
“People primarily use Bitcoin for illicit activities and overall, it’s bad for humanity.”
VMWare is a highly successful digital business that specializes in virtualization and cloud computing services. Indeed by their own account, they claim that their “business is innovation.”
So it’s rather unusual to see Gelsinger take such a hardline approach against an emerging technology that is capturing the imagination of the public.
Let’s Keep Flogging That Same Old Bitcoin Horse
Last time I checked, Gelsinger was in information technology, not climatology. That didn’t stop him, however, from playing the same worn-out card that just about every other skeptic has done:
“It takes the energy of a home, half-a-home a day, to do a single entry into a Bitcoin ledger, it’s climate intolerant, it is so extreme, it is bad design.”
By now, this dead horse is beyond flogged and is probably unrecognizable. At CCN.com, we already have a resident bitcoin skeptic. Thankfully, he has some original thoughts on the matter.
As I outlined in a post earlier this year, the wasteful energy narrative of Bitcoin is highly dubious, to begin with. Not to mention that executives conveniently skip over the significant resources wasted by our current banking system.
Beware the Hypocrisy of Virtue Signaling
Gelsinger’s comments come at a time when trust in big tech ethics is at an all-time low. His ramblings are not solely focused on the evils of ‘cryptocurrency’ though and are generally directed at his sector as a whole.
The ongoing sagas with Facebook and Google are by now well-documented. As more tech companies come under the hammer, Gelsinger and his ilk are looking to position themselves ahead of the backlash.
There’s a term for that kind of thing. It’s called virtue signaling, and it’s certainly not altruistic. As award-winning writer Anand Giridharadas points out, many of the financial elite who create crises in the first place shouldn’t be the ones offering solutions.
Fortunately, Bitcoin is not a company. Its policies are not subject to the whims of the hierarchy. Gelsinger claims he and VMWare want to be “active participants in shaping the [Blockchain] technology for the good”.
Well, it may be too late for that sir. The cat is already out of the bag and it’s not asking for your permission.
