The Emergence of Bitcoin and Blockchain

This article is written by Nardine B. M’barek, a Contributor Author at Startup Istanbul.

Mr. Tim Draper was one of our guests during Startup Istanbul, this gave us a big and valuable opportunity to conduct a personal, yet shot interview with him. During this interview, we talked about the famous Draper University; the school that is well-known and recognized thanks to its unconventional teaching methods, as well as the was students who joined the institution are always pushed to do their best, have the courage and the faith to do what they want to do whenever they want to do it, and overcome all the fears of any sort that could keep them from going forward and achieving their life dreams.

Of course, during this interview, we did not only talk about Draper University. We asked Mr. Draper about his other associates' businesses. Mr. Draper is the founder of Draper Associates, it is an early stage venture capital firm that was established back in 1985 by whom we call the third generation of venture capitals including Mr. Draper.

According to Mr. Draper, Draper Associates is the vehicle that he invests through now. It is part of Venture Capital funds called the Draper Venture Network. They have 16 relationships that cover around forty cities around the world which makes it possible for them to make an investment in any entrepreneur anywhere in the world. Mr. Draper mentioned that he personally would invest anywhere and in almost any industry.

He does not particularly like those industries where they have to spend a lot of time and money to get regulated, but, as he stated, he is rather an ‘Open Greenfield’ and the things that he likes now are somehow related to Bitcoin and Blockchain since he started getting interested in these industries lately, or rather anything that is looking to transform healthcare generally, or other things that are big-data oriented. They are also very interested in new forms of transportation. 

We talked furthermore with Mr. Draper about the Blockchain and Bitcoin industry. We asked him if he thinks whether this new emerging currency will be able to break through the traditional definition of money and currency, or if different countries around the world will be able to take their own precautions when it comes to dealing with Blockchain and Bitcoin. As an answer to our question, Mr. Draper stated that he thinks that the actual need to take precautions against this new currency would be something ridiculous.

As he claimed, this is a new form of emerging technology that companies should be trying to use in a proper way and benefit from it instead of trying to take precautions against it. The fact that Blockchain represents a perfect ledger, they would be able to keep track of absolutely anything, including money; and that is where Bitcoin comes in. New forms of currencies are evolving through these ICOs, according to Mr. Draper who seems rather excited about this fact since this would represent a ‘new canvas for creativity’. It is a new form that allows people to imagine a new world.

https://youtu.be/pr02z3GKiGc