Warren Buffett’s right-hand man hasn’t taken the time to understand Bitcoin, MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor said in an interview with CNBC.
Michael Saylor’s latest interview includes a blast at Western elites, specifically Charlie Munger.
Munger recently penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled, “Why America Should Ban Crypto.” In it, he slammed cryptocurrencies, explaining that:
“Such wretched excess has gone on because there is a gap in regulation. A cryptocurrency is not a currency, not a commodity, and not a security. Instead, it’s a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house, entered into in a country where gambling contracts are traditionally regulated only by states that compete in laxity. Obviously the U.S. should now enact a new federal law that prevents this from happening.”
This is not the first time that Munger has been openly negative towards bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, having previously called it “rat poison squared” and “a bad combo of fraud and delusion.”
In a Friday interview with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan, Saylor addressed Munger’s recent op-ed and the Western elite’s opinions on Bitcoin. “If he was a business leader in South America or Africa or Asia and he spent a 100 hours studying the problem, he’d be more bullish on bitcoin than I am,” Saylor explained. “The Western elites have not had the time to study … but I’ve never really met someone with an incentive living in the rest of the world that spent some time thinking about it that wasn’t enthusiastic about bitcoin.”
Saylor’s criticism of Munger came alongside further descriptions in regards to MicroStrategy’s plans to develop Lightning enterprise software, explaining for the first time in detail that “Microstrategy is actually developing MicroStrategy Lightning, our own enterprise Lightning offering. We’re going to allow CMOs to offer Lightning rewards or bitcoin rewards, like a frequent flier program, to hundreds of thousands or millions of their customers, all of their employees and all of their prospects, at the speed of light off a website — and we’re very enthusiastic about that.”
The MicroStrategy chairman is obviously still bullish on bitcoin’s growth irrespective of the opinion of legacy billionaires like Munger. In addition, his comments highlight his attention to the global nature of Bitcoin and its ability to enable those who are not yet financially connected as the West is. Saylor has been persistent in his support for Bitcoin, and he believes that other regions around the world are more aware of the potential of the digital asset. With his commitment to developing Lightning enterprise software, Saylor is making clear his dedication to the adoption of bitcoin and to connecting the world in a new way.
