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Tech investor Peter Thiel called Bitcoin a Chinese financial weapon against the US during an appearance at a virtual event held for members of the Richard Nixon Foundation. Thiel, who co-founded PayPal, is a “pro-Bitcoin maximalist,” but his latest comments on the leading cryptocurrency has the market now questioning his stance on crypto.
“I do wonder whether, at this point, Bitcoin should also be thought [of] in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the U.S.” “It threatens fiat money, but it especially threatens the U.S. dollar.”He also called for regulations and that the US needs to ask some “tougher questions” as to how exactly all of this works because “China’s long Bitcoin, perhaps from a geopolitical perspective.” https://twitter.com/nixonfoundation/status/1379894036060864516 Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, clarified that it was rather a humorous remark from Thiel. “What Peter actually said, jokingly, is that the *EURO* and Bitcoin can be considered 'Chinese weapons against the dollar' as they may be alternate reserve currencies. Obvious rhetorical overstatement, meant to poke the US for complacency on innovation,” said Srinivasan on Twitter.
Thiel Criticizes Tech Companies
The venture capitalist and early Facebook investor has frequently criticized American companies that do business with Beijing. On Wednesday, he took a jab at big U.S. technology companies for being too close to China. During the talk, which was joined by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, Thiel particularly criticized Google for its work on artificial intelligence with Chinese universities.“Since everything in China is a civilian-military fusion, Google was effectively working with the Chinese military, not with the American military.”Thiel reportedly further said that Google “insiders” told him that they worked with the Chinese because “they figured they might as well give the technology out the front door, because if they didn’t give it – it would get stolen anyway.” He also suggested scrutiny of Apple, noting that most of its devices are made in China, where labor standards are laxer. “Apple is probably the one [tech company] that’s structurally a real problem” for U.S. interests; he said, “Apple is the one that has real synergies with China.” He further suggested that the US should follow India in banning TikTok and that it would likely be replaced by similar apps. Criticizing Facebook and other tech companies for “de-platforming President Trump,” Thiel said, “There’s been outright censorship.” [deco-beg-single-coin-widget coin="BTC"]