Winklevoss Twins: Predict Bitcoin Will “Wipe Out” Cash By 2025
Bold predictions for success of Bitcoin
The twins believe that bitcoin will effectively end the use of cash, credit cards and other services such as PayPal. “Cash is going to be killed,” Tyler Winklevoss told the crowd at SXSW Interactive. “It will be nostalgia … You’ll tell your grandkids about the wallet, it was this thing made of leather.”
The twins did their best impression of a cheesy television duo as Cameron Winklevoss piped up to tell the crowd that he didn’t have his wallet with him. “I didn’t want to sit on it for an hour,” he said. “It would hurt my butt.”
Bitcoin has been volatile of late, following a series of hacking scandals and the collapse of Mt. Gox, a Bitcoin exchange based in Japan that at one point was responsible for around 70% of Bitcoin transactions.
“Personally, we’re not really worried. We’ve not sold a single bitcoin,” Cameron Winklevoss said. The twins have previously claimed to own over 1% of all Bitcoins in existence. “It’s behaving like a technology company. It’s had its ups and downs.”
Future plans for Gemini
The twins are attempting to drum up confidence in the cryptocurrency as they apply for regulatory approval for Gemini, a bitcoin exchange, as well as a bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
Public perceptions of Bitcoin have suffered due to its association with illicit transactions made on the dark web, as well as fears over security after investors in several exchanges lost money to hackers. Digital currency organizations have hired a PR agency tasked with improving public knowledge of the cryptocurrency, but there remains a long way to go before the Winklevoss‘ fantastic claims can become reality.
It may be possible for Bitcoin to recover its reputation and begin to be used by a larger section of the population, but to envisage Bitcoin replacing cash within 10 years takes more than a little bit of imagination.
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