The man has spoken!!! I believe this and that it all needs to come to a crumbling halt! There should never be a means other than a cash (hand to hand) transaction that the government should not be able to see. These people who are using this technology for these aforementioned means are sorry bottom feeders of society and need to be dealt with accordingly.

sverek:

You guys missing the point that he actually got caught with tax evasion. Dude got his ass handed back to him. So if there higher risk to get caught using cash, maybe it worth trying bitcoins. Just saying. Bill did many mistakes in past, hopefully he learned from it and actually saying something worth listening to. He is no longer working in M$ and has less to do with it. He is trying to make this world a better place. See his efforts and donations. And you can't deny a fact that bitcoin makes shady deals way easier with less risk. Love it, hate it, this is what it is. Anyway, I have nothing against bitcoins. But it is a tool that provides more possibilities. Bill mentioned dark side of it.

Can't agree with Gates here...his comment is actually rather ridiculous, seeing as how cash is a million times more anonymous, at least, because there is so much more anonymous cash flowing daily than the coin exchanges, and when you use cash, "who you are" is rather unimportant to the process. 😀 In the US, all transactions in excess of $10k in cash must be reported to the government (by your bank, etc.)--but no one knows how many such transactions take place daily that are *not* reported to the government...! The illegal drug trade, for instance, runs almost entirely on cash because it is untraceable. (So much more cash than coin moves daily that the two are not even comparable.) If I want to remain anonymous I'd use cash--not Bitcoin, etc. That said... (Sometimes I really believe Gates is going senile on us these days.) Nope, sorry, but Gates was never even accused, much less charged, with tax evasion by any US legal authority, ...;) Not even close. Microsoft got run through the US government wringer a couple of decades back for being a "monopoly," (a charge I always believed was entirely bogus) and was in fact found to have been a "legal monopoly," actually, at the end of the road. [legal monopoly = company that corners the market for its products without having broken any laws to get there--which is really what makes the whole "monopoly" legal scene bogus, imo--but Microsoft never cornered the market on computer OSes. If it had, Apple would have been out of business decades ago, and nobody would use Linux, etc.] US government (my government) did the same thing to Apple not too long ago. Basically, if a tech company becomes too successful in the US the government (eg, jealous people inside the government, for example people in Congress, to be clear about it) gets nervous and wants to bring them down a few pegs--let them know who's boss--that kind of thing. Or else they want to lynch Microsoft because it grabbed headlines and gave them a lot of free publicity. Seems to be a trend as the EU is doing that, too. Also, cash-strapped governments routinely bring up false "monopoly" charges against wealthy tech companies to subsidize their mostly wasteful spending habits, imo--pay their crooked government lawyers huge commissions--that are rarely publicized--etc. AFAIK and IIRC, there were no criminal charges of any kind filed against either Microsoft or Gates, personally. Classic case of Fake News. BTW, In the US, people tried and convicted of tax evasion do jail time--all of them. (It's how they nailed Al Capone, for instance.) Gates has never even spent the night in a jail cell as far as I know. Best Advice: don't believe everything you read on the Internet--especially when it pertains to silly political articles that make lots of accusations but don't prove anything they allege [like the so-called 'tax-evasion' article on Gates I just Binged up]--pure garbage. I am mortified to see today that some people evidently think that wild and unsubstantiated accusations (sans proof of any kind) lodged against against people via the Internet = facts. Far from it. Caveat Emptor. Be as picky about the political "news" you see on the Internet as you are about the products you buy for your box at a home.

I'm not a fan of Bill Gates; I feel he's a bad person, and only using his money for stuff like malaria research to help cover up his wrongdoings. However... I do think he has valid points here.

Noisiv:

The terrorism... The very government he speaks about has been the biggest terrorist under the Sun for quite some time.

If you pay attention to the trends and demographics of various cryptocurrencies, you'll find countries like South Africa, Slovenia, Kosovo, and Nigeria, China, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Venezuela, Australia, and Singapore are more invested in them than "the very country" you speak of. Many of these countries are notorious for the involvement of the activities he was speaking of.

Tax evasion. Bill should know, because his trademark company, Microsoft, is an expert in this field.

Very true. He may be a hypocrite, but his point remains valid.

Using crypto to buy drugs. How the fuk did the druggies and the drug lords manage be4 crypto? MMmmmaybe using ordinary mmmmoney? Is money bad? Ban money! You can buy million things with crypto. But because you can buy one bad thing, that means crypto is BAD!

What a ridiculous statement and misinterpretation of what he was getting at. Cryptocurrencies make doing criminal activities much easier - Bill is not wrong about that. Of course in the past criminals would work with the cash they've got - what's the point of risking imprisonment (or worse) if there's nothing of value to gain? Drug lords, smugglers, traffickers, counterfeiters, etc are running a business. Using government money makes it easier to find them. But, if they can rake in all this cash using a currency untrackable by a government, they suddenly just got a lot more powerful.

I don't care about people , f*ck the people (and yes i actually have f*cked other people) think about GPU's /s

schmidtbag:

"The" government? He said "governments", and if you pay attention to the trends and demographics of various cryptocurrencies, you'll find countries like South Africa, Slovenia, Kosovo, and Nigeria, China, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Venezuela, Australia, and Singapore are more invested in them than "the very country" you speak of. Many of these countries are notorious for the involvement of the activities he was speaking of.

Government's (possession) not Governments (plural). Which is pretty clear when you actually read the sentence. Or look at the original article, which isn't missing the '. As it's also pretty clear that Noisiv never said anything about U.S. government using crypto. So, that comparison there has literally nothing to do with what Noisiv was saying. Now sure, pointing to a problem A, doesn't really make the problem B disappear. But it's not a bad idea to point out the hypocrisy of Bill saying the government should be able to track everything, while not acknowledging that the same government does horrible things and it itself can't really be trusted.

UnrealGaming:

Government's (possession) not Governments (plural). Which is pretty clear when you actually read the sentence. Or look at the original article, which isn't missing the '.

I don't understand your point... I made it abundantly clear that I was referring to a multitude of governments. In fact, I made it my point that Gates spoke of many governments. Where did I suggest otherwise?

As it's also pretty clear that Noisiv never said anything about U.S. government using crypto. So, that comparison there has literally nothing to do with what Noisiv was saying.

You're right - literally none of that has anything to do with Noisiv was saying, or myself for that matter. Where exactly did I say, imply, or even hint any of that? Put it in this perspective: Noisiv: I prefer vanilla over chocolate Me: I prefer chocolate over vanilla You: Noisiv didn't say anything about strawberry, he said he likes vanilla. How did strawberry get involved? Nowhere was strawberry mentioned; nowhere did I say the US government was using crypto, and I never suggested Noisiv said that, either.

Now sure, pointing to a problem A, doesn't really make the problem B disappear. But it's not a bad idea to point out the hypocrisy of Bill saying the government should be able to track everything, while not acknowledging that the same government does horrible things and it itself can't really be trusted.

That doesn't matter - whatever the US does is completely irrelevant to Gates' point: cryptocurrencies are an easy source of value for criminals. That has nothing to do with any shady, illegal, or immoral activities of the US.

fantaskarsef:

Yes you are right, got it wrong there. It's billions of $. Though I'm still not sure that arts sales adds up to 450 billion dollars per year. Or 370.

You could probably immediately drop three numbers out of it if people really started selling. Those billions are nothing but speculation backed by beliefs. There's nothing at all behind the crypto currencies. There's not even a person's face there despite it being such a new invention, let alone countries or corporations. It could all disappear in a single night and life would go on everywhere like it always did, apart from some individual people who might have lost a little or a lot.

schmidtbag:

I don't understand your point... I made it abundantly clear that I was referring to a multitude of governments. In fact, I made it my point that Gates spoke of many governments. Where did I suggest otherwise?

Bill used " The Government's " (possession) not Governments (plural). So no, Bill was not speaking of multiple governments. I think he was mainly talking about the U.S government in this case.

schmidtbag:

Nowhere did I say the US government was using crypto, and I never suggested Noisiv said that, either.

It's literally in the part i quoted.

I hope everyone here bashing Gates is running Linux ...if not/ there's a word for that.

UnrealGaming:

Bill used "Government's" (possession) not Governments (plural). So no, Bill was not speaking of multiple governments.

"government's" was never used in the article; there are no apostrophes. Though re-reading the article, it seems he may have just had poor grammar. Maybe he is just referring to the US, but it still doesn't change any of my points. Money laundering and tax evasion exist in many (possibly most) 1st world countries, and his points apply to them too. Cryptocurrencies make all of this easier. His actions (or the US government's) do not detract from the fact that it's still a multi-national problem, and are not valid reasons to dismiss his points.

It's literally in the part i quoted.

No, it literally isn't and I really don't understand where you're getting that from. The most I mentioned "explicitly" about the US is that Americans (as in the citizens, not the government) are less involved in cryptocurrencies compared to the slew of other countries I mentioned. Note that the context of the other countries I mentioned was also not referring to their governments, because I was talking about trends and demographics within those countries. When I mentioned "many of these countries are notorious for the involvement of the activities he was speaking of", that too is still referring to the citizens (though I will admit my phrasing there was ambiguous).

It's killing GPU prices too.

schmidtbag:

"government's" was never used in the article; there are no apostrophes. Though re-reading the article, it seems he may have just had poor grammar. Maybe he is just referring to the US, but it still doesn't change any of my points. Money laundering and tax evasion exist in many (possibly most) 1st world countries, and his points apply to them too. Cryptocurrencies make all of this easier. His actions (or the US government's) do not detract from the fact that it's still a multi-national problem, and are not valid reasons to dismiss his points. No, it literally isn't and I really don't understand where you're getting that from. The most I mentioned "explicitly" about the US is that Americans (as in the citizens, not the government) are less involved in cryptocurrencies compared to the slew of other countries I mentioned. Note that the context of the other countries I mentioned was also not referring to their governments, because I was talking about trends and demographics within those countries. When I mentioned "many of these countries are notorious for the involvement of the activities he was speaking of", that too is still referring to the citizens (though I will admit my phrasing there was ambiguous).

Well, that's how it goes. You don't get the context of the poorly written article, you don't check the original article, you thus wrongly try correcting someone, you then don't properly read the reply which corrects you and points out that there's an error in this article and not in the original and so on and so on and so on....the nonsense keeps on snowballing until there's no point anymore. LUL

They will kill us all because of the massive environment destruction caused by mining. People always thought that the Armageddon will be caused by aliens and their death rays, earthquakes or volcanos, the sun exploding, the AI taking over the world or simply humans nuking each other. But no, we're self destructing via calculating completely useless bullshit with trillions of petaflops of computing power. Good job humanity! You did it. See you all on hell.

Seeing as gates is part of the crooked system - I tend to value what he says by believing the opposite. It's worked extremely well for me thus far.

UnrealGaming:

Well, that's how it goes. You don't get the context of the poorly written article, you don't check the original article, you thus wrongly try correcting someone, you then don't properly read the reply which corrects you and points out that there's an error in this article and not in the original and so on and so on and so on....the nonsense keeps on snowballing until there's no point anymore. LUL

A few points to make: 1. The article (at least at Guru3D) wasn't poorly written. Look back at the source and you'll find that has grammar issues. 2. I may have corrected someone for the wrong specifics, but I was ultimately still right in my correction, which you are ignoring since it is an inconvenience to your biases. Ignore that first sentence I wrote (which I have now edited out) and the rest of my post still applies. The gist of [some of] Noisiv's post suggests Gates' thoughts are wrong due to his own actions and the actions of the US government. That is ridiculous, and is what I'm arguing against. And so my point still remains. To clarify, Gates is still a hypocrite, but he's not wrong. 3. You are not in a position to be criticizing me of understanding context, seeing as you were debating something I never said or implied. Again, strawberry analogy. 4. If anything is to be lul'd at, it's how you are so fixated on things that either don't matter to the discussion or were never said, while ignoring the actual discussion. In other words, as long as you keep thinking I brought up strawberries, you're right - this is going to keep looking like nonsense.

Knifes can be used for kitchen needs or tools BUT also for murder if you smelt em you destry the evidence so they are anonymus too! There for knifes are already killing people! Guns kill people too! Oh wait .... goverments stock piling those ones

airbud7:

I hope everyone here bashing Gates is running Linux ...if not/ there's a word for that.

Ya, brains 🙂 Being able to diferentiate. You can recognize one's greatness without giving them the carte blanche for hypocrisy. Or stupidity. I dunno which is the case with Gates. (People becoming petulant or childish or even going cuckoo when they grow old, is not exactly unheard of)

schmidtbag:

What a ridiculous statement and misinterpretation of what he was getting at. Cryptocurrencies make doing criminal activities much easier - Bill is not wrong about that.

So does the water and the oxygen and the mobile phones and the Internet and all the technologies and the products ever made by Microsoft. Whatta a ridiculously narrow-minded singling out of crypto. It took half a dozen posts and a full dedication of one poster for you to get the meaning and the correct grammatical number behind "The Goverments"(typo). No time for this sh1t... The Zone awaits [youtube=3Z0HWcttgrs]

Noisiv:

Ya, brains 🙂 Being able to diferentiate. You can recognize one's greatness without giving them the carte blanche for hypocrisy. Or stupidity. I dunno which is the case with Gates. (People becoming petulant or childish or even going cuckoo when they grow old, is not exactly unheard of)

Wow, your Rambo keyboard just made you smarter than Bill Gates!...Simply Amazing....>Not. you jelly of Gates?

airbud7:

Wow, your Rambo keyboard just made you smarter than Bill Gates!...Simply Amazing....>Not. you jelly of Gates?

SMARTER than Gates? After I've just explicitly recognized the guy's greatness in the very part you are quoting? And obviously I wasn't talking about his physical capabilities. So it must have been his intellect. The phuk is with your guys reading comprehension?

Noisiv:

So does the water and the oxygen and the mobile phones and the Internet and all the technologies and the products ever made by Microsoft. Whatta a ridiculously narrow-minded singling out of crypto.

It's not narrow-minded. Water and oxygen don't help criminals perform their crimes, it helps keep them alive. Most successful multi-millionaire criminals don't use devices or resources that leave a trail behind them; this is why prepaid phones are real popular with criminals - without a contract or any personal information, it says very little about who the owner is. Also, since when did MS distribute oxygen, water, and internet? Anyway, you might want to spend a few more seconds just thinking about the implications of what Gates is getting at. Here, I'll spell it out for you: Let's say you're a drug lord in the US who deals with cocaine. You've got a powerful gang driving out your competition, so you're getting rich, fast. When you, the drug lord, starts buying Ferraris and mansions, the government is going to take notice. In many cases, these criminals will own another business for money laundering, to act as a decoy or proxy for their [taxable] income. This is in the hopes of getting the government off their back, but it's a real dangerous route, especially if you don't have any real employees or bookkeeping for that business. In other cases, the government may suspect the money is counterfeit, which is another crime that you don't want drawn to you. This is where cryptocurrencies come in. By having an influx of income that cannot be traced by your government, you get to roll in all the riches and fancy things you want, tax free and completely unknown to Big Brother. They can't prove how you got any of your things. They know something is suspicious, but they can't do anything about it. This is Gates' point. In another perspective, as we've already established, Gates himself did a lot of shady things. He has arguably done criminal things. I'm pretty sure he knows a hell of a lot more about how to work the system than you. So yes, his opinion on this matter is to be taken seriously. Meanwhile, what are your credentials?