Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Calls Bitcoin a Bubble, Praises Blockchain
On Wednesday, May 16, while speaking at the second World Intelligence Congress, Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma expressed his views on Bitcoin calling it as a bubble. However, he clearly stated that the underlying blockchain technology delivers the promise of securing privacy and safeguarding security.
Jack Ma said: “There is no bubble for blockchain, but there's a bitcoin bubble.” Ma said that over the past few years, he and his team have been researching about blockchain technology which provides an immense potential at all levels of individuals, corporations and governments.
Ma said: “Personally, I’m quite bullish about blockchain. Alibaba has been conducting research on blockchain for several years.”
According to the data provided by China’s intellectual property information provider - IPRDaily, Alibaba was ranked first for the number of blockchain patents held globally, last year. Alibaba had 43 patents under its shield which was followed by Bank of America holding 33 patents.
Since last year, Jack Ma has been repetitively saying that Bitcoins, in particular, don’t appeal him that much. During a CNBC interview in December last year, Ma said that instead of Bitcoin, he was focused more on his own company’s online platform Alipay.
Ma said: "I don't know about Bitcoin at all. I'm particularly puzzled. Even if it can really work, the rules of global trade and the financial system will be completely changed. I don't think we are ready. So I'm still paying attention to Alipay... to the US dollar, and the euro. We have a team that studies blockchain, but Bitcoin is not something that I want to pursue. We don't care about Bitcoin."
Ma has been seriously considering the use of blockchain technology for his company’s payment services. He said: “Social networks may not need blockchain, but we are doing internet finance in which we process trillions of trading volume. We have to turn to blockchain, otherwise it would be fatal.”
In the last two years, Jack Ma owned companies have ramped up the recruitment of blockchain experts which can help them gain an early edge in the implementation of the technology while simultaneously improving the efficiency of their products and services.
In line with Jack Ma’s views on cryptocurrency, the Alibaba Group of companies have been staying away from getting associated with any sort of crypto-related activities. Recently, Alibaba Cloud denied rumours that it newly launched ‘P2P Nodes’ network was a platform for crypto mining. Also, in late April, Alibaba subsidiary Taobao stripped-off all ICO advertisements from its platform.