Blockchain: What is it and what can it do?
I got up at 5am this morning which is something I never do, but decided it would be worth the drive to Happy Valley to listen to local leaders in the Blockchain world.
Jonathan Johnson, president of Medici Ventures
Fall of 2013 Johnson’s son asked his dad when will Overstock.com start accepting Bitcoin? At the same Overstock’s founder Patrick Byrne and on Jan 9, 2014 became the first major retailer to accept Bitcoin.
Blockchain will do for assets what the internet did for information. (Assets are stocks, titles, contracts or any kind of physical assets where you don’t want a copy you want the original item).
Blockchain is technology that let’s us trust each other when we don’t know each other – “Trust through technology”
Many people in the world don’t have bank accounts which makes it difficule to participate in the modern economy. Efforts are focused on using Blockchain to improve the world through their investments.
Medici Ventures invests in:
- Democratize Capital
- Money & Banking
- Identity
- Property & Land
- Voting
- Underlying Technology
Blockchain solutions to global poverty
“It’s expensive to be poor” – Babriel Abed, Bitt Founder
“Any who’s been to a payday lender would say it’s expensive to be poor” – John Johnson
Bitt banking for the unbanked in the Carribean
Ripio 400k users in South America who can store their money without the worry of inflation
2.5 billion globalized world citizens have access to offical ledgers. 5 billion of the world’s un-globalized world citizens do not have access to a structured knowledge of property rights. That makes it difficult for those individuals to unlock they capital associated with that property for entreprenuership.
What kinds of companies does Medici Ventures invest in?
- Great technology
- Great sales
- Domain knowledge