This week, I wanted to share five stories from the world of cryptocurrencies and private equity that caught my eye this week.
Scouring the web for good insights is a key component of my research, and I want to pass that information along to you.
Let’s get started…
“The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions”
This is for those who fear robots and AI (artificial intelligence) will take over their jobs, if not the world. The author argues such claims are “ludicrous.”
The money quote: “Mistaken predictions lead to fears of things that are not going to happen, whether it’s the wide-scale destruction of jobs, the Singularity, or the advent of AI that has values different from ours and might try to destroy us.”
“No Fraud: Ex-JPMorgan Trader Masters Thinks Bitcoin Breakout Just Beginning”
Daniel Masters says that cryptocurrencies are the secret sauce that will drive mass adoption of blockchain technologies. Pay attention, he says, because cryptocurrencies are reaching “escape velocity”: They’re finally gaining enough momentum to challenge the old ways of doing business.
The money quote: “The momentum and the scale that you have in some of these public blockchains essentially means that it’s going to be near impossible to build any of this big technology on any other kind of platform.”
“SEC Chair ‘Optimistic’ on Efforts to Catch ICO Bad Guys”
What does the SEC think about ICOs? It’s worried they can be used as a way to facilitate pump-and-dump frauds.
The money quote: “Pump-and-dump – it’s actually easier here [in ICOs] than it is in the penny stock area, because it’s all electronic, it’s all anonymous, [and] it’s harder to catch the bad guys at the end of the day.”
“8 Questions I Ask Every Startup”
An angel investor distills dozens of questions down to an essential handful for founders raising venture capital.
The money quote: “Dominant platforms are usually built in the face [of] enormous skepticism, who wants to stay at a stranger’s house?”
“A Crypto Fund King Says Bitcoin Will Be the Biggest Bubble Ever”
Mike Novogratz talks about his journey from working as a manager at Fortress Investment Group to starting a $500 million cryptocurrency hedge fund… and how he made a fortune investing in Ethereum along the way.
The money quote (on a visit to his friend’s cryptocurrency startup): “I expected to see Joe, a dog and one assistant. Instead I saw 30 dynamic young people crammed in a Bushwick warehouse, coding, talking on the phone, making plans for this revolution. My instinct was, ‘I want to buy a chunk of this company.”’
Good investing,
Andy Gordon
Co-Founder, First Stage Investor