Recently, Alex Mashinsky, Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of lending platform Celsius Network, shared some of his latest thoughts on Bitcoin. 

Here’s some information about Mashinsky from his bio page on the Celsius website:

“Alex is one of the inventors of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) with a foundational patent dating back to 1994 and is now working on MOIP (Money Over Internet Protocol) technology. Over 35 patents have been issued to Alex, relating to exchanges, VOIP protocols, messaging and communication. As a serial entrepreneur and founder of seven New York City-based startups, Alex has raised more than $1 billion and exited over $3 billion… As one of the pioneers of web-based exchanges, Alex authored patents that cover aspects of the Smart Grid, ad exchanges, Twitter, Skype, App Store, Netflix streaming concept and many other popular web companies.“

During a recent interview on the “Coin Stories” podcast (which is hosted by Journalist and educator Natalie Brunell), Mashinsky compared the utility of Bitcoin versus the U.S. dollar. Mashinsky argued that while the dollar is a “horrible” store of value when compared to the king of cryptoassets, it is a far superior form of payment:

As reported by The Daily Hodl, Mashinsky said: 

The dollar is a phenomenal form of payment. It’s a horrible store of value and Bitcoin is a phenomenal store value, but it’s a pretty bad form of payment.

Mashinsky prefers to witness a scenario “where the dollar remains as the reserve currency” even though he wants to see Bitcoin continue to succeed as a store of value asset. He pointed out that Bitcoin is a poor tool for paying for goods and services, and that historically users have regretted making the transaction in light of BTC’s continued appreciation. 

Mashinsky brought up the example of trading BTC for a Tesla, saying that most users would end up hating the trade in the long run since the Tesla would continue to continuously lose value starting from the date of purchase, whereas BTC has historically gained in value.

He added:

“Anything you bought with Bitcoin in the last 10 years, you rather have the Bitcoin back and would have paid in US dollars. That’s really the crux of the matter that you cannot use it as a form of payment or cannot use it in a way that makes you happy about the transaction.”

In an interview on June 14, Mashinsky had this to say to Michelle Makori, editor-in-chief of Kitco News, about El Salvador’s move to make Bitcoin legal tender:

“So if we can get a Brazil, if we can get a Nigeria, if we can get countries with large populations to accept this as legal tender… you’re going to see a huge explosion in the price because just the adoption of all those users is going to create tremendous new demand.“

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.