Cryptocurrencies
Steve Wozniak calls Bitcoin ‘pure-gold mathematics’ and the reason shows why crypto could be here to stay
Steve Wozniak calls Bitcoin ‘pure-gold mathematics’ and the reason shows why crypto could be here to stay
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak is a big proponent of bitcoin, but is wary of other cryptocurrencies and related non-fungible tokens.
During a recent interview with Business Insider, Wozniak said Bitcoin is the “only [cryptocurrency] that’s pure-gold mathematics,” praising the underlying technology and calculations that underpin the best-known cryptocurrency.
Wozniak has always been a proponent of cutting-edge technology, having helped usher the era of personal computing alongside the late Steve Jobs. Indeed, last summer, Wozniak praised the technical merits of Bitcoin during a tech conference, describing it as “the most amazing mathematical miracle.”
However, Wozniak remarked during the Insider interview that there could be many “ripoffs” among the deluge of new crypto projects and NFTs, whose overseers may be unscrupulous people.
“There’s so many cryptocurrencies that come out now; everybody has a way to create a new one, and you have a celebrity star with it,” Wozniak said. “It seems like they’re just collecting a bunch of money from people who want to invest at the very earliest stage, when it’s worth pennies.”
So what makes Bitcoin special to Wozniak?
What is pure gold about Bitcoin’s math?
Although he didn’t elaborate during the interview as to why he is keen about Bitcoin’s mathematics, he likely appreciates that the calculations presumably help provide a technical explanation for Bitcoin’s supposed stability, relative to gold.
Bitcoin proponents have long referred to the cryptocurrency as a “store of value” comparable to gold because its underlying technology presumably helps prevent counterfeiting and helps maintain a fixed supply, among other reasons. In January, Goldman Sachs predicted that Bitcoin would continue to take market share from gold, underscoring its rising popularity.
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said last week that he was wrong about cryptocurrencies in general, having previously called them “a jihadist call” against the U.S. dollar. That the market capitalization of the crypto market has reached “about $2 trillion in round numbers” shows people that Griffin hasn’t “been right on this call,” he said during an interview with Bloomberg.
The Woz’s adventures in crypto
Wozniak is no stranger to crypto, either.
For instance, he is a judge on the Unicorn Hunters reality television show, in which viewers can invest in startups that compete on the Shark Tank-like program. In February, Unicorn Hunters executives debuted the unicoin cryptocurrency, which they claimed was “ designed to address extreme volatility, the major problem of traditional tokens, and to offer its holders protection from inflation,” according to an announcement.
Wozniak said unicoin is “really opening up the world of startup investment to the masses,” and he’s hoping that it becomes “very successful.”
He contrasted unicoin to other cryptocurrencies, saying that it isn’t “just based on words and talks” but is instead “really based on the outcome of investments.”
He didn’t mention whether he was impressed with the underlying technology or mathematics behind unicoin, as he did with Bitcoin.
Wozniak recently sang Bitcoin’s praises during an October interview with Yahoo News in which he commented about the cryptocurrency’s “mathematical purity.”
“Bitcoin isn’t run by some company,” Wozniak told Yahoo News. “It’s just mathematically pure. And I believe nature over humans always.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
