Peter Thiel: the name is almost ubiquitous in the business community. Thiel is a venture capitalist, hedge fund manager, and oh, the co-founder of PayPal. And he suggests there are still some issues that need to be worked through before bitcoin hits the mainstream.
Here’s what he had to say in a video interview with USA Today:
[blockquote style=”2″]Bitcoin is sort of the opposite [with reference to how PayPal was built]. You have a new currency, at least on the level of speculation, but you haven’t gotten the payment system to work. So it’s very hard to transact, and I think that’s going to be the key challenge. They actually have to get the payment to work.[/blockquote]
He adds, perhaps controversially:
[blockquote style=”2″]But you might use bitcoin for radically illegal things like buying drugs or stuff like that, but I’d like to see [it] easy to use for legal payments.[/blockquote]
Here’s the video:
[ot-video type=”youtube” url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYjmCOc949I”]
If there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s that bitcoin does need a lot of work before mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers can begin using it comfortably — and optimistically speaking, that could very well be years down the line.
But Mr. Thiel, with all due respect, there are plenty of legal things to spend bitcoin on out there. Just take a look at the options available to consumers today from major companies like Overstock.com, DISH Network, Dell, and a whole lot more.
