Twitter CEO: Bitcoin will be world’s ‘single currency’

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says bitcoin will be the world’s primary currency within the next 10 years, joining a chorus of business leaders in supporting the volatile cryptocurrency.

“The world ultimately will have a single currency, the internet will have a single currency,” Dorsey said in an interview with The Times of London. “I personally believe that it will be bitcoin.”

Dorsey added that bitcoin’s rise will occur “probably over 10 years, but it could go faster.”

Bitcoin is the most prominent of several cryptocurrencies that have exploded in value and notoriety in recent months.

Digital currencies are not regulated by any central bank or government and are seen by proponents as a way to anonymously store or transfer wealth. Critics argue that cryptocurrencies are a bubble, subject to extreme volatility and easily used as a means of hiding illicit activity.

A single bitcoin was valued at more than $19,000 as of late December, but the currency has tumbled in 2018 because of growing concerns about regulation. Bitcoin’s value hovered at roughly $8,000 as of Wednesday, according to Coinbase.

Dorsey expressed support for bitcoin even as his Twitter formally said earlier this month it would ban most cryptocurrency ads on its platform. Facebook has taken a similar stance.

The city of Plattsburgh, New York recently became the first U.S. city to ban cryptocurrency mining, citing concerns about rising electricity bills associated with the computer-driven process.