Video: JP Morgan CEO Sees Bitcoin as a Waste of Time
Bitcoin skeptic Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan has once again spoken about the decentralized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin – by dismissing it. He sees potential in blockchain, however.
“Separate currency from blockchain,” Dimon said, speaking at the Fortune Global Forum . “My belief is that there’s not going to be virtual currencies. They may be small,” he added dismissively, stating that governments will not put up with it.
“Government like to control (currencies). They have central banks, they like to control the supply. They also generally like to know where it (currency) is and where it goes.”
Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies are slowly being seen as innovations by some government entities and regulators around the world. The Chinese Cyberspace Administration recently said the world is already in a “post-Bitcoin era” and that the revolutionary changes by Bitcoin can no longer be ignored. Certain voices from Scotland have recently talked up the need to form their own version of a virtual currency – ScotPound, to be used alongside the pound sterling. The UK Treasury Secretary recently proclaimed the United Kingdom as a destination for Fintech.
Dimon made a quick reference to such endeavors, saying:
“Now you have a lot of politicians around the world who say there’s a need; I support technology. It’s kind of cute now that senators in Congress say they support Silicon Valley innovation,” before adding,
They (the Government) will not support major currencies that go around borders that they don’t have control over.
It’s just not going to happen.
Dimon added:
“Bitcoin is like 2 billion dollars or 3 billion dollars. We (JP Morgan) move 6 trillion, a day. So you’ve got to (put it in perspective).”
Dimon, the CEO of the largest bank in the United States with assets at $2.39 trillion in assets has previously noted that Bitcoin is a “terrible store of value”. During an annual Washington meet among other members of the Institute of International Finance, Dimon spoke about bitcoin developers trying to replace the current banking system.
“(Bitcoin developers) Are going to try to eat our lunch, and that’s fine…That’s called competition and we’ll be competing,” he said last year.
Speaking now at the Fortune Global Forum, Dimon was decidedly dismissive of any such competition.
It’s not going to happen. It’s a waste of time.
There will be no real non-controlled currency in the world.
Referring to the technology used, Dimon noted that the technology may indeed be used to transport currency sometime in the future.
The technology may even be used to transport currency, (but) it will be for U.S. dollars.
Speaking about blockchain technology after separating it from Bitcoin, he said:
Like any other technology, if it is cheaper, effective, works, and it is secure, we are all going to use it.
We have a study group looking at Blockchain. It may be very good for certain things like loans, with a lot of documentation that is hard to transfer. It may not be as important for something that already has gone electronic.
The entire video, courtesy of Fortune can be viewed here:
Featured image from Wikimedia.
