Finnish-American software engineer Linus Torvalds, who is best known for creating the Linux operating system, does not believe in cryptocurrencies, according to his recent forum post.
The 54-year-old computer scientist slammed the newfangled asset class as a “great vehicle for scams.” He also went on to mention that cryptocurrencies function as a typical Ponzi scheme that aims to find “the next sucker holding the bag.”
“Nor do I believe in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, or the Easter bunny,” he quipped.
A Satoshi candidate?
It is worth noting that the godfather of the open-source movement, who has also created the distributed version control system Git, was once rumored to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
Torvalds, who created the Linux kernel when he was 21, had the necessary set of skills for coming up with the idea of Bitcoin, which made him one of the likely candidates.
The rumors were fueled by Torvalds allegedly changing a single name in the Linux Kernel to “Name = I am Satoshi” back in January 2022.
However, Torvalds explained that it was simply a “jokester” who took advantage of GitHub’s modus operandi to make it seem like their git object was in his tree.
He went on to clarify that the rumors were just “empty noise,” adding that he was not the owner of a huge Bitcoin fortune.
No technological singularity
In his post, Torvalds also rejected the idea of technological singularity, dismissing it as a “bedtime story for children”. “But unlike the very hungry caterpillar, it also makes for great click-bait stories that you can make up,” he joked.
Even though the legendary computer scientist admits that it is a great sci-fi concept, continuous exponential growth does not make sense to him. “We are very much seeing the limits getting closer,” Torvalds added.