Chess legend Garry Kasparov, who shot to worldwide fame in 1997 when he was beaten by IBM supercomputer Deep Blue, has seemingly changed his tune on Bitcoin just two years after calling it “counterfeit money”. Kasparov now claims that he believes in Bitcoin because it is backed by math rather than a government who can “print another trillion dollars” should they wish.
Kasparov’s Anti-Bitcoin Days
Kasparov’s change of heart represents a huge shift in sentiment towards Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, which he slated in November 2017 following the entire market’s year-long upward swing. The former chess grand master gave an interview with Portuguese investment website Proteste Investe in which he said that Bitcoin’s sudden popularity was “not surprising” but that it didn’t serve any purpose other than to make investors wealthy. At the time he also added that Bitcoin didn’t serve to improve the economy or people’s lives and that its emergence was a warning sign that “the whole economy is in a state of stagnation”, adding that investing in it was tantamount to “pure speculation.”
Checkmate Governments
Kasparov seems to have undergone something akin to a spiritual awakening since then however, telling BeInCrypto in an interview that he is now attracted to Bitcoin because its supply is limited to “the magic number” of 21 million. This, he says, is in contrast to governments who can print extra money at will, adding that “we are already sliding into chaos because the governments are irresponsible.” While he isn’t a fan of private entities taking over global financial issuance and controls, which is a criticism leveled at Facebook’s Libra ambitions, he seems to be equally wary of government-issued money compared to the benefits that Bitcoin can bring:
They create all this money, and 85 percent of it ends up in the stock market, it does not find its way to the real economy, we are basically just propping up the stock market. It is another big bubble. With Bitcoin, you have an ordinary man or woman in the street having a knowledge of the process.
It’s not clear what has prompted Kasparov’s change in opinion about Bitcoin, but having a former chess grandmaster in your corner is something that Bitcoin fans can feel very happy about.
