
Bill Gates: I would short Bitcoin if I could - 21
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/07/bill-gates-i-would-short-bitcoin-if-i-could.html
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sharemywin
"Even Bill Gates, the founder and chairman of Microsoft Corp. and widely
regarded as the crown prince of the World Wide Web, was taken unawares by the
Internet's grassroots acceptance," writes Sharon Reier, identified by the
Times as a freelance journalist based in Paris.

In his book, The Road Ahead, she adds "Mr. Gates admitted that he believed the
technology for 'killer applications' was inadequate to lure consumers to the
Internet."

At the time, Gates' company was devoted mainly to its Microsoft Office
software suite. Though, as Microsoft's 1997 acquisition of WebTV Networks
indicates, Gates was certainly coming around to the internet.

He later revised his book, which focused on the impact personal computing
would have on the world, to include a chapter on the internet, added Reier.
(Apparently, he wasn't sold on the idea that the internet would be a big deal
at the time the book was initially published in 1995.)

[https://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/what-bill-gates-got-
wrong-...](https://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/what-bill-gates-got-wrong-about-
the-internet-in-the-1990s.html)

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haakon
> Bill Gates, […] widely regarded as the crown prince of the World Wide Web

I've never heard him referred to as this; what a strange title. So the
internet is a monarchy and Gates will one day inherit the crown?

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sharemywin
I could see that before IE was under fire from the justice department.

Internet Explorer became the new dominant browser, attaining a peak of about
96% of the web browser usage share during 2002, more than Netscape had at its
peak.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_wars)

Browser incompatibilities: The plaintiffs in the antitrust case claimed that
Microsoft had added support for ActiveX controls in the Internet Explorer web
browser to break compatibility with Netscape Navigator, which used components
based on Java and Netscape's own plugin system. On CSS, data:, etc.: A decade
after the original Netscape-related antitrust suit, the web browser company
Opera Software has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the
European Union saying it "calls on Microsoft to adhere to its own public
pronouncements to support these standards, instead of stifling them with its
notorious 'Embrace, Extend and Extinguish' strategy".[13]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish)

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Talyen42
You can short Bitcoin, and he won't.

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asdsa5325
Title isn't a real quote

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vijaybritto
I have the same doubts about Bitcoin. If it's treated as an asset and not as a
currency for exchange of value, how is this going to change the world? Is this
expected behaviour as we humans are greedy? Or is this a failure of the
system?

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Omnius
If... that's exactly what its being used for unless its being used to purchase
illegal goods (ala silk road - which i have no problem with) but as a normal
currency in the western world no one is going to adopt it so its an asset
until it vanishes.

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patrickg_zill
Someone is stopping Gates from shorting Bitcoin? Who?

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asdsa5325
The actual quote:

"I agree I would short it if there was an easy way to do it"

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tartrate
But you can short Bitcoin...

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asdsa5325
Title isn't a real quote

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21
Gates certainly has the money to drive it into the ground if he wanted.

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coldcode
I thought you could with Bitcoin Futures?

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asdsa5325
Futures aren't the same thing as shorting, but you can also short through
various (sketchy) parties.

