CNBC
1 HN recommender · recommended in 3 months, 2018–2021
6:17 · 1.3M views · May 7, 2018
In a CNBC interview with Becky Quick, Warren Buffett explains why he sees bitcoin as an asset that produces nothing. He contrasts it with productive assets such as a farm.
HN links it as the primary source for Buffett's bitcoin views and his argument about productive versus non-productive assets.
3 comments from Hacker News
I don't know if Bitcoin will outperform Facebook, but can explain why they're fundamentally different assets. Facebook is a "productive asset". It's a business that sells to customers and generated 29 billion in profit in 2020. Bitcoin, like gold, is not a productive asset. It doesn't pay interest (like bonds), dividends (like stocks), or rental income (like real estate). Warren Buffett has a good explanation: this video
The quoted text is incorrect/misleading and it's not even in that particular embedded clip. What he said was: "When you buy non-productive assets all you're counting is whether the next person is going to pay you more because they're even more excited about another next person coming along. But the asset itself is creating nothing. One of the interesting things for example is gold ... and it doesn't produce anything" He compared Bitcoin to Gold directly as they are both non-productive assets. He then goes on to explain how a farm is a productive asset. Source: this video
Indeed Warren Buffet made a similar point: if you buy a farm, you're buying the land, the potential to grow crops that people actually consume, etc. whereas cryptocurrency doesn't really have a purpose except as a store of value. It's not a productive asset; it doesn't produce anything. It is a bit like buying gold. this video