Crypto Enables Creation of Useful Businesses and 'Is Here to Stay'

According to Bill Ackman, billionaire and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, while crypto tokens are used by unethical promoters to perpetuate fraud, they “can enable the formation of useful businesses.” A previous critic of digital assets, Ackman insists that “crypto is here to stay” and that society will benefit even more when it is properly regulated.

Crypto a ‘Powerful Lever in Accessing a Global Workforce to Advance a Project’

The American billionaire hedge fund manager, Bill Ackman, has said — after studying some crypto projects — he now believes that “crypto can enable the formation of useful businesses and technologies that heretofore could not be created.” According to the billionaire, the ability to issue and use crypto tokens “to incentivize participants in a venture is a powerful lever in accessing a global workforce to advance a project.”

Still, Ackman insisted in a Nov. 20 Twitter thread that crypto, just like the telephone and the internet before it, can be a useful tool for facilitating fraud. To support this argument, he pointed to how “unethical promoters can create tokens simply to facilitate pump and dump schemes.” According to the billionaire’s reckoning, the “vast majority of crypto coins are used for fraudulent purposes rather than for building legitimate businesses.”

Despite highlighting what he sees as the flaws of crypto, Ackman, who is the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, uses two projects — Helium and DIMO — to explain why he has changed his viewpoint. He said:

Helium created a global Wi-Fi network used by Limebike and others to track devices globally as well as for other uses which benefit from access to global Wi-Fi networks. Helium’s global network of 974k hotspots was crowd created by individuals who purchased and deployed Helium hotspots to mine HNT, its native token.

According to Ackman, customers who want to want to use the network are compelled to buy HNT “and burn it.” The demand for HNT tokens is ultimately tied to the demand for the network, Ackman added.

Concerning DIMO, a decentralized data-driven ecosystem that seeks to connect car owners with manufacturers, the billionaire said he also envisions a “two-sided market for DIMO tokens developing over time where data-users buy and burn tokens that are minted by car owners with DIMO data collection devices.”

Crypto Investing as a Hobby

Meanwhile, the billionaire further acknowledged in the Twitter thread that he is an investor in DIMO. He added that his overall investments in crypto-related projects are less than 2% of his assets. Cautioning his over 500K followers, Ackman said:

I invest more as a hobbyist trying to learn than as a careful investor as I minimize the time I spend on non-Pershing Square investments so please don’t rely on my due diligence or take any of the above as an investment recommendation.

Ackman, who has previously asserted that crypto tokens like bitcoin have no intrinsic value, ended the thread by asserting that “crypto is here to stay” and that it has the potential to be more beneficial when it is properly regulated.

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Terence Zimwara

Terence Zimwara is a Zimbabwe award-winning journalist, author and writer. He has written extensively about the economic troubles of some African countries as well as how digital currencies can provide Africans with an escape route.