Sir Tim Berners-Lee has labelled cryptocurrency “dangerous”.
The inventor of the World Wide Web said the speculative nature of digital currencies makes them a form of gambling which people seek to “get a kick out of”.
“It’s only speculative. Obviously, that’s really dangerous,” Berners-Lee told CNBC’s Beyond The Valley podcast.
“Investing in certain things which are purely speculative isn’t where I want to spend my time.”
The Briton compared the rise of crypto to the DotCom bubble where internet companies around the turn of the century were given hugely inflated valuations, crashing the market.
He added, however, that digital currencies may benefit remittance payments – from one country to another – if immediately converted back into fiat currency at their destination.
Berners-Lee and John Bruce are looking to reshape the internet through startup Inrupt, which aims to give people more control of their data.
He said blockchain isn’t fast or secure enough to be truly Web3, or the next generation of the internet.