Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have already been causing controversy for several months. The idea here is that digital goods can be depicted and traded in the form of tokens in the art and gaming worlds, among others. While some people see a new, digital art market emerging as a result, there are others who are extremely skeptical. One of the members of the second category is Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Speaking at an event hosted by the U.S. technology medium Techcrunch, Gates pointed out that he sees NFTs as a form of investment that is 100 percent grounded in the “Greater Fool Theory” – in simple terms, the theory describes buying an object in the hope of finding a greater fool who will later buy the object at a higher price.
Gates himself is not engaged in the field of crypto assets – in fact, he doesn’t own any, nor has he shorted them. He prefers instead to invest in physical objects or in companies that make real products, the software company founder says.
Bill Gates tells us what he really thinks of Bored Apes at #TCClimate: pic.twitter.com/vBc8BaaTup
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) June 14, 2022
But with a smile, he also notes that “digital images of monkeys are probably obviously going to make the world a better place.” In saying this, he is alluding to one of the best-known projects in the NFT world, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). These are pictures of comic monkeys, some of which changed hands for six-figure sums. The project recently hit the headlines because it was the victim of a hack.
Gates: skeptical about cryptocurrencies
This isn’t the first time Gates has spoken skeptically about cryptocurrencies. As early as the spring of 2021, he cautioned against the dangers to small investors of putting their money into such volatile investments as bitcoin. He said they are often tempted to take unnecessary risks with the promise of big profits.
In the beginning, it appeared that Gates was wrong to be worried, as the value of one Bitcoin rose to an all-time high of around $63,000 before the end of November that year. Meanwhile, however, the price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency has crashed to around 20,000 dollars; besides macroeconomic factors, various scandals such as the one surrounding Terra/Luna or the Celsius Network also had a role to play here. The NFTs criticized by Gates have also lost massively in value recently.
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