Venture Capitalist: BitCoin Is Gold 2.0

The bitcoin boom is just getting started, two venture capitalists said Monday at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, reports CNBC.

Get ready for a wave of new bitcoin start-ups, said Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.


"What the critics are underestimating is that you had a first wave of bitcoin start-ups and people were interested in it and it was kind of cool," Dixon said. "But now what I think you are seeing—if you just talk to the smartest people in Silicon Valley now—is that some of the best entrepreneurs are going to start getting into it, so I think you are going to see another wave."

Dixon, who said he has a "fair amount" invested in bitcoins, said that tech entrepreneurs have historically struggled to get into the financial tech space because of its massive size and the rigid regulations related to the finance industry. But the anonymous payment network that bitcoin provides helps avoid these obstacles and that has entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley excited, Dixon said, according to CNBC.


Chamath Palihapitiya, the founder and managing partner of the venture firm Social Capital, owns bitcoins in his hedge fund and in his private account. He said, "Everywhere you have currency pressure, everywhere you want to basically shield your assets, and after that it will probably become a payment mechanism."

Note: While it is interesting that this interest is showing in Silicon Valley, especially because SV tends to have influence in Washington D.C., it is hard to see how the government is going to allow the bitcoin market to develop into a competitor of the Federal Reserve. My view continues to be that a smackdown of BTC by the government is coming.