https://ift.tt/87rA0Mx Solinas Pliego: Bitcoin better than fiat currencies

During an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, the third richest man in Mexico, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, head of an industrial agglomeration with interests in energy, telecommunications, media and finance, with assets estimated at $14.2 billion, talked about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

Ricardo Solinas Pliego on Bitcoin

The eccentric Mexican billionaire who has always been a big fan of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies said in no uncertain terms that Bitcoin is a much better currency than fiat currencies. According to Salinas, the digital currency is “elusive” and can therefore be transferred instantly around the world, unlike fiat and the gold standard.

“The gold standard has always been subject to governmental intervention. And fiat allows you to finance endlessly”.

According to the Mexican billionaire, Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer system makes the currency much less maneuverable by intermediaries or financial authorities. This feature, along with its limited money supply, would allow holders to preserve wealth in the long term against inflation and devaluation of traditional currencies, even more so than gold itself.

“Everything we have in fiat is 100% seizable by the government. It’s not in the government’s interest to make it easy for people to use bitcoin”.

Banco Azteca, could adopt Bitcoin

Salinas has always been a tenacious supporter of Bitcoin and recently said that he has 10% of his total liquidity in Bitcoin and assured that he is working so that his Bank, Banco Azteca, could be, very soon, the first in the country to accept Bitcoin.

“We were the first ones to accept bitcoin in our stores”,

Salinas said, adding that his companies will soon add support for receiving transactions through the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s layer-2 scaling solution for cheaper and faster payments.

He added:

“Gold is hard to transport and hard to store,” he said. “The gold price has been manipulated quite easily by central banks around the world. Bitcoin comes in as a new asset that is harder to manipulate, it’s a better asset as you can sell it easier and you can transport and store it basically for free”.

He wanted to emphasize that he does not consider Bitcoin as a speculative investment, but more as a long-term one as a kind of savings account.

In August, Salinas had tweeted that he was very positive about Bitcoin, even imagining that the new digital currency could change the world in the future.