Kevin O'Leary taps into potential Bitcoin 'bomb': 'Pretty interesting'
O'Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin O'Leary says he may have a "new special friend" in Alberta Premier Danielle Smith after she dropped a shiny Bitcoin "bomb" during her interview on "Varney & Co." on Wednesday.
When FOX Business host Stuart Varney asked the Canadian politician whether she knew if she was "killing the planet" by exporting oil, she replied: "We have 200 billion barrels of oil in reserve that's recoverable."
"We've got 200 trillion cubic feet of gas. And we also have pore space that is probably the best in the world, next only to Russia," she added.
"I think we're a better trading partner and friend than Russia. And so we have a plan to take carbon dioxide, capture it and bury it, carbon capture utilization and storage. We have already done this at scale. We've already safely sequestered 14 million tons of CO2. We intend to do more of that, and I think that the other part of it is that we want to have our lower emissions fuel being exported internationally so that we can reduce the global emissions picture."
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O'Leary claimed Smith's comments about the amount of oil reserves caught a "ton" of attention.
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"That’s all power. That’s what that is. And that’s what we need for Bitcoin mining, we need for A.I. data centers," O’Leary said on Thursday. "She's coming out blasting there… that was pretty interesting."
Mining is a process used by Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies to generate new coins and verify new transactions, according to Coinbase. It is a high-energy intensive, expensive process that may be countered by utilizing natural gas to power Bitcoin-mining data centers.
Smith also mentioned that she has plans to head to Washington D.C. for Donald Trump's presidential inauguration in January. When asked whether she's a "big Trump fan," she replied: "I am a fan of our biggest trading partner, so [a] $188 billion relationship. We had a great relationship with the previous administration. I know we will have a great relationship with the new administration."
Varney also invited her to come back to the show in New York City.
"You might come and meet her," Varney suggested to O'Leary.
"She's my new special friend if she's got that much energy," the "Shark Tank" star replied. "And she's going to be getting a lot of phone calls from other people just like me – I can guarantee you that."