Billionaire Bill Miller, who is also the head of investments at Miller Value Partners, sees Bitcoin as “insurance” against a financial catastrophe.
During his performance in the “Richer, Wiser, Hapier” podcast, Miller talks about Bitcoin as a means to still have access to financial services in war situations, for example. Miller uses the collapse of Afghanistan’s financial infrastructure after the United States’ withdrawal in August 2021 as an example.
Afghanistan, Western Union and Bitcoin
Bitcoin’s decentralized network knows no borders and the rules are the same for everyone. “The moment the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, Western Union also stopped facilitating wire transfers to and from Afghanistan. But if you had Bitcoin, nothing would have happened. Your Bitcoin is there. You can send it to anyone in the world if you have a phone,” said Bill Miller on the power of Bitcoin.
Furthermore, Miller says Bitcoin functioned well during periods of major market turmoil, without the Federal Reserve having to intervene to keep things going. That is the power of Bitcoin. It doesn’t care about markets and always does the same thing. The network produces a block every ten minutes and in that sense the outside world has zero impact on Bitcoin. “It’s like insurance,” Miller says about why he believes in Bitcoin.
Miller takes down Warren Buffet’s criticism
During the podcast, Miller also took the time to refute Warren Buffet’s criticisms. Quite recently, Buffet called out that Bitcoin is worthless because it “produces nothing” and that he has less than $25 to spare for all the Bitcoin in the world. “Buffet is saying that Bitcoin is a non-productive asset and therefore cannot put any value on it. […] That’s fine, no one is forcing you to buy Bitcoin, right? So ignore it too,” said a slightly agitated Miller.
Miller continued his commentary on Buffet with a wisdom about investing: “The goal of investing is not to own productive assets, the goal is to make money.” What he exactly means by that is not clear in the context of Bitcoin. Does he see Bitcoin as money or as a means of making money. Does he buy Bitcoin as an end in itself or purely to resell it later for more fiat money? That is a question that every Bitcoin investor has to ask themselves over time.