Who is Jamie Dimon?

If you haven't heard of Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan yet, here's what you need to know:

1. He's a billionaire, and not ashamed of it (and believe me, I could have pasted a much worse quote - just google his 60 Minutes interview):

“Acting like everyone who's been successful is bad and because you're rich you're bad, I don't understand it.” 

2. As head of JPM, he "accepted" around $25 billion of American tax payers money under TARP, to "save" his bank, even though it didn't need saving.

3. Jamie on his bank evicting people, during the last economic crisis (which his bank partly contributed to):

“We don't think there are cases where people were evicted out of homes when they shouldn't have been.”

4. Jamie thinks Bitcoin is a "fraud":

 “It’s worse than tulip bulbs. It won’t end well. Someone is going to get killed. It’s just not a real thing, eventually it will be closed.”

and

“If you were in Venezuela or Ecuador or North Korea or a bunch of parts like that, or if you were a drug dealer, a murderer, stuff like that, you are better off doing it in Bitcoin than U.S. dollars.”

and

“Virtual currency, where it's called a bitcoin vs. a U.S. dollar, that's going to be stopped. No government will ever support a virtual currency that goes around borders and doesn't have the same controls. It's not going to happen.”

5. All the while, Jamie's bank was rolling out its own cryptocurrency.

6. When asked about it directly, Jamie says "JPMorgan Will Use Blockchain ‘for a Whole Lot of Things‘"

7. Today's (2/11/2020) top crypto news: JPMorgan May Merge Its Blockchain Project With Ethereum Studio ConsenSys.

(In case you don't know, ConsenSys is behind many of the products and technologies supporting Ethereum. Using MetaMask, or uPort? You're using a ConsenSys product. Here's a link to ConsenSys' portfolio.)

The lesson we learned

Kids, don't be like Jamie. Don't spend years sawing FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) about a technology, vilify everyone who uses it, brand them as terrorists and drug dealers, and basically call all users and early adopters stupid, WHILE actively using the same technology to enrich yourself.

Don't speak from both sides of your mouth.

Stay safe!