“All the advantages that bitcoin has, for me make it a gold for the modern world,” says Mexican businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego.
This is how the founder of Grupo Salinas expressed himself in an interview he had with the director of Blockchain Land, José Rodríguez, and which was published hours ago on the latter’s YouTube channel.
Salinas Pliego emphasizes considering bitcoin (BTC) as a financial asset and explains that, for him, is not important if it is a currency or not. “For me, bitcoin is an asset that has extraordinary properties,” says the businessman and mentions, among them, divisibility, ease of transfer and simplicity of storage without counterparty risk.
The comparison of bitcoin with gold leads the third richest man in Mexico to say that even the precious metal is not a currency. «You cannot come to a store with a gold coin and comp buy a computer, but you have to exchange the gold for fiat and then buy the computer “, he exemplifies.
” Bitcoin is an asset that has international value, which is priced with enormous liquidity worldwide and that, therefore, should be in any portfolio “, says this 65-year-old accountant who has a master’s degree in business and has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Guadalajara.
This media reported that, at the end of 2020, the business expert had 10% of his investment portfolio in bitcoin.
The scarcity of bitcoin is the key to its value
Salinas Pliego considers that one of the key factors that make bitcoin valuable is its scarcity. The issuance of BTC will never exceed 21 million units, of which a little more than 18 million are already in circulation.
Of this Thus, the cryptocurrency devised by Satoshi Nakamoto differs from fiat money, that is, from the compulsory currencies issued by the States, whose circulating is unlimited. The inorganic issue of money is one of the main causes of devaluation of national currencies.
Also BTC differs, with its limited issuance, from others crypto assets, for example, ether (ETH) , Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency.
As reported by CriptoNoticias, There is no agreement on how many ethers are exactly in circulation. This is not to the liking of Salinas Pliego who, during the interview, said: «as long as Ethereum does not have a finite amount of emission, I I don’t believe anything, because they can emit more and the asset depreciates. ”
What does Salinas Pliego think about other cryptocurrencies?
The Mexican billionaire does not is a maximalist bitcoiner but believes that there are other cryptocurrencies that may be useful. Mention, spec physically, to monero (XMR), and Zcash (ZEC), which are developed to provide privacy to their users.
Salinas Pliego considers that the Privacy is one of the weak points of bitcoin. “If I send you 1 BTC from my portfolio, you already know what my portfolio is and you can see my entire portfolio, then”, says the investor and adds: “you will be able to see how much I have, to whom I have paid and from where I have received, which is not at all private and is not so nice ».
The executive’s argument is correct, although It should be mentioned that by employing good privacy practices in Bitcoin, this risk is reduced. Currently, for example, most of the BTC wallets allow the use of infinite addresses, so it will not be possible for a stranger to see all the history of movements of the purse, but only from isolated directions.
“Governments don’t like bitcoin”
Finance and business expert values privacy in cryptocurrencies because, as he says, “governments do not like bitcoin.” He maintains that this is so, because “it burns them that people can get out of their fiat trap, because that is what fiat money is, a fraud.”
Look, I started my professional career in 1981. Back then , the weight it was 20 times 1 [dólar]. Today, on the other hand, we are at 20,000 for 1. Don’t even tell me. And that’s here, in Mexico, but if we do it in Venezuela, Argentina or Zimbabwe, the figures lose all proportion.
Ricardo Salinas Pliego, CEO of Grupo Salinas.
Salinas Pliego makes no exceptions when criticizing fiat money. What has been said for the currencies of Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina and Zimbabwe, is also applicable, according to him, to the US dollar. «The dollar as a hard currency is a joke “, he maintains.
The US currency loses purchasing power, on average, between 2 and 5% year-on-year. The huge monetary issue that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic increased the devaluation of the dollar and currently, the United States is experiencing the highest inflation in the last 13 years.
“That is a risk for bitcoin,” says the interviewee, because “governments, people with power, could decree that it is illegal.” Anyway, he does not believe that such an event will end the cryptocurrency: «I think it would continue to be used even if it was illegal, but many people would scary. ”
«No stinky fiat money»
As the last question of the interview, José Rodríguez posed a hypothetical case to Ricardo Salinas Pliego: «if you traveled today 30 years into the future and you could choose money, assets or goods to take with you, which ones would you choose? Gold, silver, bolivars, Argentine pesos, Mexican pesos? ».
Between laughter, provoked by the last part of the question, the businessman replied that, on his trip in the time, he would not carry “no stinky fiat money, not a peso, not a fiat paper.”
Gold, although it seems a good option, does not convince him because of the difficulty for its portability: “the problem with gold is where you keep it, that is, the custody of gold bars is not an easy thing.”
For that reason, your choice is bitcoin . “In case of political, social or financial turbulence, you have a better chance of running away with your bitcoins than with some gold bars, so I would take the bitcoins with me,” he said to conclude.
