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JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon says he doesn’t “really give a shit” about bitcoin, his latest harsh comment on the popular cryptocurrency. Dimon spoke out about bitcoin yesterday at an Axios conference, after keeping silent for a period of time following an apology for calling bitcoin a “fraud.”
Last September, Dimon called out bitcoin in searing comments, added that, “It won’t end well. Someone will get killed.” But by January, he had backpedalled, saying that he regretted his comments and acknowledging that “the blockchain is real” technology. He kept quiet about the subject until August, when he again declared bitcoin was “a scam.”
Despite the CEO’s negative outlook on bitcoin, JP Morgan is still investing time and money into related technology. The company announced last week that it had built a blockchain platform called Quorum, based on Ethereum, for enterprise customers. The company proposes to offer digital tokens backed by gold bars and diamonds on the platform.
The conflict between cryptocurrency traders and traditional banks and financial figures like JP Morgan and Warren Buffett has been ongoing. Dimon’s comments encapsulate how the relationship is still sour, as traditional banking institutions tend to be wary of how financially volatile cryptocurrency is and, if blockchain ever achieves its goals, the decentralized financial structures that it could create. Bitcoin has lost a bit of its shine since prices hit an all-time high of over $20,000 earlier this year.
Dimon’s comments also happen to coincide with Bitcoin’s tenth anniversary. On this day 10 years ago, someone or a collective of people going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin whitepaper, detailing a new “peer-to-peer” electronic cash system. Since then, bitcoin’s rising popularity has spawned many other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero.
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