Bill Harris, the founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PayPal, has said that Bitcoin is the greatest scam in history on a contribution to the Recode, an online publication.
The former CEO says that the bitcoin is a colossal (huge) pump and dump scheme, the likes of which the world has never seen.
“In a pump-and-dump game, promoters ‘pump’ up the price of a security creating a speculative frenzy, then ‘dump’ some of their holdings at artificially high prices. And some cryptocurrencies are pure frauds. Ernst and Young estimates that 10 percent of the money raised for initial coin offerings has been stolen,” Harris said.
“The losers are ill-informed buyers caught up in the spiral of greed. The result is a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary families to internet promoters. And ‘massive’ is a massive understatement — 1,500 different cryptocurrencies now register over $300 billion of ‘value.'”
Harris who is also the former CEO of Intuit and founding CEO of Personal Capital also said that cryptocurrencies are failing to fulfil the roles of money in a video on Daily Mail.
“The most fundamental reason to be sceptical about the longer term value of cryptocurrencies is that it isn’t clear they will ever become effective medium of exchange,” Personal Capital founding CEO said.
“Currently no major high street or online retailer accepts Bitcoin as payment in the UK and only a handful of the top 500 US longtime online retailers do.”
“For those who can find someone willing to accept cryptocurrencies the speed and cost of the transaction is generally slower and more expensive than payment installed,” Harris went on.
Harris added that cryptocurrency is best-suited for one use, which is criminal activity because transactions can be anonymous as law enforcement cannot easily trace who buys and sells.
“I’m tired of saying, ‘Be careful, it’s speculative.’ Then, ‘Be careful, it’s gambling.’ Then, ‘Be careful, it’s a bubble.’ Okay, I’ll say it: Bitcoin is a scam, Harris said.
Zimbabweans, who lost money to a Ponzi scheme called MMM in the past, are already using the bitcoin although cryptocurrencies have not been legalised by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The state bank is said to be researching on the virtual currency.
The demand for the bitcoin went up in Zimbabwe during the days the military intervened in the Zimbabwean politics with the fears of a hyperinflation.
Bitcoin is also being used by Zimbabweans to purchase vehicles and other materials from outside the country as access to foreign currency for international trade is a difficulty.
