Bitcoin was launched in the year 2009, and currently, it is in its 12th year in the crypto space. Furthermore, it is the first largest cryptocurrency amongst over 5000 cryptocurrencies. When you google search for - “Top Popular Cryptocurrency”, you will find Bitcoin topping the list in every single article. 

As per the statistics by Statista, Bitcoin has over 68 million wallet users. And if the fanbase wasn’t enough, Bitcoin is not only talked about but owned by popular influencers such as Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Mike Tyson, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Winklevoss Twins and accepted by over 15,000 businesses across the world. Hence it would not be an exaggeration to say that Bitcoin is in the hype with probably over 100 million Bitcoin users worldwide!

Everyone talks about Bitcoin and people or companies associated with it; thus, these are the very basic topic that everyone covers about cryptocurrency. But there is always the other side of the coin, and well, this side of the coin is about the critics of Bitcoin.

In this blog, we are going to talk about those who are at odds with Bitcoin - The 7 Most Popular Bitcoin Haters:

1. Bill Gates 

Bill Gates is the American business magnate, the business tycoon, business leader, technologist, an investor, author, software developer, and a philanthropist. He is one of the richest and powerful people in the world. He is the founder of Microsoft and the co-founder of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - the world’s largest private charitable foundation.

In 2014, he told the Entrepreneur, “Bitcoin is better than currency in that you don’t have to be physically in the same place and, of course, for large transactions, currency can get pretty inconvenient” at the Sibos Conference in Boston. However, eventually, his views about Bitcoin changed as in February 2018 at the Reddit AMA; he criticized the anonymity and money laundering associated with cryptocurrency. He said, “The main feature of cryptocurrencies is their anonymity. I don't think this is a good thing. The Governments ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing. Right now cryptocurrencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way.”

2. Charlie Munger 

Charlie Munger is a Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and an American billion investor, a businessman, philanthropist, architectural designer, and a former real estate attorney. He is also called to be the right-hand man of Warren Buffet.

Charlie Munger is one of the most ardent haters of Bitcoin and why not, Warren Buffet and he share almost the same space about their views on Bitcoin. He has even remarked crypto trading to be “trading freshly harvested baby brains”.

Also Read, 7 known influential people in the world of Cryptocurrency

3. Jamie Dimon 

Jamie Dimon is the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase - the largest bank in the U.S., an American billionaire businessman and considered as one of the powerful and influential people in the business sector.

Jamie Dimon is known for calling out the Bitcoin fraud in September 2017. He has been stated to believe in blockchain technology but views everyone that owns Bitcoin to be stupid. At the Axios conference in Los Angeles, he was asked to weigh on the subject of Bitcoin - the world’s largest digital currency, he said “I didn’t want to be the spokesman against Bitcoin. I don’t really give a shit - that’s the point, OK?” However, due to his certain remarks on Bitcoin, he later made a statement in an interview with the Fox Business Network, saying that “I regret making” those comments, “The blockchain is real. You can have crypto yen and dollars and stuff like that.”

4. Joseph Stiglitz 

Joseph Stiglitz is an American economist, a public policy analyst, and a professor at the Columbia Business School. In 2001, he won the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work regarding laying the foundation of the theory of markets.

Joseph Stiglitz views Bitcoin to have no particular use-cases or purpose than for the criminals and that it would eventually leave the market when it won’t be able to be used in the Dark market. In a Bloomberg Television interview, he said, “bitcoin is successful only because of its potential for circumvention, lack of oversight.” “So it seems to me it ought to be outlawed.” “It doesn’t serve any socially useful function.”

5. Nouriel Roubini 

Nouriel Roubini is the Co-founder of RGE Monitor, an American economist and a professor at the New York University’s Stern School of Business. He also served at the White House council of economic advisers and the US Treasury, and he is a member of the Council for the Future of Europe. He is popularly known as “Dr. Doom” for his prediction of the 2008 recession. 

Nouriel Roubini is known for his discussions with Vitalik Buterin and Peter Van Valkenburgh and he is considered as one of the famous critics of Bitcoin. He views cryptocurrency and blockchain as over-hyped, and in bad taste of manipulation, fraudulence, and deception. 

Also Read, Meet The 10 Crypto Millionaires In The World

6. Paul Krugman 

Paul Krugman is an American economist, a distinguished professor at the Graduate Center Economics Ph.D. program and also at the Luxembourg Income Study Center at the City University of New York, and a columnist for the New York Times. In 2008, Paul Krugman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his international trade theory work

Paul Krugman has viewed his thoughts about Bitcoin on several occasions, one of them has been about how “Bitcoin is Evil” and the way Bitcoin is treated as a store of value since it has no intrinsic value. He writes, “to be successful, money must be both a medium of exchange and a reasonably stable store of value. And it remains completely unclear why Bitcoin should be a stable store of value.”

7. Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet is one of the most successful and wealthiest investors, furthermore, he is also popularly known as the “Oracle of Omaha”. He is the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway that owns more than 60 companies, he is an investor, a philanthropist, and a  business tycoon.

Last but not least is saved for someone who is the harshest critic of Bitcoin and has similarly talked about his views on the cryptocurrency many times, such as not participating in the crypto world, it is an insecure investment and has no real value. One of his various quotes about Bitcoin has been “probably rat poisoned squared” at the annual shareholder meeting in Berkshire Hathaway’s 2018. Also, in one of his interviews with CNBC, he explained, “Cryptocurrencies basically has no value. They don’t produce anything. You can’t do anything with it except sell it to somebody else. But that person’s got the problem  (...) I don’t own any cryptocurrency. I never will”