According to U.Today, Linus Torvalds, the Finnish-American software engineer renowned for creating the Linux operating system, has expressed his skepticism towards cryptocurrencies in a recent forum post. The 54-year-old computer scientist criticized the digital asset class, describing it as a 'great vehicle for scams.' He likened cryptocurrencies to a typical Ponzi scheme, designed to leave 'the next sucker holding the bag.' Torvalds also humorously dismissed the belief in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny.
Torvalds, who is also known as the godfather of the open-source movement and the creator of the distributed version control system Git, was once rumored to be the Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. This speculation was fueled by Torvalds allegedly changing a single name in the Linux Kernel to 'Name = I am Satoshi' in January 2022. However, Torvalds clarified that this was merely a prank by a 'jokester' who manipulated GitHub's modus operandi to make it appear as if their git object was in his tree. He dismissed the rumors as 'empty noise' and denied owning a large Bitcoin fortune.
In the same forum post, Torvalds also rejected the concept of technological singularity, referring to it as a 'bedtime story for children.' He joked that, similar to the very hungry caterpillar, it makes for great click-bait stories. While he acknowledged that it is an intriguing sci-fi concept, he argued that the idea of continuous exponential growth is nonsensical. 'We are very much seeing the limits getting closer,' Torvalds concluded.