MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor intends to leave his bitcoins to humanity after his death, following the example of Satoshi Nakamoto.
“I am single, I have no children — someday I will be gone. Just as Satoshi left the universe 1 million BTC, I will leave civilization everything I have,” the bitcoin maximalist stated.
The entrepreneur described the first cryptocurrency as “pure, quiet, programmable, and immortal money.” He expressed confidence that with this asset, “humanity can build more grandiose things than all the economists of the 20th century.”
Saylor did not specify whether he intends to follow Satoshi Nakamoto’s example by removing a certain portion of the issuance from circulation.
In August, the businessman confirmed that he personally owns digital gold worth over $1 billion. According to previous statements by the MicroStrategy founder, he holds 17,732 BTC or ~$1.19 billion at the time of writing.
Store Bitcoins in Banks
In an interview, the entrepreneur discussed institutional adoption of bitcoin, its potential impact, possible risks, and the prospects of the digital economy.
His recommendations to store the first cryptocurrency in major banks instead of non-custodial wallets caused significant controversy, contradicting his previous advice.
According to the bitcoin maximalist, systemic institutions are designed to store financial assets.
The MicroStrategy founder called the possibility of state-sanctioned seizure of digital gold from individuals a “myth,” and those who disagree with him “paranoid crypto-anarchists and scammers driven by greed.” He urged trust in government and credit organizations.
Simon Dixon, author of “The Bank of the Future,” explained Saylor’s 180-degree turn on non-custodial storage as a desire for his company to become a bitcoin bank with a capitalization of $1 trillion.
Let me translate:
“I’m downplaying the importance of #Bitcoin in self-custody because I’m about to offer you a collateralized loan through my new bank.” @saylor#Bitcoin anarchists: keep helping people gain freedom from banks, governments & central banks pic.twitter.com/T4v13JvDRF
— Simon Dixon (@SimonDixonTwitt) October 21, 2024
Vitalik Buterin also weighed in, calling Saylor’s words “utter madness.” In his view, the MicroStrategy founder “has begun to support a regulatory ‘takeover’ of the digital asset industry.” In other words, “when you have regulated state organizations like BlackRock, Fidelity and … asset holders […] hold coins in them.”
I probably did more than most to spread the “mountain man” trope (btw I consider those remarks of mine outdated; snarks and AA changed the tradeoff space completely), and I’ll happily say that I think @saylor‘s comments are batshit insane.
He seems to be explicitly arguing for a…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 22, 2024
“There are many precedents for how this strategy can fail. For me, this is not what cryptocurrency needs,” he explained.
Recently, Saylor reiterated his forecast for bitcoin’s rise to $13 million by 2045, which he first announced in July 2024.