Believing in the Blockchain.
A conversation on Crypto belief.
The Crypto markets went down. My sympathies to all. I felt it would be necessary to cover this topic in my morning email.
I don’t look at the crypto market prices anymore. I stopped a while ago, not because the price goes down, but because it distracts from my ability to make long term decisions. The mental “OH WOW WE ARE DOING SO WELL.” And the mental, “OH CRAP WE ARE GETTING TRASHED.” Are two sides of the same coin, it’s anchoring the price you got in at with the current market price, and incentivizing a decision to be made to sell - which for a venture capitalist is a dangerous game to play, it causes me to question my decisions earlier than I would normally have to or want to.
Boost VC has never sold any Crypto. We continue to support all of our founders who are building in the space. I’m not going to say that we haven’t thought about it 🙂
It’s weeks like last week, where it’s time to take stock of why you are investing in this space. Why it’s important and to ask the question of where the value is.
Why is Crypto important?
Financial Infrastructure
There are countries in the world that do not control their central banking well. P2P banking is better. Connecting the worlds financial infrastructure is better. Moving us toward one digital world not divided countries is better. This will allow for an alternative to every countries jurisdictions, governments will have to improve their monetary policy to keep up.
Freedom of Speech
There are countries in the world where freedom of speech is smothered. The ability to speak your mind is not allowed. The ability to challenge the status quo is criticized. A Blockchain is programmable freedom of speech. You can tether whatever you want to an immutable ledger. This is already happening. This will lead to better services and networks globally.
Debt
The banking system is broken. We have to go into debt to prove that we don’t need to go into debt. The United States somehow decided to allow 17 and 18 year old kids to take out student loans, which now adds up to $1.5 TRILLION in debt, which is basically pushing a kid whose only financial decision previously had been “McDonalds or video game.” To making a financial decision that will drag on their life for the next 20 years. The banks incentives is to lend and the promise of a “better future” that universities have been selling for ages is just garbage.
Global Arbitrage
I’m getting obsessed with jurisdictional arbitrage. Every crypto startup comes into my office and goes “Where should I incorporate?” And the answer isn’t as straight forward as it once was. It used to be “BE A DELAWARE C-Corp, because investors are comfortable investing in that.” Now, I’m looking at the opaque rules the US is making for Crypto, and the decisions that countries have made around the world, and thinking: don’t do it. Don’t incorporate anywhere. Build on a Blockchain. Do what Binance did and take Jurisdictional risk, until you found your home in a country that welcomed you. Go to Malta, or Singapore. Can you imagine an 18 year old kid starting a startup 10 years ago thinking, “Hmmmmmm, maybe I should establish residency in Malta, it will give me a leg up, or maybe Singapore because their forward facing trajectory looks good.” This is global thinking.
Global Scale
We have 30 million people on the “Crypto” system. If we don’t get the 4 Billion people on, this is a failed experiment. Crypto will give competitive services to the people in every country. Better banking, better laws, better, just better. But if we merely think inside the confines of the United States, we have already lost.
——
Look, I’m a true believer, and I’m not expecting everyone to be. I understand that I live in the future, where a robot pays another robot for energy, and then that energy is passed to a drone that flies to the airspace to pick me up off the floating blimp city. But CRYPTO technology is revolutionary. Crypto is going to challenge your fundamental beliefs with it’s price swings. It will continue to make you laugh and cry, but it is the future. This ecosystem is composed of the smartest people solving the hardest problems, and these and many more reasons are why I invest in this market.
Crypto currency has already made every one ask the question: What is money?
Get ready for:
What is a corporation?
What is a government?
What is a country?
Technology that can question the entire system is worth backing.
By Adam Draper
I ponder as a VC.
It's a quick one minute read to make you think, smile, or laugh.
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