
November 7, 2020
Capital University | What is Bitcoin? With Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss
Check out Capital University Podcast Episode Page
Key Takeaways
- Starting and owning companies with conviction is the way to build generational wealth, not by diversifying and playing it safe
- Bitcoin is the first money built for the Internet, and it’s decentralized
- To take it down, you have to stop the entire Internet
- A Bitcoin price prediction of $500K/bitcoin is a conservative estimate
- That said, it’s a long term bet, buy it with a 10 year time horizon
- You hold 1 bitcoin and you know there will only be 21 million bitcoins
- Remember that you can own a fraction of a bitcoin
Intro
- Cameron Winklevoss (@winklevoss) and Tyler Winklevoss (@tylerwinklevoss) are venture investors, Olympic rowers, the founders of Gemini Cryptocurrency exchange
- Check out the Podcast Notes from their appearance on The What Bitcoin Did Podcast
- Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano (@APompliano) is a Co-founder at Morgan Creek Digital and host of The Pomp Podcast
- Bryce Hall (@BryceHall) is the Co-founder of Ani Energy and a social media personality. Check out his Instagram and YouTube
Bitcoin in Ibiza
- After being introduced to cryptocurrencies by a stranger in Ibiza, the twins quickly realized this is the next big thing
- Bitcoin is the first money that is built for the internet
- Think of it as Gold 2.0; it’s superior to gold in all the properties that make gold valuable
- For instance, whereas gold is scarce but not fixed, Bitcoin’s supply is fixed
- Think of it as Gold 2.0; it’s superior to gold in all the properties that make gold valuable
Conviction is Key
- Bitcoin is decentralized money, you have to stop the entire internet to take it down
- “We didn’t see how this thing wouldn’t work and if it did work it was gonna be really big” – Tyler Winklevoss
- Thus, the twins ended up buying 1% of the supply
- “We didn’t see how this thing wouldn’t work and if it did work it was gonna be really big” – Tyler Winklevoss
- Wealth is built by people who have conviction in companies they start and own (e.g. Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, etc.)
- You don’t make generational wealth by playing it safe or diversifying
- “When you really have conviction in something, [like] a great idea, definitely going hard into it makes a lot of sense” – Tyler Winklevoss
The Case for $500K Bitcoin
- Bitcoin could easily appreciate 40-50 times within the next decade, here is why
- Institutional money is not yet in Bitcoin
- If Bitcoin is going to disrupt gold, then it has to exceed gold’s market cap
- Gold sits at $9Tr market cap, compared to Bitcoin’s $200Bn
- “We actually think that’s like a conservative thing, it could be worth quite a bit more” – Cameron Winklevoss
Dollar Supply is Unlimited
- The dollar is a medium of exchange that is being challenged by all the money printing, and it’s already mostly digital
- “You hold the same amount of dollars but that supply keeps growing a lot bigger” – Winklevoss
- By contrast, you hold 1 bitcoin and you know there will only be 21 million bitcoins
- Remember that you can own a fraction of a bitcoin
- Historically, people protect themselves against inflation by buying assets such as gold, except Bitcoin now offers a superior alternative
How Young People Should Approach Investing in Bitcoin
- Bitcoin is hard money that protects you against inflation and political and economic events
- It’s a long term bet, not a day trading thing, Buy it with a 10 year time horizon
- “If you are patient, put an allocation into Bitcoin and it’s gonna be a great lifetime bet for you and most likely your children and next generations” – Winklevoss
- Apart from Bitcoin, invest in technology companies whose products you use every day
- These companies are probably well-positioned to change and stay ahead of the curve
Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin is a stepping stone into the larger cryptocurrency universe
- Crypto is the future, a movement, technology, and philosophy around decentralization, and there is so much to learn and do
- Get some skin in the game, then start learning more about the space
- For instance, explore Ethereum and DeFi technologies
- “I think the biggest risk is doing nothing at all” – Cameron Winklevoss