Venture capitalist bullish on bitcoin

“Believe it, it’s going to happen,” he said to a crowd of people taking video with their phones. “They’re going to think you’re crazy. Believe it, it’s happening, it’s going to be awesome.”

Dubbed the Block (Chain) Party, Thursday’s event was aimed at celebrating a prediction Draper made some three years ago that bitcoin would hit $10,000 in value by the end of 2017, a prophecy that was realized at the end of November. Though the digital currency’s price surpassed Draper’s prediction by nearly two times — stopping just shy of $20,000 in December — its value has proven to be highly volatile, plunging to under $7,000 in recent weeks and landing at just about $8,000 on Friday.

Having acquired nearly 30,000 bitcoins with a value of about $19 million in a 2014 U.S. government auction, Draper’s fervor for the encrypted currency and blockchain technology, a digital ledger that can record cryptocurrency transactions, may come as no surprise. The bitcoins Draper bought in 2014 were auctioned off after the U.S. government seized them in a crackdown on Silk Road, a website that stockpiled the currency while selling illegal drugs.

As someone who has invested in bitcoin and followed it with interest, Arjun Mukherjee, engineering director at nearby technology company Motif, stopped by the event on his way out of the office to see Draper’s announcement. Acknowledging his own enthusiasm for blockchain and its applications, Mukherjee wondered if the hype around bitcoin’s value has placed too much emphasis on its monetary implications.

“I’m glad it brings people together and all that, but I wonder how many people here actually understand what blockchain can mean,” he said.

Having tried to start a bitcoin-based startup last year, electrician Edward Yapp was excited to see the cryptocurrency gain traction with those who previously questioned it as well as more established financial institutions. Though Yapp was excited about the growth of his investment in bitcoin, he said the possible efficiencies blockchain offers for businesses and organizations are driving his continued interest.

“You don’t get this many opportunities in life,” he said.

As the founder of the San Francisco-based startup BitWall, Nic Meliones said the uptick in bitcoin interest has proven to be a boon for his company, which facilitates bitcoin payments for digital publishers.

“It’s amazing to see over the years how much it’s evolved,” he said.

Having received venture capital backing from downtown San Mateo business accelerator Boost VC, of which Draper’s son Adam Draper is cofounder, Meliones said the event presented him with an opportunity to reconnect with the San Mateo startup environment that fostered his company when he started it in 2013. Though he acknowledged Draper’s prediction was lofty, Meliones said he’s putting his faith in the venture capitalist.

For Louis Aboud, the energy of the gathering defied his expectations for the event, which he thought would look more like a small gathering of people in a conference room. Aboud said he just moved to San Francisco from Sydney, Australia, for his company Wyre, which is using blockchain to build lower-cost ways to transfer money internationally, and joined the event to introduce himself to those he might be working with in the future.

“I’m not really sure what to make of it so far … there’s a lot of enthusiasm [and] there’s a lot of smart people,” he said. “I guess it can only be a good thing, right?”

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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