Steve Wozniak: Bitcoin ‘beats gold, US dollar’

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak thinks Bitcoin is a better bet than the US dollar and gold because of its fixed future supply. The American inventor, programmer and engineer, also known as the ‘Woz’, told an audience at the Money20/20 event in Las Vegas that he liked Bitcoin because it is based on mathematics and cannot be diluted, unlike other currencies. In conversation with CNBC technology reporter Deirdre Bosa at the payments and financial technology event, Wozniak said the fact only 21 million Bitcoins can ever be mined - a number forecast to be hit by 2040 - makes it a more stable currency than so-called fiat currencies, or legal tender. "There is a certain finite amount of Bitcoin that can ever exist," Wozniak told Bosa, adding that the US government would always be able to simply print more dollars - the same cannot be said of Bitcoin. This makes the US dollar “kind of phony”, whereas Bitcoin is more “genuine and real”. While Bitcoin is often compared to gold in the sense both are ‘mined’ - digitally and physically - Wozniak argued gold does not necessarily have a fixed supply either, because we could always find better ways of getting more of it out of the earth. "Gold gets mined and mined and mined," Wozniak said. "Maybe there's a finite amount of gold in the world, but Bitcoin is even more mathematical and regulated and nobody can change mathematics." Bitcoin, Wozniak told the Money20/20 audience, is a bit like owning a house. A house has value and, some decades from now, it will still be a house with value, even if the price goes up and down. The Woz’s comments talking up Bitcoin’s potential come after the cryptocurrency hit an all-time high, with the price of one Bitcoin rising to $5,243, a 750% rise in the past year.