John Oliver compares bitcoin to a $15,000 Beanie Baby: 'You're not investing, you're gambling'

HBO

• John Oliver gave an episode-long crash course on the topics of cryptocurrency and blockchain on Sunday night's "Last Week Tonight."
• He introduced the subject as "everything you don't understand about money combined with everything you don't understand about computers."
• Oliver compared cryptocurrencies to a $15,000 Beanie Baby, before focusing on the variety of potential uses for blockchain technology. 
• He ultimately cautioned against the high-risk potential of cryptocurrency investment, telling crypto-investors, "just know that you're not investing, you're gambling."

John Oliver gave a crash course on the topics of cryptocurrency and blockchain on Sunday night's "Last Week Tonight," introducing it as "everything you don't understand about money combined with everything you don't understand about computers."

Over the course of the 25-minute episode, Oliver compared cryptocurrencies to a $15,000 Beanie Baby, or any other "speculative investment" that people agree has value. 

The "Last Week Tonight" host then focused on the potential of blockchain technology, the decentralized electronic ledger of cryptocurrency transactions. To explain the topic, Oliver threw to a clip of a blockchain researcher comparing hacking a blockchain system to "a highly processed thing, sort of like a Chicken McNugget."

"And if you wanted to hack it, it'd be like turning a Chicken McNugget back into a chicken," Don Tapscott, cofounder of the Blockchain Research Institute, said in the clip. "Now someday, someone will be able to do that, but for now it will be tough."

Oliver noted that while companies like IBM and Wal-Mart have experimented with blockchain for the purpose of sharing data and transaction histories, he explained that blockchain is still an emergent field, and he cautioned against high-risk investment in cryptocurrencies. 

"The point is, if you choose to invest in the cryptocurrency space, just know that you're not investing, you're gambling," Oliver said.

Watch the episode below:

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