Alibaba’s Jack Ma is now on the Block-Train
Another long list of CEO's and Tech founders who are joining the Blockchain Arms Race
Jack Ma, founder and chairman of E-commerce Giant, Alibaba; believes that blockchain will address issues of privacy and security for Alipay, a mobile payment app used by over 450 million customers.
Ma however added that he isn’t particularly sure whether Bitcoin would work as well because he’s only concerned about Alibaba’s growth & development.
In a recently concluded World Intelligence Congress in Tianjin, Jack Ma said:
Blockchain is now a hot word. First, blockchain is not a bubble, but Bitcoin is a bubble. Bitcoin is just a tiny application of blockchain. At least inside Alibaba, blockchain must be a solution that addresses the privacy and security issues in the digital era.
While the bubble term might first seem negative on the surface, there are many other notable types of bubbles such as the credit, housing and stock market bubble. After all fiat currency is the only bubble that have yet to pop.
Ma expressed his concern over people using blockchain technology just for speculation, for profit and short term greed. He believes that blockchain technology is capable of doing so much more.
He also went on to say that blockchain is a technological breakthrough and would be a major driving force behind the coming revolution. Ma revealed that he and his company have been researching blockchain technology for years and they have the highest amount of blockchain related patents worldwide.
Ma believes that this is the era of big data, and that security and data privacy is going to be a hot topic that can be potentially solved with blockchain.
Unfortunately he adds, that people are treating it as a “huge gold mine.” And that attitude is dangerous.
Is Bitcoin a bubble?
It is not the first time that Ma has expressed his lack of interest in Bitcoin. Back in 2017 he acknowledges that he knows very little about the cryptocurrencies and is more interested to learn about blockchain technology.
As a matter of fact, Jack Ma is not the first to doubt the Bitcoin potential. Warren Buffet (CEO of Berkshire Hathaway) also mentioned that bitcoin lacks any intrinsic value and even went on to label it as “rat poison square“.
Over the years there have been many notable critics who simply underestimated Bitcoin. In fact, it has become a parody how Bitcoin is declared dead over 294 times.
