Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal, has revealed that he is a big fan of blockchain technology, but is still making up his mind on bitcoin.
Speaking to CNBC during a Breakthrough Prize award ceremony in Silicon Valley on Sunday, Levchin said that blockchain will find use cases across different industries, is a âbrilliant mathematical ideaâ and âinteresting commodity to speculate on.â
However, on the cryptocurrency, he said:
âItâs not clear to me whether bitcoin itself is the great long-term investment.â
Itâs yet to be seen whether bitcoin is a currency âor just a way to make money fast,â he added.
Levchinâs stance on bitcoin is notably different that of fellow PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who told CNBC in October that he believes bitcoin has a promising future, though he was skeptical of most other cryptocurrencies.
âItâs like a reserve form of money, itâs like gold, and itâs just a store of value. You donât need to use it to make payments,â he said at the time.
Those who are criticizing the cryptocurrency are âunderestimatingâ it, Thiel argued.
PayPal image via Shutterstock