People are "underestimating" bitcoin and it has "great potential left," billionaire investor Peter Thiel said on Thursday.

　　亿万富翁投资者彼得.蒂尔周四表示，人们一直在“低估”比特币，其实它有极大的升值空间。

　　Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thiel compared the cryptocurrency bitcoin to gold.

　　蒂尔在沙特日亚德举办的“未来投资计划”大会上发表讲话，将比特币与黄金进行了对比。

　　I’m sceptical of most of them (cryptocurrencies), I do think people are a little bit underestimating bitcoin especially because ... it’s like a reserve form of money, it’s like gold, and it’s just a store of value. You don’t need to use it to make payments, Thiel said.

　　他表示：“我对它们(加密货币)当中的大部分持怀疑态度，但我认为人们有点低估了比特币，特别是因为……它就像是一种货币的储备形式，就像黄金，只是一个价值存储工具。你不需要使用它来付款。”

　　If bitcoin ends up being the cyber equivalent of gold it has a great potential left.

　　“如果比特币最终成为黄金的网络等价物，那么它将有巨大的潜力可挖。”

　　There has been rising interest in bitcoin this year. The cryptocurrency recently hit a new record high above US$6,100 and has rallied over 500 per cent this year.

　　今年以来人们对比特币的兴趣不断增长，这种数字货币最近突破6100美元，创下历史新高，今年迄今上涨逾500%。

　　Thiel said that bitcoin is based on the "security of the math" which means it can’t be hacked and it’s secure. The PayPal founder and venture capitalist compared some of bitcoin’s features to gold.

　　蒂尔表示，比特币是建立在“数学安全”的基础之上，意味着其是安全的，不会被黑客入侵。这位Paypal创始人和风险资本家将比特币的某些特征与黄金进行了对比。

　　Bitcoin is mineable like gold, it’s hard to mine, it’s actually harder to mine than gold. And so in that sense it’s more constrained, Thiel said.

　　“比特币是可开采的，就像黄金一样，它很难开采，实际上比黄金更难开采。因此从这个意义上将，它更加有限。”

　　The cryptocurrency has a limited supply and only 21 million bitcoin will be mined.

　　比特币的供应是有限的，最多只能被开采2100万枚。