Elon Musk is weighing in on cryptocurrency and bitcoin, and while he sees promise in the space, he doesn’t think it’s all it’s cracked up to be.
Musk Is Split Down the Middle
This is an attitude most enthusiasts and Twitter followers could likely expect from someone like Musk. While the man has played a role in the community, that role hasn’t been particularly significant, and his contributions have been more speculative than straight-up valuable at best.
In a recent interview, he states that he’s neither “here nor there” on assets like bitcoin, and he doesn’t think BTC falls into the “digital gold” category that so many traders and analysts are pushing for.
He explains what role he sees crypto playing in the future of finance:
This sort of gets the crypto people angry, but there are transactions that are not within the balance of the law, and there are, obviously, many laws in different countries. Normally, cash is used for these transactions, but for illegal transactions to occur, cash must also be used for legal transactions. You need an illegal to legal bridge. That’s where crypto comes in.
Musk appears to be saying that crypto is primarily used for criminal or illicit purposes. Providing a further explanation for his observations, he states that crypto is overtaking cash’s purpose in the world of the dark web. He says:
If can’t be entirely dark because, otherwise, how do you buy normal stuff? And cash, these days, is used much rarer. It’s increasingly difficult to use cash. Some places, you can’t use cash at all, so there’s a forcing function for transactions that are illegal, quasi-illegal, and in some cases legal, but it’s got to have both legal and illegal.
Rather than replacing some of the world’s main forms of fiat or value stores (i.e. gold), Musk believes bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will simply become additional aspects and tools one can use in the financial space, though they probably won’t reach higher statuses than this. He doesn’t expect BTC to replace cash or credit cards outright, though he’s confident the ways people can use them in the future will grow.
Where Are You Going with All This?
In the past, it has almost seemed like Musk saw cryptocurrency as some sort of joke; as a way to get into traders’ heads and push their buttons. Recently, Musk initiated a tweet that had everyone baffled and confused as to what it meant. The tweet simply read:
Bitcoin is not my safe word.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has put out no follow up message explaining what he was looking to achieve with this tweet. In addition, a rumor began on social media not long ago that Musk was set to become the new CEO of Dogecoin, though this failed to become a reality.