Bill Gates was just interviewed by Erik Schatzker because he’s at the Annual Banking and Financial Conference in Boston talking about his foundation’s initiative to help the unbanked. A couple minutes in this question gets asked:

Schatzker: Some of what you just described, the need to move money from place to place, the cost of doing so, the overhead as you put it makes me think, believe it or not, of Bitcoin because some people have said, “Hey Bitcoin is the answer to those problems”. Are you a believer?

Bill Gates: Bitcoin is exciting because it shows how cheap it can be. Bitcoin is better than currency in that you don’t have to be physically in the same place and of course for large transactions currency can get pretty inconvenient. The customers we’re talking about aren’t trying to be anonymous. You know they’re willing to be known so the Bitcoin technology is key and you could add to it or you could build a similar technology where there’s enough attribution that people feel comfortable that this is nothing to do with terrorism or any type of money laundering.

Bill Gates: Bitcoin Currency Is Exciting Because It’s Cheap: Video – Bloomberg.