Where Are the Earliest Bitcoin Investors Now? | CRYPTOLAND Episode 1
In 2013, one of the earliest Bitcoin conferences was held in San Jose, when one Bitcoin was worth $118. Now, 1 BTC goes for nearly $40,000, and the cryptocurrency industry has minted a new class of millionaires and billionaires with grand aspirations for the industry and the power it wields.
In this episode of Cryptoland, Motherboard catches up with some of the earliest investors present at the Bitcoin 2013 conference and reckons with how the cryptocurrency industry has evolved over the past decade and looks at where it's going.
Watch all 8 episodes of CRYPTOLAND here:
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In 2010 I worked in Whole Foods Oakland, CA I had a coworker named Bobby who was adamant about us buying bitcoin. I’m doing well in life now, but man I wish I listened to him!
Gotta to love my Oregon too big to even search for him. I almost got my first Bitcoins in 2014 but got spoofed when I got a pre recorded call from the FBI since I was trying to buy some weed seeds to grow. I just tied both of together for some reason.
@slim Large uphold
@Connor Bracey from what I’ve seen and heard he’s definitely living his best life!
oppurtunities keep on coming, now is one
Watch the next episode of CRYPTOLAND here: https://youtu.be/1bxx1jFSlMI
@Linda poplin uh oh
be careful
@Linda poplin Face b o o k ☝️
@Linda poplin Catherine S. Woods
@Linda poplin I will introduce you to my account manager Mrs Catherine
I still remember like it was yesterday when I told my mom in 2017 to invest her whole tax return into Bitcoin when it was around $500 a pop. Boy I swear we would’ve been set for life is she had listened to me 🙁
2017 bitcoin was 1000 at lowest
Lol Better idea invest your own money. Willing to recommend risk but not take it on for herself. Pathetic
Don’t be foolish, bitcoin also could turn out the other way around. Who could predict it? No one!
@TX BOI A couple means at least 2, that’s $2M. Set for life you if you live right.
It wasn’t $500 in 2017 so stop the cap.
*”it was never about the money. it was about taking the power back from the powerful”*
1 minute 30 seconds later
*”the first thing I did was buy fancy designer shoes and throw a penthouse rooftop party”*
and there’s your honesty
The hypocrisy
From 2013 to the shoes in 2017. So what she said was true, in 2013 when she started it wasn’t about money
a damn shame you cant understand nuance
You can do both at the same time. Not mutually exclusive.
Yep a bunch of hypocrisy throughout the interview. Reminded me of the saying “communist until you get rich, feminist until you get married”.
She aspires to have significant political influence, a potentially closable finanical system and be a leading light in the world of an asset class that already has more power than many nation states. It unfortunatley looks to me like there are already a number of big red flags being waved around by her.
That probably is her own delusion.
This woman’s a prime example of someone that got in early claims to be an expert but has no idea what the underlying technology is capable of. She’s a sales person, all the issues were met with how large and fast it has grown, and critizing the current system without being able to explain the benefits of crytpo to that system… we have a awful long tail right now.. you’re generationally handicapping future generations
Some of the questions asked to her, the answers were so obvious to me, but she got defensive when she clearly didn’t need to.
@Jabien Letlow yes. I thought she was rude with her attitude and dismissive laughs, and yes she didn’t seem constrained by the questions but rather rattled off speaking points from prior conversations she’s had.
@James Bucks all I’m saying in my last point is you have to purchase bitcoin it’s not going to be given to you. The point is anyone can join at anytime. I understand what you are saying but you gotta understand it is digital property you can hold for 1000 years something never done before. I believe because of those fiscal properties 21 million only it will become a reserve currency not the reserve currency. Basically when you think about it. It is the best way to store your energy aka money you have earned from working.
@b n your missing my point. if it replaced our current system like this woman and others are saying then you would be forced to join or not be able to transact wealth. It’s not a replacement or not a democratic decentralized one
Vast majority of money is owned by a small amount of people so attacking an asset because it is concentrated is really stupid when you think about it. Your missing the point it’s permissionless but YOU have to join Noone is going to do it for you.
She hasn’t convinced me at the slightest. She’s comparing crypto’s value with trillion-dollar companies’ value, only that these companies actually give value back to the people (products, services etc), while crypto money mostly don’t give back anything to the general public.
It does, but she didn’t mention it, and instead she threw shades at companies that are actually giving values.
Bitcoin does help youre just too stubborn and arrogant to learn about it
@Chikasu humble yourself Chikasu please do more research
@Ashdraked you mean printing more money on top of money sure gotchu…. With security ?
I really like Krishna covering content. This, however, was a miss (along with the dark-haired miss). The video should have been titled “The current debate of Crypto’s efficacy – Is it worth the hype we were sold?”. Excited to see more episodes, great job Motherboard
Yea the discussion was good
I love what he says. It’s in the people’s hands to decide where crypto goes, if you are worried about the future of crypto, get in and help create the future you want to see.
@TheSofajockey {I teeter
The scammers are taking care of that for me.
“We’re living in a world where corporations have more resources and power than nation states”.
The East India Trading Company would like a word.
Comparing the biggest companies to the smallest countries is not a good comparison. Try not comparing the extremes. And also, she and others would do well to use market cap of country vs total wealth of a nation instead or revenue of a company vs annual gdp of a nation. Instead, they like to use the market cap of the biggest country and gdp of the smallest countries.
Chloe…..LOL. I just posted a reply on this too. Haha. British and East India Companies.
@outresru Basically (from an uneducated, not totally studied at all point of view), it basically means if you were to consider companies as their own countries, they would have more money than some countries, and with more money usually comes more power. Like how the Vatican City works within Rome. In the past, the East India Trading Company was a company exporting spices from India, and had so much wealth that at some point in time it could reasonably (and probably did) have its own army and navy to control parts of India because they wanted natural resources from that area.
again, wasn’t looked up, just vaguely remembering what I’ve heard.
@outresru if you have not heard of the East India Trading Company – imagine if all the Silicon Valley tech companies combined, but were also granted the full legal protection of the British Empire, at its height to basically do whatever they wanted. This includes, but was not limited to, raising full armies, invading and conquering entire countries, and being granted the right to tax the populous of those conquered states. They were granted “trading monopoly” over both China and India, meaning that essentially all trade for both of those very substantial countries was owned by this one company – and it’s estimated 15% of all trade in the Empire went through The East India Company. I cannot think of any corporation before or since that even comes close to the level of power this company was granted, albeit to the benefit of the British Crown at all times.
could u explain how? I’m trying to understand the statement
24:12 People give democracies power. The constitution grants basic human rights under the law. Crypto, nor corporations, can provide that security. No combination or union of the two can bestow those rights. This lady is unbelievable. Bravo to the Motherboard team for not letting her walk out of there without being confronted on each point.
@Yes Gunny LOL. Stick with that philosophy “dude.” It is obvious you have done zero research. Yours is an emotional response. Perhaps Google Bitcoin, just once, and look at the latest news.
@BBH101 dude we are all sitting here waiting for the links, lets see the math, lets see the calculus and the “research”. It doesn’t exist. Its a scam. NFT’s and the whole thing. The use case died in 2008 buddy.
@Joao Pedro Catao She quoted Satoshi Nakamoto. Do you know who that is? “If you don’t believe me or don’t get it, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry.” Look it up.
Great video. I just hope the last two guys understand why we moved off of the gold standard in the first place and the problems that Empires can get into when they print too much money and causes inflation, especially one as important as the US Dollar. Bitcoin is decentralized and has a fixed supply, meaning countries can’t just print up $3 trillion dollars worth to fund a war so they may have to be wiser with diplomacy issues. It solves so many problems we’ve gotten into from excessive spending, it’s a shame that people get introduced to it on investment apps. It skews their entire perspective of it, especially if they lack the historical context behind money vs currencies, and the problems it can present when fiat money is mismanaged by governments
I’m Bitcoin curious and so far haven’t acquired any crypto. Isn’t the crypto space likely to be upended by big sovereign governments launching their own cryptocurrencies? China and the US come to mind.
There would be no mechanisms to deal with economic boom and bust cycles without the ability to control monetary supply. Also, economic growth would be directly fixed to productivity growth, if humanity is fine with such a pace of advancement then sure.
i totally agree, it should be a prerequisite that no journalist or anyone even discuss or talk about crypto or bitcoin until they have read The Bitcoin Standard so they can ask real questions and have a better understanding for themselves the actual problems we are facing today. They all seem like enemies of progress when they don’t even take the time to read a book. History will repeat itself, I’m stacking sats daily 😀
Wow watching Charlie talk back in 2013 about Bitcoin being his purpose in life, damn that is powerful
I hope they talk about other crypto in this series. Bitcoin is really it’s own beast that is really primarily viewed as ‘internet legal tender’. The rest of the crypto world is all about the tech. Think of Bitcoin as a large gold brick for the internet. Think of Ethereum like it’s Apple in the late 70s. Both offer money making opportunities, but only one of these two really thinks about how to evolve beyond that.
@Karl Barbosa POS has its own sets of problems. The fact that it’s less decentralized is much more susceptible to attacks hence not as secure and that it gives more influence and control to the largest stakeholders are all major red flags I can’t get behind.
@Arbo Likely the most currently universally well regarded coin is a scam? Damn, dude. If that’s the case, best not to invest in any crypto at all.
Ethereum is a scam.
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if there ever was a video that convinced me to invest in crypto, this was not it.
@Killaking she was so bad and was pissing me off. She is making crypto look bad
Your poverty is no one’s business
convincing anyone to Invest in crypto, was never the goal. It’s a report and the title says it all.
Chick at the end was just talking in circles
@Joy and Peaceful Laughter Do Kwon? That you??
??HONESTLY I HAVE INCURRED SO MUCH LOSSES TRADING ON MY OWN…I TRADE WELL ON DEMO BUT I THINK THE REAL MARKET IS MANIPULATED… CAN ANYONE HELP ME OUT OR AT LEAST TELL ME WHAT I’M DOING WRONG ?
Bots having conversation with each other
@Paura Alem I’m so grateful, I will message her immediately
588
???✅
Remember to share your experience and testimony with others??
5103
*cough* SCAM *cough*
The real killer of the whole point of cryptocurrencies is every transaction is a taxable event. Cryptocurrencies are great stores of value and easy to transfer commodities. The speed of transactions varies from coin to coin, and there are scaling issues as they grow more popular. But even in their current form, they do work well enough to function as some form of an easily exchanged currency. But because they are taxed like selling a stock, big transactions make you think twice about exchanging it for something. Nevermind the volatility in the value, governments did a good job reducing incentive to actually use them as legit currencies. Maybe that’s where stablecoins fill in the gaps…but governments are trying to roll out their own centralized digital currencies to stay on top of the control of our money (ability to track and freeze accounts).
Agreed
Like how vitalik is just walking around and is just “this guy” when he was technically worth $3Billion at one point
His worth is not intrinsic so it literally means nothing to the real world.
Prob. will be atop the Forbes list soon… He is. low-key the face of crypto.
Was there a bit where we got to hear about the earliest Bitcoin investors and where they are now?
On youtube showing of their cars, Louis Vuitton, Rolexes, random expensive stuff and tacky Abu Dabi pads.
God bless this thread. lol Had this one queued up while I was watching a different video. I guess I’ll move along.
Side note…I was watching one of those videos where a guy was going around asking people how they made their money to afford the yachts they were on. One guy says I was one of those bitcoin idiots. I bought at 850, $8.50. Then like a genius I sold at $100. I thought that was so funny, but I’m sure he still made a TON and bought back in and rode the waves and made even more.
Seriously they avoided so many good questions like the how is this a good thing how is it not just another market in the world and all they said was a quote that said “I don’t have time to explain” ?? Wtf is that? Such a scam right in peoples faces and they’re laughing it off like it was so wise what she just said
We should report this video as misleading
Glad you saved me a few minutes of my life
The Market has been pretty bad until today it decided to surge. Everybody was Practically Crying then. It kept dipping. That’s what you get when you feel you can navigate the process on your own. Big thank to Hilder Ferguson. I’m not bothered with how bad the Market is because my assests are insured due to her advice and I still receive my profits
@Steven Enriquez you can reach her on Telegrm
“Tradewithhilder”
That’s her username on Tele
Gram