UNDERSTANDING TRANSFORMATIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF DEFI

Ash Bennington, senior crypto editor for Real Vision, sits down with James Bianco, president of Bianco Research, to discuss his view of the financial markets, DAOs, macro strategies, regulation, and the role of government in the economy. When he began looking into Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2017, Bianco did not see much utility for these new assets. However, during the crypto winter of 2018-2019, Bianco noticed the rise of DeFi and saw last summer how these new emerging rails were being built as a parallel financial system. Bianco sees this new system as 1.0, “the Wild West,” but more innovation will come. To him, DeFi is headed toward the creation of a whole new financial system. Filmed May 17th, 2021. Key Insights: Bianco states that volatility is part of any emerging technology—investors, regardless of experience, should understand that high-growth, tech companies go through “boom and bust” cycles all the time. For crypto, Bianco advises that it’s critical to separate the concept from the protocol. When choosing what to invest in, he urges investors to consider, “Is this concept too early? Does the system have longevity? What research has been done?” This will be paramount to understanding the future of the space and, by extension, will open the door for users from all generations and technical prowess to enter.

Their world doesn’t benefit from it because they are at the top of the heap (6 min remaining)
I can see that this isn’t ready yet for the whole world but I can see how useful it could be.

Why Silicon Valley Doesn’t Get Bitcoin with Dan Held

“Right now the risk/reward has never been better – maybe some VCs look at everything with the lens of early-stage investing where they expect a 100x pay off, what’s crazy is with Bitcoin you might actually get that.”
— Dan Held

Location: Remotely
Date: Thursday 28th January
Company: Kraken
Role: Director of Business Development

Jack Dorsey has been one of the leading public supporters of Bitcoin in Silicon Valley, stating his belief is that “Bitcoin has the potential to become the world’s sole currency by 2030”. In late 2020 Dorsey went a step further when his company Square put $50 million of Bitcoin in their treasury. Following the purchase, he tweeted “More important than Square investing $US50mm in #Bitcoin​ is sharing how we did it (so others can do the same).”

Jack Dorsey is a hugely influential figure in Silicon Valley, and his actions sent a clear message of his belief in the importance of Bitcoin.

Silicon Valley has mostly ignored Bitcoin, and Dan Held thinks this is a culture issue. While Silicon Valley values moving fast and breaking things, Bitcoin is the opposite. It is conservative, slow and most importantly, hard to change.

In this interview, I talk to Dan Held, the Director of Business Development at Kraken. We discuss Dan’s experience in Silicon Valley, what drives VCs to invest, and the changing Bitcoin narratives within Silicon Valley.