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 «brilliant mathematical idea» and «interesting commodity to speculate on.»
It’s yet to be seen whether bitcoin is a currency «or just a way to make money fast,» he added.
However, on the cryptocurrency, he said:
«It’s not clear to me whether bitcoin itself is the great long-term investment.»
Levchin’s 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.
«It’s like a reserve form of money, it’s like gold, and it’s just a store of value. You don’t need to use it to make payments,» he said at the time.
Those who are criticizing the cryptocurrency are «underestimating» it, Thiel argued.
