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@Dan_Pantera
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I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 6:37 pm

As you guys may already know, Pantera Capital is the investment firm focused exclusively on Bitcoin, blockchain tech, and digital currency. We invest in bitcoins directly and also early-stage companies that are building out the blockchain industry.

I’ve managed Pantera for about 12 years. Not too long ago we managed hedge funds which invested in currencies, bonds, and equities. But my true passion has been investing in large disruptive ideas — from glasnost to Tesla Motors. When I found Bitcoin in 2011, I was blown away. It combined all the facets of my professional experience and economic/political beliefs with the power to potentially have a large, positive impact on billions of lives. This led me to transition the firm to an exclusive focus on digital currency.

I’m also the Chairman of Bitstamp, the leading European USD-bitcoin exchange and Pantera’s first venture investment.

If you haven’t seen our monthly letters floating around on Twitter or Reddit, we produce some fantastic content on the blockchain industry. Two of our most popular publications:
  • Blockchain Letter: our (usually) monthly letter, which features original research and thought pieces, our take on the month’s significant market and industry-related developments, and more.
  • BitFlash Weekly: Every Monday, we put together a digest of the previous week’s best Bitcoin/blockchain/digital currency articles, charts, websites, and opinions. A quick read that’s great for filtering out the noise and staying up-to-date on the most important industry developments.
You can subscribe to any number of our publications here: http://panteracapital.com/subscribe.

We’re also super active on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dan_pantera | http://twitter.com/panteracapital.

With all this said, ask away!

EDIT: We'll be back to answer more on Monday.
Last edited by @Dan_Pantera on Sat Dec 12, 2015 9:00 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 7:15 pm

Hi Dan!

i Have a couple of questions that i want to ask you!

What are your opinions regarding the Blocksize-issue(Especially after the Scaling bitcoin event)? are you for BIP100(increase of up to 17%)/BIP101(8 MB and up to GBs)/BIP248(2-4-8-32MB) with/without Segregated Witness and lightning network?
Do you hold bitcoins BTC yourself(in the trezor,web Wallet,mobile wallet or desktop wallet)? How much bitcoins do you hold(% wise of your savings and how much off your salary to you put into bitcoin)?
What do you think about bitcoins and other altcoins such as (litecoin and ethereum) future(block halvening,openbaazar etc)?


Keep continuing with your articles(on both medium and your Website)!

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:05 pm

Wow very cool you are joining us!

I'll subscribe to your newsletters today.

What are some of the more promising sectors of Bitcoin that you see today?

Has the bitcoin ecosystem and bitcoin as a currency and store of value evolved how you expected it? Has it evolved as fast as you had expected it? Why or why not?

What are some of the main challenges facing the industry today?

Why do you think we have a current upswing in price?
Last edited by Windowly on Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:07 pm

Hi Dan, thanks for the constant industry views and commentary on twitter, etc. As an inspiring investor to the ecosystem I've love to know what you think about the following.

1. What do you think the biggest hurdle is for the bitcoin to explode as a currency or protocol? I believe it is regulatory but I wonder if the technology will make those regulations obsolete or just force change of any poor regulation. Unless there is a hole in the protocol that can't be changed, how can bitcoin be stopped as a superior form of money?

2. For a speculator what do you suggest about making investments in this space and how to diversify (example for my speculating portfolio I am 80% in the currently 20% in startups across different sectors). I have the private keys spread across different locations, etc. Is there any next move you would make once having a good start of investments? Maybe the question is better asked - for Pantera, is there a finish line for amount of funds invested where you just sit back and wait or is committing as much as you possible can the move and risk over commitment?

3. If bitcoin takes off, how violently is this going to happen and what does that look like? If we are going to 10k-100k a coin in 5-10 years, how does that happen in such a short time? Will there be $1,000 drops because of media hype like we have on a smaller stage now, mass panic? What might that look like?

4. What is the biggest development in the space that even the bitcoin community might not be noticing right now?

Thanks for your time, keep up the great work.

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:14 pm

Hi Dan,

Thanks for doing the AMA! Can you tell us about any exciting new projects or investments that Pantera has up it's sleeve that the general public might not know about yet (if you're allowed to tell us!)? :)

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:24 pm

Hi Dan, :)

thx for joining!

Here are my questions:

1) Is Pantera Capital planing to hold altcoins too?

2) Is your fund invested in mining too?
What do you think will the mining sector look like in 5-10 years?

3) What is the best method for storing coins in your opinion?



Thx :)
LiteCoinGuy
********************************************
More informations about Bitcoin and scaling BTC on

bitcoin.org/en/

https://bitcoincore.org/en/2015/12/23/c ... reases-faq

&
reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:50 pm

Hey! A few questions on your opinion of how btc will change the investment landscape for investors.

1. What is your opinion on how btc will change crowdfunding, vc, and stocks? ie overstocks s3 filing approval

2. Thoughts on altcoins? How about ethereum?

3. A big problem I see with the space is the lack of revenue models for these open source projects. Companies like bitpay are being hit hard because the nature of btc products is that they are not proprietary. Do you see an issue with this?

4. What is your opinion in why btc hasn't taken off yet? If you look at crypto as an asset class, it has huge promise. Most fund managers or wall st types are willing to speculate so heavily on terrible junk bonds and other assets, but not crypto? Especially with a market cap of $5.5B, that is extremely low.

5. What is your favorite thing about crypto and btc?

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:58 pm

Hi Dan!

i Have a couple of questions that i want to ask you!

What are your opinions regarding the Blocksize-issue(Especially after the Scaling bitcoin event)? are you for BIP100(increase of up to 17%)/BIP101(8 MB and up to GBs)/BIP248(2-4-8-32MB) with/without Segregated Witness and lightning network?
Do you hold bitcoins BTC yourself(in the trezor,web Wallet,mobile wallet or desktop wallet)? How much bitcoins do you hold(% wise of your savings and how much off your salary to you put into bitcoin)?
What do you think about bitcoins and other altcoins such as (litecoin and ethereum) future(block halvening,openbaazar etc)?

Keep continuing with your articles(on both medium and your Website)!
What are your opinions regarding the Blocksize-issue(Especially after the Scaling bitcoin event)?

Like most everyone in the space, we support some sort of blocksize increase. An incremental increase over time seems prudent. How exactly that will manifest is better left up to the devs, but we’re keeping a close on eye on how this is playing out and actually trying to foster some consensus. We invited Gavin, Peter Todd, and other development experts to our Bitcoin Pacifica conference between the Scaling events to try to hash out the governance issue more. I thought it was a productive conversation. You can hear it here: https://soundcloud.com/pantera-capital/ ... ifica-2015.

https://twitter.com/virtuallylaw/status ... 3716850688

Do you hold bitcoins BTC yourself(in the trezor,web Wallet,mobile wallet or desktop wallet)?

Definitely. The bitcoins I use for daily transactions are on Bitcoin-Qt, Xapo wallet, and ChangeTip. The bitcoins I own for longer term are held in Pantera Bitcoin Fund.

How much bitcoins do you hold(% wise of your savings and how much off your salary to you put into bitcoin)?

A very large fraction of my net worth are in bitcoin and invested in blockchain companies. It is by far the largest “trade” I’ve done in my 27-year career. I’m all in. However, when friends or institutional investors ask, I suggest a couple percent of their net worth/portfolio. Certainly don't invest more than you can comfortably lose.

What do you think about bitcoins and other altcoins such as (litecoin and ethereum) future(block halvening,openbaazar etc)?

Some altcoins have genuinely useful features that are improvements on Bitcoin for specific use cases. There is value in these features, but bootstrapping an ecosystem/market/network even half of Bitcoin’s size is unlikely at this point. Since security is crucial for the viability of these technologies and security depends on the size of the ecosystem, the value those features provide cannot be utilized without great risk. However, we think that sidechains and other blockchain extension technology which allow piggy-backing off of Bitcoin’s network security are a way these alternative blockchains with different but useful features will flourish. For example, Pantera has invested in the seed rounds of Ripple, which I assume you’re familiar with, and Zerocoin, which is a forthcoming anonymous digital cash. Both boast different, useful features relative to Bitcoin and specific use cases, but I believe ultimately these technologies will make their way back to the Blockchain.

I think the halving will have a material (positive) impact on the price of bitcoin. Efficient market theologians would say a well known event should have no impact on price. I disagree. Bitcoin mining is now dominated by commercial miners who sell the block rewards to pay creditors, electricity, data center rents, etc. Halving the supply which is dumped on the market -- assuming constant demand -- will result in a price increase.

At Bitcoin Pacifica we polled participants on the percentage impact on price from one month prior to the halving to one month after. The average estimate was 14% increase. My personal forecast was 28%.

Decentralized applications like OpenBazaar are interesting. It’s treading very new ground with many potential legal ramifications, so I’m not certain of its future. I’m curious to see how things play out.

Glad you find the content useful. Thanks for the support!

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 9:49 pm

Hi Dan, :)

thx for joining!

Here are my questions:

1) Is Pantera Capital planing to hold altcoins too?

2) Is your fund invested in mining too?
What do you think will the mining sector look like in 5-10 years?

3) What is the best method for storing coins in your opinion?



Thx :)
LiteCoinGuy

1) Is Pantera Capital planning to hold altcoins too?

When we first planned launching a digital currency fund, the initial conception was that the fund would be a market-cap weighted fund like the S&P 500 for digital currencies. Hold 10-20 currencies and rebalance each month to be in line with relative market caps. Our shareholders and I only owned bitcoin, so we ultimately decided to only invest in bitcoin. The Pantera Bitcoin Fund is 100% long bitcoins. When there is investor appetite for a currency fund with altcoins, we’d revisit it.

We do have substantial indirect holdings of other currencies. We have invested in Ripple and Zerocoin -- a forthcoming anonymous digital cash. These holding companies’ only asset is XRP and Zerocoin. We also hold some XRP itself.

2) Is your fund invested in mining too?

What do you think will the mining sector look like in 5-10 years?
We are invested in 21. They are doing some very bold things in distributed mining. There’s a huge endowment effect with financial assests. If you GIVE somebody a bitcoin they love it and ultimately use it and buy more. The 21 bitcoin computer will get satoshis in people pockets. Once they have some satoshis they’ll start buying games, music, etc.

Bitcoin is so interesting because it changes and develops at such a rapid pace. I have no idea where mining will be in 5-10 years. There are reasonable sounding arguments that it will all be consolidated into a few massive capital-intensive companies like Intel – or that distributed mining will be a powerful force and it will be less centralized.

3) What is the best method for storing coins in your opinion?

The answer depends on each entity’s needs.

Coin Storage: We’ve done a lot of work on security over the past four years. I believe Xapo is by far the best method of storing coins.
Retail/Transactional Use: Circle, Coinbase, and Xapo are all good.
Institutional Investment: Pantera Bitcoin Fund is the most efficient.

Thanks for your contributions to the forum!

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 10:05 pm

Wow very cool you are joining us!

I'll subscribe to your newsletters today.

What are some of the more promising sectors of Bitcoin that you see today?

Has the bitcoin ecosystem and bitcoin as a currency and store of value evolved how you expected it? Has it evolved as fast as you had expected it? Why or why not?

What are some of the main challenges facing the industry today?

Why do you think we have a current upswing in price?
What are some of the more promising sectors of Bitcoin that you see today?

Cross-border payments is one of the most promising. SWIFT is a 40-50 year old technology; perhaps the last “fintech” innovation before Bitcoin. SWIFT stands for “Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications”. How 1960's does that sound? Think about those words. “Worldwide financial telecommunication” is Bitcoin. Now compare the fees, transaction times, and transparency of the correspondent banking system (which includes SWIFT) to Bitcoin-based services like Align Commerce. It’s like night and day. And the thing with businesses adopting some service over another is that if some new service is far superior cost-wise, it’s adopted immediately. This is what we’re seeing already.

Luxury goods authentication is another. Counterfeiting is a $600 billion industry. The Blockchain finally gives us a way to track the lifetime of highly valuable goods to ensure they’re authentic on a whole new level relative to older attempts at doing this. No doubt, Bitcoin will take a big bite out of that lunch. Marshawn Lynch recently released his first shoe line -- BEASTMODE. Every pair of the shoes comes with a Chronicled authenticity tag built in at time of manufacture. The secondary market for these shoes will be the first where every single pair can be authenticated -- real time with either Apple BLE or Android NFC. Scan the shoe with your phone. You'll know in 5 seconds if it's real or fake.

Mobile money is another big one. People in the developing world are leapfrogging traditional marble-columned bank accounts for digital cash in the same way that they leapfrogged landline telephones for mobile. Look at M-PESA in Kenya as a good example. Safaricom, the company that provides M-PESA and is currently battling against our port company BitPesa, is feeling the heat from Bitcoin; perhaps some of the first actual pushback from the old service providers against the new blockchain kids on the block.

Has the bitcoin ecosystem and bitcoin as a currency and store of value evolved how you expected it? Has it evolved as fast as you had expected it? Why or why not?

Nobody can predict the future perfectly. I’d say much of what’s happening today is aligned with what we thought would happen. Some things are happening faster, some slower. In the beginning, we had a new technology. We thought, “What pain points currently exist that can be solved with this and what new pain points may arise that could also be solved with it?”

To give you an example: everyone tolerated high fees/times/transparency of traditional cross-border payments. It wasn’t until that there was some other, viably competitive way to do cross-border payments (namely Bitcoin) that businesses realized they were settling for less than cutting-edge technology could afford. Think about other non-Bitcoin-based “fintech” “innovations”; these, almost tragically, still rely on traditional banking’s rails, still rely on traditional banking’s relatively poor fees/times/transparency.

Disruptive technologies are called category killers. Bitcoin is a serial killer. It will disrupt dozens of major industries. It is also true that it won't do it all at the same time. It will roll through businesses serially.

We think that merchant processing will be one of the last sectors disrupted. We have not yet made an investment in that -- it might take 5-10 years.

What are some of the main challenges facing the industry today?

Regulation was one of the biggest risks in the early days. Now, most countries are treating Bitcoin more or less fairly. FUD/branding of the industry has also negatively impacted growth, but this has improved immensely over the course of 2015.

Facing the industry today? Wences brings up a good point about people investing more than they can afford to lose. Bitcoin’s becoming attractive to the mainstream, but novice mistakes en masse would be bad. In the distant future, Bitcoin will be the world’s premier store of value but, until then, the market is too volatile (unless your regional fiat is much more wild).

I wouldn’t call it a risk, but more work needs to be done on branding. Companies need to move Bitcoin to the backend; black-box it. If you aren’t mentioning your use of TCP/IP on your startup’s website, you shouldn’t be mentioning Bitcoin if possible, e.g., some services like Coinbase are explicitly and directly about Bitcoin, so this wouldn’t work.

Why do you think we have a current upswing in price?

Our BitIndex, which examines ecosystem fundamentals independently of price, suggests that the currency itself is undervalued. The increase from $250 to $330 a few weeks ago was a reflection of price catching up with these fundamentals. More catching up needs to be done, for sure, but to what extent is unclear. The current upswing, at least in part, is more of this catching up with the fundamentals. Volatile times like these awake many short-term speculators from slumber, as reflected by exchange volume, so beware. What’s cool about all of the work the ecosystem has done in terms of regulation, image, etc. the past couple years is that new traders, institutional and otherwise, feel comfortable coming into the market. Bitcoin becoming something normal is exactly what we the ecosystem needs.

I like to keep in mind that this is a multi-decade disruption. Short- or even medium-term fluctuations in the price of bitcoin don't mean much. The price of venture/equity in blockchain ecosystem has risen steadily for years. It's less volatile than the currency.

Thanks!

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 10:34 pm

I'm glad that you invited developers to talk to each other about governance, however, the scaling issue still seems stalled and it feels like every influential person (such as yourself) is waiting for consensus to emerge. Do you intend to be more proactive and try to mold consensus around a particular solution? I can tell that you'd rather "leave it to the devs" but it seems they would rather "leave it to the miners" and so on... I think more people need to stand up and champion a particular way forward.

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:19 pm

Hi Dan, thanks for the constant industry views and commentary on twitter, etc. As an inspiring investor to the ecosystem I've love to know what you think about the following.

1. What do you think the biggest hurdle is for the bitcoin to explode as a currency or protocol? I believe it is regulatory but I wonder if the technology will make those regulations obsolete or just force change of any poor regulation. Unless there is a hole in the protocol that can't be changed, how can bitcoin be stopped as a superior form of money?

2. For a speculator what do you suggest about making investments in this space and how to diversify (example for my speculating portfolio I am 80% in the currently 20% in startups across different sectors). I have the private keys spread across different locations, etc. Is there any next move you would make once having a good start of investments? Maybe the question is better asked - for Pantera, is there a finish line for amount of funds invested where you just sit back and wait or is committing as much as you possible can the move and risk over commitment?

3. If bitcoin takes off, how violently is this going to happen and what does that look like? If we are going to 10k-100k a coin in 5-10 years, how does that happen in such a short time? Will there be $1,000 drops because of media hype like we have on a smaller stage now, mass panic? What might that look like?

4. What is the biggest development in the space that even the bitcoin community might not be noticing right now?

Thanks for your time, keep up the great work.
What do you think the biggest hurdle is for the bitcoin to explode as a currency or protocol? I believe it is regulatory but I wonder if the technology will make those regulations obsolete or just force change of any poor regulation. Unless there is a hole in the protocol that can't be changed, how can bitcoin be stopped as a superior form of money?

The formula for Bitcoin becoming ubiquitous is simple. Find the greatest pain points, build the apps, acquire users (which shouldn’t be hard if the pain points are intense enough). But this doesn’t mean things will be easy. If the technology (protocol) explodes, necessarily the currency does too, and vice versa.

The biggest hurdle right now? Developer interest (i.e., app building) is healthy – part of our work it to help make sure of that. There’s always room for growth, but as more VC dollars come in and price increases, more devs will find the space attractive enough to ditch their jobs for new frontiers. Regulation is decent, but as long as it’s not suffocating, we’re OK. The pain points are there and new pain points are found at a reasonable rate. Some projects address weak pain points or are simply some service “but with bitcoins!”, but this is to be expected in any gold rush.

Acquiring users could do some work – work which we’ve been seeing done the past year in terms of the ecosystem’s branding. “Blockchains, not bitcoins”, as dreadful as it was to hear, was a step in the right direction, but Bitcoin and the Blockchain need to be less focus/more backend. Nobody cares what they’re using if it works and they aren’t exposed to risk. You can see this with Align Commerce and Abra, which let service delivery do the talking instead of the old norm of trying to bank on controversial but trendy buzzwords. The cost-benefit of mentioning Bitcoin or the Blockchain in marketing is quite poor relative to not mentioning them at all.

I'm not entirely sure how jet engines work, but I know it's faster than walking to New York. Same with bitcoin. Every consumer doesn't need to know all the exquisite details of how bitcoin works. They just want to MoIP money around for free.

As a distributed technology, taken to its extreme, shutting down Bitcoin is about as feasible as shutting down the Internet. Very unlikely to happen. Still, efforts to comply with regulation are paramount. The value of permissionless innovation can be stifled by poorly formed regulation, but it’d be more greatly stifled by antagonized governments. There are countries like the U.K. that are turning out to be some of the best supporters of the technology. Smart policy makers recognize the competitive edge being supportive of Bitcoin entails. From the government-sponsored conferences I’ve attended and the regulators/policy makers I know, this is the case. Dissenting policy makers will need to eventually follow suit to avoid being left behind in the world arena.

Pushback from incumbent service providers is a potential hurdle. It’s unclear at this stage how much of this our ecosystem will face, but it seems we’re close to the level of adoption where we’d see the brunt of it or at least enough to anticipate the degree of it in the future. Lobbying and lawsuits are some examples of pushback where startups may be disadvantaged. We’re seeing some of this with BitPesa and Safaricom. Luckily, most incumbents recognize the genie is out of the bottle and have instead opted to support some variation of “blockchain, not bitcoins”.

2. For a speculator what do you suggest about making investments in this space and how to diversify (example for my speculating portfolio I am 80% in the currently 20% in startups across different sectors). I have the private keys spread across different locations, etc. Is there any next move you would make once having a good start of investments? Maybe the question is better asked - for Pantera, is there a finish line for amount of funds invested where you just sit back and wait or is committing as much as you possible can the move and risk over commitment?

Will answer in a sec.

3. If bitcoin takes off, how violently is this going to happen and what does that look like? If we are going to 10k-100k a coin in 5-10 years, how does that happen in such a short time? Will there be $1,000 drops because of media hype like we have on a smaller stage now, mass panic? What might that look like?

Bitcoin is taking off. Startup exits are obvious indicators of success, but with things like bitcoin market movements and arbitrary qualitative indicators of success, the proof is in the pudding. Looking into the pudding now, Bitcoin is taking off relative to pretty much any time before the beginning of this year. The degree to which we’re taking off? We’ll need to check back in a year and evaluate in order to know.

10k-100k a coin in 5-10 years? Since supply is fixed, there will need to be WhatsApp levels of adoption. This is not to say most of the adoption will be directly consumer based. Instead, consumers will have adopted apps that have adopted Bitcoin.

At that point, Bitcoin would be so ingrained in everyday commerce, it’s hard to imagine what news could come out that would disrupt it all. Until that point, there may be more hype-fueled run-ups tantamount to December 2013. At that point bitcoin price was up 93x on a year before. Bitcoin was better at the end of 2013, but it was 93 TIMES better.

In this future, Bitcoin will have become nothing special; there is no hype, we’d take it for granted. A funny thing to think about despite how hyped we all are today. We take the internet for granted today. We don’t really care about any news about the Internet, aside from something that debilitates it severely. Price would cling to this “boringness” necessarily, as the tech and currency are inextricable.

4. What is the biggest development in the space that even the bitcoin community might not be noticing right now?

Answer in a sec.

Thanks, I'll be back with the remainder of your questions in an hour.

Dan

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:12 am

Thank you Dan

Everyone says Bitcoin is so disruptive. It has less than 3 million holders. We have yet to see it disrupt anything. Why is that? And if it is going to disrupt anything when?

Thank you in advance.

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Re: RE: Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:38 am

Thank you Dan

Everyone says Bitcoin is so disruptive. It has less than 3 million holders. We have yet to see it disrupt anything. Why is that? And if it is going to disrupt anything when?

Thank you in advance.
Lol

Shills trololololololol

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:41 am

Hello Dan Morehead,

Thanks for the AMA. You mentioned that you have invested a significant portion of your personal wealth into cryptography ledger ventures or bitcoin.

What came first for you an interest in bitcoin, or an interest in ripple? Please explain your personal views on how both are important for the banking implications they each serve better.


Happy Holidays,

Leroy Brown

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 5:11 am

Hey Dan, I've recently been immersed into entrepreneurship and I'd like to know:

Have you encountered any problems involving the volatility of Bitcoin when investing directly in Bitcoins?
And what are your favorite niches to invest in?

Regards,
JM Erestain

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 5:37 am

Thank you Dan

Everyone says Bitcoin is so disruptive. It has less than 3 million holders. We have yet to see it disrupt anything. Why is that? And if it is going to disrupt anything when?

Thank you in advance.
Yeah. Great question.

Much is made of the analog “Bitcoin is the Internet of money.” Although woefully overused in every space, the Internet analog is very useful in bitcoin. The Internet is an interlocking web of protocols. Those protocols have radically changed commerce and communication. The last piece has been missing from the protocol puzzle — money. We have protocols for every kind of data movement, but we were missing one of the most important — a protocol for the movement of money. Bitcoin is the final piece of the protocol puzzle.

However, it takes a while for the apps to built on top of the protocol. Bitcoin’s in an awkward moment right now. It has all it needs to be the last protocol of the Internet — the money protocol — but the apps aren’t there yet. We are at that uncomfortable inflection point. The internet experienced that in the early 90’s. TCP/IP was invented in the 70s, but the protocol suite we now call the Internet didn't go viral until the browser's debut. It took two more decades for consumer-friendly applications to come about that made it useful enough for mass adoption.

Bitcoin is kind of like that. A single-digit number of million people have bitcoin — that’s roughly one out of a hundred people in the developed world. To get the other 99% engaged, we have to roll out applications that use Bitcoin as just the payment layer, i.e., applications that abstract away the Bitcoin details. When the browser came out, it made the Internet useful for the other 99% of the population that didn’t want to deal with the technical details of TCP/IP.

Demand-inspiring, consumer-friendly apps are the key to mass adoption. Over the next few years, we’ll see some really cool things come out. We can’t even imagine what a lot of them will be. In the early 90s, it would have been hard to imagine the usefulness of Amazon, eBay, or Google, let alone Twitter, Uber, etc. Socially-useful Bitcoin apps should bring explosive, Internet-analogous growth in the coming years.

Companies like Align Commerce and ABRA are doing a great job using the protocol to solve customers pain points -- but not requiring their clients to learn about SHA-256, hash rate, etc., etc.

A year ago me answering your question this way could prompt a "Yeah, says who?" response. I could be just one self-interested guy touting something he's long. The view that this protocol is massively disruptive has been validated by the size and scale of industrial players investing in it. Goldman Sachs, NASDAQ, Visa, MasterCard, AmEx. They are the experts in the payments space.

Thanks,

Dan

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 5:51 am

Hey Dan, I've recently been immersed into entrepreneurship and I'd like to know:

Have you encountered any problems involving the volatility of Bitcoin when investing directly in Bitcoins?
And what are your favorite niches to invest in?

Regards,
JM Erestain
Like the heartattack when it fell from $1,200 to $180? Other than that, it's been fun.

Seriously, I believe that when people make the decision to invest in bitcoin they should consider it a very speculative, long-term investment. It could go to zero, it could go up 100x. It will probably touch every point in between.

Our Bitcoin Fund offers daily liquidity. Investors can get in and out every day (most hedge funds only let investors out monthly or quarterly). Almost every investor has been in for years. Very few ever liquidate. That's because they view it like venture. It's a decade-long bet.

Bitcoin volatility sometimes goes below that of "real assets".

https://twitter.com/dan_pantera/status/ ... 1275828224

A perspective: Bitcon's the final protocol of the Internet. There is a profound difference that is never discussed: Bitcoin is a protocol with a price feed. How weird is that? None of the other protocols have real-time quoted prices. None of the other protocols that make the Internet work have shares or coins that can be bought and sold. You can’t ask your buddy where TCP/IP is trading today. If your email jams, you can’t short SMTP.

Can you imagine if we had had a price feed on TCP/IP? The price would have soared and crashed a hundred times in the two decades before the protocol achieved widespread consumer adoption. Soaring from a tiny base in the 70’s and then crashing for entire decade of the 80’s. If everybody in what we now call the “wired world” was staring at a real time price ticker for the underlying protocols all day, those wild price gyrations would have caused pandemonium, heart attack, and depression. We’d have all given up. It never would have happened.

Bottom line: If TCP/IP had had a real-time price feed, we’d still be doing data transfer on floppy disks.

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 6:07 am

I'm glad that you invited developers to talk to each other about governance, however, the scaling issue still seems stalled and it feels like every influential person (such as yourself) is waiting for consensus to emerge. Do you intend to be more proactive and try to mold consensus around a particular solution? I can tell that you'd rather "leave it to the devs" but it seems they would rather "leave it to the miners" and so on... I think more people need to stand up and champion a particular way forward.
Fair enough.

Logic, such as it is: There are only so many hours in the day -- and a hundred interesting ways we can contribute to the project. We each pick our spots.

I keep my eye on the blocksize debate. When we were heading off the hard fork cliff, I got active -- got Gavin and others together. We backed off the precipice, and I devoted my attention to other ways to move this forward. But, hey, you've got a point. We can't all do that. Might be time to get more engaged.

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 6:33 am

Hey Dan, I've recently been immersed into entrepreneurship and I'd like to know:

Have you encountered any problems involving the volatility of Bitcoin when investing directly in Bitcoins?
And what are your favorite niches to invest in?

Regards,
JM Erestain
Favorite investment areas:

Cross-Border Flows
“Money over Internet Protocol”
SMB-2-SMB Payments
Remittances
Mobile Money

Security & Authentication
Next-Gen Methods
Multi-Signature Addresses
Vault Storage

Micropayments
Visa/MC Long-Tails
Social Media Tipping

Thanks,

Dan

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 6:47 am

Hello Dan Morehead,

Thanks for the AMA. You mentioned that you have invested a significant portion of your personal wealth into cryptography ledger ventures or bitcoin.

What came first for you an interest in bitcoin, or an interest in ripple? Please explain your personal views on how both are important for the banking implications they each serve better.


Happy Holidays,

Leroy Brown
I first learned about Bitcoin in 2011. Eighteen months later, I met Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen at Ripple Labs.

All I know is this: In twenty years we're not going walking around with pieces of paper and metal in our pants to represent value. The credit card is not much better -- a piece of plastic with some 8-track tape glued to the back. So 1960’s.

We're going to have some post-currency ledger.

Bitcoin and Ripple represent different ways of enacting that change. At least one will work.

Thanks. Happy Holidays to you, too.

Dan

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:12 pm

Hello Dan

What do you think of Blockstream ?
How do you see mining evolving in the next decade?
Can you name the 3 smartest people in Bitcoin today ?

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Sat Dec 12, 2015 9:30 pm

As you guys may already know, Pantera Capital is the investment firm focused exclusively on Bitcoin, blockchain tech, and digital currency. We invest in bitcoins directly and also early-stage companies that are building out the blockchain industry.

I’ve managed Pantera for about 12 years. Not too long ago we managed hedge funds which invested in currencies, bonds, and equities. But my true passion has been investing in large disruptive ideas — from glasnost to Tesla Motors. When I found Bitcoin in 2011, I was blown away. It combined all the facets of my professional experience and economic/political beliefs with the power to potentially have a large, positive impact on billions of lives. This led me to transition the firm to an exclusive focus on digital currency.

I’m also the Chairman of Bitstamp, the leading European USD-bitcoin exchange and Pantera’s first venture investment.

If you haven’t seen our monthly letters floating around on Twitter or Reddit, we produce some fantastic content on the blockchain industry. Two of our most popular publications:
  • Blockchain Letter: our (usually) monthly letter, which features original research and thought pieces, our take on the month’s significant market and industry-related developments, and more.
  • BitFlash Weekly: Every Monday, we put together a digest of the previous week’s best Bitcoin/blockchain/digital currency articles, charts, websites, and opinions. A quick read that’s great for filtering out the noise and staying up-to-date on the most important industry developments.
You can subscribe to any number of our publications here: http://panteracapital.com/subscribe.

We’re also super active on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dan_pantera | http://twitter.com/panteracapital.

With all this said, ask away!

EDIT: We'll be back to answer more on Monday.
Dear Mr. Morehead,

Congratulations on your success. I have read the majority of information on your website including your bio and white-papers. You are a smart man because you realize when it's time to upgrade the ship and navigate new waters.

I agree with all of your opinions, this is a rare occurrence. I also like your terminology that this is a "bet", because that's what this is, although a pretty damn good bet ;)

Like you, I am a game changer. Over the past 20 years, I have created a vast amount of web properties and marketing applications which includes inventions that the world utilizes each day. Currently, I tinker with Bitcoin technology by getting my hands dirty while looking after my investments and helping companies I see light in to gain funding. As you well know, 1 in 10 companies become a big deal.

What I have noticed with investors is lack of education in regards to Bitcoin and also a scared feeling because they are afraid to go out of routine. Though if you explain it to them, they are most always on-board. When investors become hands-on with the technology, they are even more impressed. Institutions are now only seeing the light because if they do not make the integration, they will be left in the past of which will cost them considerable fortunes.

You say we need to create more applications and gain regulation from governments to adopt crypto-currencies, which I agree too. Many people wish for crypto-currencies to remain free, this is simply not feasible to become adopted worldwide in the ways it must be.

How many apps and payment platforms do we have to build to gain major traction? I will organize it and do it, you will read about it some day.

Who do we designate to advocate mass adoption of crypto-currencies? It's been over 5 years and not a single person or organization has gained any considerable traction. Everybody seems to be ho-humming along such as the European, Australian and 99% of other governments. I am shocked as to why it takes almost a decade to regulate a single currency that has a market-cap of over 6 billion and prosperous future, besides obvious explanations.

Lastly, I do not feel the name "Bitcoin", it isn't appealing, at least not in a boardroom - it sounds cheap. A new or pre-existing crypto-currency must take-over and go mainstream around the world. OR, each business creates their own currency with a pre-existing currency merged in and working in tandem with that currency. This would mean businesses need easy to use applications to create and manage their own currency, besides what is offered today. Even more, governments must also offer their currency in digital format. 1,2,3 you are a bank with accessories in-charge of your own payment processing and auditing controls. No middle-man with-out proper insight, that can never be trusted enough. "Plug and play" is always the best way for mass adoption. Bitcoin itself currently lacks fundamental accessories for mass commercial adoption. Do you have similar feelings and beliefs?

Apps + Websites + Advocates + Creativity + Charity = winning formula.
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If you are running a version of Bitcoin Core, stop using it. Upgrade to Bitcoin Unlimited or Classic immediately.

Fix Your Unconfirmed Transaction.

Vote for the future of our Bitcoin network!

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:02 am

Hello Dan

What do you think of Blockstream ?
How do you see mining evolving in the next decade?
Can you name the 3 smartest people in Bitcoin today ?
What do you think of Blockstream?

Blockstream is a company that’s on the next level in terms of how they think. With regards to the blocksize issue, they want to see Bitcoin succeed just as much (perhaps more) as everyone else.

How do you see mining evolving in the next decade?

The economic nature of things like mining is that they necessarily consolidate and centralize over time, which carries the obvious risks inherent to centralization of systems. The reason why I find 21, the company, so interesting is that they are pre-emptively ameliorating this by distributing the process.

Can you name the 3 smartest people in Bitcoin today?

No way! There are far more than three mega-smart people in Bitcoin. That’s why I love getting up every day. Always something super-interesting going on. 

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:07 am

As you guys may already know, Pantera Capital is the investment firm focused exclusively on Bitcoin, blockchain tech, and digital currency. We invest in bitcoins directly and also early-stage companies that are building out the blockchain industry.

I’ve managed Pantera for about 12 years. Not too long ago we managed hedge funds which invested in currencies, bonds, and equities. But my true passion has been investing in large disruptive ideas — from glasnost to Tesla Motors. When I found Bitcoin in 2011, I was blown away. It combined all the facets of my professional experience and economic/political beliefs with the power to potentially have a large, positive impact on billions of lives. This led me to transition the firm to an exclusive focus on digital currency.

I’m also the Chairman of Bitstamp, the leading European USD-bitcoin exchange and Pantera’s first venture investment.

If you haven’t seen our monthly letters floating around on Twitter or Reddit, we produce some fantastic content on the blockchain industry. Two of our most popular publications:
  • Blockchain Letter: our (usually) monthly letter, which features original research and thought pieces, our take on the month’s significant market and industry-related developments, and more.
  • BitFlash Weekly: Every Monday, we put together a digest of the previous week’s best Bitcoin/blockchain/digital currency articles, charts, websites, and opinions. A quick read that’s great for filtering out the noise and staying up-to-date on the most important industry developments.
You can subscribe to any number of our publications here: http://panteracapital.com/subscribe.

We’re also super active on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dan_pantera | http://twitter.com/panteracapital.

With all this said, ask away!

EDIT: We'll be back to answer more on Monday.
Dear Mr. Morehead,

Congratulations on your success. I have read the majority of information on your website including your bio and white-papers. You are a smart man because you realize when it's time to upgrade the ship and navigate new waters.

I agree with all of your opinions, this is a rare occurrence. I also like your terminology that this is a "bet", because that's what this is, although a pretty damn good bet ;)

Like you, I am a game changer. Over the past 20 years, I have created a vast amount of web properties and marketing applications which includes inventions that the world utilizes each day. Currently, I tinker with Bitcoin technology by getting my hands dirty while looking after my investments and helping companies I see light in to gain funding. As you well know, 1 in 10 companies become a big deal.

What I have noticed with investors is lack of education in regards to Bitcoin and also a scared feeling because they are afraid to go out of routine. Though if you explain it to them, they are most always on-board. When investors become hands-on with the technology, they are even more impressed. Institutions are now only seeing the light because if they do not make the integration, they will be left in the past of which will cost them considerable fortunes.

You say we need to create more applications and gain regulation from governments to adopt crypto-currencies, which I agree too. Many people wish for crypto-currencies to remain free, this is simply not feasible to become adopted worldwide in the ways it must be.

How many apps and payment platforms do we have to build to gain major traction? I will organize it and do it, you will read about it some day.

Who do we designate to advocate mass adoption of crypto-currencies? It's been over 5 years and not a single person or organization has gained any considerable traction. Everybody seems to be ho-humming along such as the European, Australian and 99% of other governments. I am shocked as to why it takes almost a decade to regulate a single currency that has a market-cap of over 6 billion and prosperous future, besides obvious explanations.

Lastly, I do not feel the name "Bitcoin", it isn't appealing, at least not in a boardroom - it sounds cheap. A new or pre-existing crypto-currency must take-over and go mainstream around the world. OR, each business creates their own currency with a pre-existing currency merged in and working in tandem with that currency. This would mean businesses need easy to use applications to create and manage their own currency, besides what is offered today. Even more, governments must also offer their currency in digital format. 1,2,3 you are a bank with accessories in-charge of your own payment processing and auditing controls. No middle-man with-out proper insight, that can never be trusted enough. "Plug and play" is always the best way for mass adoption. Bitcoin itself currently lacks fundamental accessories for mass commercial adoption. Do you have similar feelings and beliefs?

Apps + Websites + Advocates + Creativity + Charity = winning formula.
Thanks!

How many apps and payment platforms do we have to build to gain major traction?

What’s important is not so much the number of apps, as the painpoints the apps solve and these apps’ acquisition of users. Under this framework, just one app would be sufficient for Bitcoin’s success. Fortunately, Bitcoin is a solution to many difficult pain points. And if we accept that difficulty of pain points correlates highly with user demand, we’ll see the major traction in the next 5-10 years.

Who do we designate to advocate mass adoption of crypto-currencies?

More along the lines of my answer to your previous question, “build the apps and they will come”. The efficiency and other benefits Bitcoin affords are far and wide better than the next best thing in many cases. Smart businesses and individuals will opt for the best for their purposes. For the industries Bitcoin is disrupting, more often than not the best will be some Bitcoin-based service.

Important point -- it won't all happen at the same time. It will happen sequentially. Cross-border wires today, some other stuff tomorrow, and merchant processing down the road.

Bitcoin itself currently lacks fundamental accessories for mass commercial adoption. Do you have similar feelings and beliefs?

Bitcoin-in-the-raw, yes. Bitcoin-based applications that black-box their use of Bitcoin, I disagree. Most people are not tech savvy enough to use Bitcoin in the raw in the same way that most people didn’t use TCP/IP until the invention of the browser. TCP/IP was invented in the 70s, but the protocol suite we now call the Internet didn't go viral until the browser's debut (e.g., Netscape). Even then, it took two more decades for consumer-friendly applications (Google, Facebook, etc.) to come about that made it useful enough for mass adoption. Think about Google, Facebook, etc. You use TCP/IP without even knowing it. Bitcoin needs apps like these, where the user benefits from an app without knowing they’re using Bitcoin. Align Commerce and ABRA are good examples of this.

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:24 am

Hey! A few questions on your opinion of how btc will change the investment landscape for investors.

1. What is your opinion on how btc will change crowdfunding, vc, and stocks? ie overstocks s3 filing approval

2. Thoughts on altcoins? How about ethereum?

3. A big problem I see with the space is the lack of revenue models for these open source projects. Companies like bitpay are being hit hard because the nature of btc products is that they are not proprietary. Do you see an issue with this?

4. What is your opinion in why btc hasn't taken off yet? If you look at crypto as an asset class, it has huge promise. Most fund managers or wall st types are willing to speculate so heavily on terrible junk bonds and other assets, but not crypto? Especially with a market cap of $5.5B, that is extremely low.

5. What is your favorite thing about crypto and btc?

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What is your opinion on how btc will change crowdfunding, vc, and stocks? ie overstocks s3 filing approval.

Transaction fees, clearing times, transparency of blockchain-based systems are far superior than the siloed, legacy databases, multi-3rd-party laden system of old. In the future, the switch will have been made by all. Like super-tankers, it takes years to change the course of these massive, inertial, risk-adverse entities.

Thoughts on altcoins? How about ethereum?

Here’s what I’ve posted elsewhere:

“Some altcoins have genuinely useful features that are improvements on Bitcoin for specific use cases. There is value in these features, but bootstrapping an ecosystem/market/network even half of Bitcoin’s size is unlikely at this point. Since security is crucial for the viability of these technologies and security depends on the size of the ecosystem, the value those features provide cannot be utilized without great risk. However, we think that sidechains and other blockchain extension technology which allow piggy-backing off of Bitcoin’s network security are a way these alternative blockchains with different but useful features will flourish. For example, Pantera has invested in the seed rounds of Ripple, which I assume you’re familiar with, and Zerocoin, which is a forthcoming anonymous digital cash. Both boast different, useful features relative to Bitcoin and specific use cases, but I believe ultimately these technologies will make their way back to the Blockchain.”
Ethereum is an interesting concept. Since its deployment, more and more companies we talk to are mentioning Ethereum, which is a strong sign about the technology’s growth. We’re keeping a close eye on it, but, ultimately, there is still great uncertainty about its future.

A big problem I see with the space is the lack of revenue models for these open source projects. Companies like bitpay are being hit hard because the nature of btc products is that they are not proprietary. Do you see an issue with this?

This issue with merchant processors has more to do with the “chicken-egg” cycle not being solidified. We think that once Bitcoin-based apps have enough traction, businesses and individuals will have enough compelling reason to purchase, hold, and spend bitcoins, whereby retail merchants and non-Bitcoin–based service providers will have a reason to accept it.

Open-source projects can be monetized successfully, but this isn’t easy and requires a great deal of creativity. Think “off-the-shelf” products, RedHat-style service, designing proprietary applications of the technology, designing custom applications, and so on. I can tell you that there are companies in our space that are succeeding at this, but like consumer-based business models, the hit to miss ratio for open-source businesses will be low.

What is your opinion in why btc hasn't taken off yet? If you look at crypto as an asset class, it has huge promise. Most fund managers or wall st types are willing to speculate so heavily on terrible junk bonds and other assets, but not crypto? Especially with a market cap of $5.5B, that is extremely low.

Fund managers and Wall St. aren’t stupid – the massive upside versus 1x your money downside of buying bitcoin is a very compelling asymmetric bet. Just because we aren’t seeing jumps in market cap doesn’t mean that Wall St. isn’t buying. The upswing of the last two months should attest to this somewhat. Many Wall Street firms were hesitant about coming in at all due to bad headlines like Mt.Gox, Silk Road and the slow roll out of regulatory clarity. Now there are highly credible vehicles/platforms for casual, mainstream trading and a great deal of regulatory clarity so that these people can enter the market with peace of mind.

What is your favorite thing about crypto and btc?

Primarily, that Bitcoin is simply intellectually interesting. A money protocol was missing from the Internet. Bitcoin solved that obvious need. It’s something the world has never seen before and it has unimaginable potential. I think anyone would want to involve themselves with something like that.

Also, the community is fun and is an interestingly diverse bunch of people. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of you at conferences. I think we have a strong community in that we have a common, unifying goal of seeing something (i.e., Bitcoin) succeed.

Thanks!

Dan

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:26 am

Hi Dan,

Thanks for doing the AMA! Can you tell us about any exciting new projects or investments that Pantera has up it's sleeve that the general public might not know about yet (if you're allowed to tell us!)? :)
Obviously, we can’t talk about deals we have in the pipeline specifically, but we have quite a few exciting venture investments lined up for the first half of 2016.

We’ve been mentioning Zerocoin here and there. It’s a forthcoming, anonymous digital currency that has potential uses for private banking and discrete government agencies.

On the content side, we have a paper about money laundering in the works. It touches on the recently convicted Silk Road rogue feds. It’ll be a fun, eye-opening read about the imperfect nature of traditional banks and the superiority of blockchain tech for law enforcement.

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:45 am

Hi Dan,

Thanks for doing the AMA! Can you tell us about any exciting new projects or investments that Pantera has up it's sleeve that the general public might not know about yet (if you're allowed to tell us!)? :)
Obviously, we can’t talk about deals we have in the pipeline specifically, but we have quite a few exciting venture investments lined up for the first half of 2016.

We’ve been mentioning Zerocoin here and there. It’s a forthcoming, anonymous digital currency that has potential uses for private banking and discrete government agencies.

On the content side, we have a paper about money laundering in the works. It touches on the recently convicted Silk Road rogue feds. It’ll be a fun, eye-opening read about the imperfect nature of traditional banks and the superiority of blockchain tech for law enforcement.
Those sound very exciting and interesting; they probably won't come fast enough, so I'll have my eyes peeled! :)

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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

Mon Apr 18, 2016 11:18 am

I'm glad that you invited developers to talk to each other about governance, however, the scaling issue still seems stalled and it feels like every influential person (such as yourself) is waiting for consensus to emerge. Do you intend to be more proactive and try to mold consensus around a particular solution? I can tell that you'd rather "leave it to the devs" but it seems they would rather "leave it to the miners" and so on... I think more people need to stand up and champion a particular way forward.
Fair enough.

Logic, such as it is: There are only so many hours in the day -- and a hundred interesting ways we can contribute to the project. We each pick our spots.

I keep my eye on the blocksize debate. When we were heading off the hard fork cliff, I got active -- got Gavin and others together. We backed off the precipice, and I devoted my attention to other ways to move this forward. But, hey, you've got a point. We can't all do that. Might be time to get more engaged.
Interesting Dan, you seem to really know your stuff. I just followed you on Twitter so just thought I'd say hi as this is where I found you. Do you sell any courses?
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Re: I’m Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital and Chairman of Bitstamp! AMA!

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