Blockchain Revolution

Venture Capitalists
What started as a clique of cryptoinsiders quickly snowballed into Silicon Valley’s
biggest and brightest VCs, including the venerable Andreessen Horowitz. Now
financial services titans are playing venture capitalist: Goldman Sachs, NYSE, Visa,
Barclays, UBS, and Deloitte have made direct investments in start-ups or supported
incubators that nurture new ventures. Pension funds are entering the fray. OMERS
Ventures, the billion-dollar venture arm of one of Canada’s largest public sector
pensions, made its first investment in 2015. Jim Orlando, who runs that group, is
looking for the next killer app that “does for blockchain what the Web browser did for
the Internet.”
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Investment has exploded—from two million dollars in 2012 to half a
billion in the first half of 2015.
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The excitement is palpable. Tim Draper told us that,
if anything, “financiers are underestimating the potential of blockchain.”
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Vocal
venture capitalists can advocate for the technology and support nascent governance
institutions, such as Coin Center, bankrolled by Andreessen Horowitz. Digital
Currency Group, a venture firm founded by Barry Silbert, has appointed academics
and other nontraditional advisers to its board to accelerate the development of a better
financial system through both investment and advocacy.