Venture capitalist and technology investor Peter Thiel is “pro-crypto” and “pro-Bitcoin” to the max, but he also believes that cryptocurrency may be undermining America.
According to Fortune , Thiel has urged the Joe Biden government to consider stricter regulations on cryptocurrencies .
“I wonder if Bitcoin should also be considered in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the United States ,” Thiel said during an appearance at a virtual event held for members of the Richard Nixon Foundation. “It threatens fiat money, but it especially threatens the US dollar,” adds Thiel.
“Perhaps from a geopolitical perspective, the US should be asking some tougher questions about exactly how China’s digital currency works,” the investor said.
Thiel was joined by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser Robert O’Brien. The conversation between Thiel, who has frequently criticized US companies doing business with Beijing, and two “aggressive” former members of the Trump administration, focused primarily on US-China relations .
During the talk, Thiel criticized Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL ) , whom he accused 2 years ago of working against US interests . On this occasion, the expert added that the technology giant had pressed employees of the company’s Artificial Intelligence division about whether its technology was being used in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, where mistreatment of ethnic minorities has allegedly occurred.
China has denied this, and Google has said in a statement that it does not work with the Chinese military.
Thiel also suggested that the United States should follow India in banning TikTok , the social app owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd., which it accuses of contributing to user data leaks. Thiel notes that if it were to be banned, TikTok would likely be replaced by similar apps, as has happened in India. “I don’t think it was a tremendous loss,” he says.
The TikTok comments dovetail with the Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) posts, where Thiel sits on the board of directors. Facebook has portrayed TikTok as a threat to American values. But Thiel also criticizes Facebook itself for nurturing what he called “awakening politics,” noting that the company had refused to take a firm stand on the Hong Kong protests last year.
