This Week in Startups
00:57:49 · Ben Black, D.A. Wallach, S0, Dave McClure
[00:57:49] S4: Right. You know, your bill... Your ability to build. Oh, and by the way, if Jensen gets mad at you, forget it. They're all sorts of trouble. There's just so many things out of these companies control. And I don't like that as an investor. [00:58:02] S2: And it's like fat. It's it's... I mean, look, no no fault on anyone who's doing it, but it's it's, fast momentum chasing kind of... These guys were all Bitcoin miners two years ago. And this is a hot thing right now, so you run after that. And the next week, they'll be in Miami buying Ferrari. [00:58:19] S0: Oh my God, did you see my you see my Bitcoin post? My monthly Bitcoin post? [00:58:24] S4: Yes. Everybody's stable. Right? [00:58:26] S2: Every month you [00:58:27] S0: want us to sell, every month, I do my Bitcoin is dead post. Yep. But I'm bored. But I I keep working the thesis because I do, in fact, think that it's run its course. And if Lon goes through, he can do a little research here on the previous two. Lon, go find the previous two as well. So this is a good one for us to discuss. I say, hey, listen. [00:58:52] S3: Have you checked with Naval or Balaji on this perspective? [00:58:56] S0: I think they left Bitcoin for X cash. I think other people have left Bitcoin for TAO. I have a small bet, like maybe $7.50 ks on TAO. And we have millions in Bitcoin, but... And we're hold rulers. It's a very small percentage of the overall family office, but you need to have some, right? You Because never know [00:59:16] S2: a family office, Jason?
00:59:16 · D.A. Wallach, S0
[00:59:16] S2: a family office, Jason? [00:59:17] S0: That's a family office. Just me and my wife Don't first [00:59:20] S2: say that. [00:59:21] S0: Don't say it micro. Well, whatever. Mean, it's like the first stage of a family office because when you start having a couple of real... You have disparate assets, you need to do coordination. And so Jade is running it with me and my wife. And she's awesome. So here's what I wrote. A brutal year for Bitcoin is just getting started. Give me three minutes to explain why you should dump it now. See, that's the hook. That second line there, D. A, that's the hook. You you as a musician understand a good hook. [00:59:46] S2: Yeah. That's
00:59:46 · D.A. Wallach, S0, Dave McClure
[00:59:46] S2: Yeah. That's [00:59:47] S0: great. And now I'm just... I'm asking for but three minutes of your time. Outflows from ETFs or signal, and we'll continue. We're gonna test the low again. Why? Because there are far too many dynamic places to put your money that are creating much more value. Why put your resources into a dead network, that's a trigger right there, that offers nothing beyond a store of value, that invites the reader and the holder to challenge those two things? What's the point of the BTC's Ponzi scheme nature has gone away? I'll type Well, it I'll leave I think that was actually its biggest value, Dave, was that if you owned Bitcoin, your moral obligation was to shame people who didn't. But people do not do it anymore. There is no more have fun being poor and put laser eyes in because it's embarrassing to do that when the thing is sideways for so long. And I just say, listen, no one is trying to convince people to buy it anymore. And no one is saying BTC can change the world because it won't and because AI has. Just sell and shift from Bitcoin to superintelligence because one provides little to no value, the other provides unlimited upside for humanity. This should be obvious to everyone right now. Bitcoin will never break its all time highs again. So another hook at the end. [01:01:07] S3: Drop the [01:01:08] S0: 2,000,000 views. Wow. Two points. The number of retweets [01:01:14] S3: is great. Of haters in there.
01:01:14 · Dave McClure, S0, D.A. Wallach
[01:01:14] S3: is great. Of haters in there. [01:01:16] S0: It's so great. It's so so great. And I just literally do this every month. And the amount of, engagement I get on this is crazy. Now there's three people who wanna bet me a million dollars that's gonna hit an all time high. [01:01:29] S2: And, Cal, is this trolling? Is this trolling or you believe this? Yes. [01:01:34] S3: Yes. Yes. Yes. The answer [01:01:35] S0: is yes. [01:01:36] S2: Both. All of the above. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Mean, look. I I will see... You know, we we we alluded to the the debt situation a minute ago and the cost of financing for these neo clouds and stuff. That is the other thing that's happening right now is just this macro context, right? And we may be now for the next couple decades in a sort of inflationary rising rate environment, very different place to be doing business. So the bull case for crypto at this point probably does fall away from this speculative Ponzi scheme thesis and is merely a debasement trade thesis. And I think the question then, Jason, is like, has Bitcoin after, you know, fifteen years earned its place next to gold and the other debasement trade assets? And will it be durable in that regard? I mean, one interesting thing, past six months, gold's gone down. So this has been an environment that hasn't been favorable to assets that are focused on debasement. And the question is whether the secular outlook is such that has the wind at its back over the longer run.
01:01:36 · D.A. Wallach, S0
[01:01:36] S2: Both. All of the above. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Mean, look. I I will see... You know, we we we alluded to the the debt situation a minute ago and the cost of financing for these neo clouds and stuff. That is the other thing that's happening right now is just this macro context, right? And we may be now for the next couple decades in a sort of inflationary rising rate environment, very different place to be doing business. So the bull case for crypto at this point probably does fall away from this speculative Ponzi scheme thesis and is merely a debasement trade thesis. And I think the question then, Jason, is like, has Bitcoin after, you know, fifteen years earned its place next to gold and the other debasement trade assets? And will it be durable in that regard? I mean, one interesting thing, past six months, gold's gone down. So this has been an environment that hasn't been favorable to assets that are focused on debasement. And the question is whether the secular outlook is such that has the wind at its back over the longer run. [01:02:47] S0: Yeah. There's only a certain amount of money in the world, it seems. I mean, we keep printing some more here. But yeah, it is where does money go, right? I guess is the question. Rational money, irrational money. And I think this is the last thing on people's mind that I... Because if Bitcoin just keeps hovering in this range and it never makes new all time highs, this concept, Dave, of the million dollar Bitcoin is seeming unimprobable now.
01:02:47 · S0, Dave McClure, Lon Harris, Ben Black
[01:02:47] S0: Yeah. There's only a certain amount of money in the world, it seems. I mean, we keep printing some more here. But yeah, it is where does money go, right? I guess is the question. Rational money, irrational money. And I think this is the last thing on people's mind that I... Because if Bitcoin just keeps hovering in this range and it never makes new all time highs, this concept, Dave, of the million dollar Bitcoin is seeming unimprobable now. [01:03:18] S3: I think you're on target that stablecoin has a really solid use case and that's clearly going to be something that people are putting money into. I think we're already seeing that. I think another area that's possibly not bullshit is tokenizing real world assets and, you know, having something that [01:03:36] S0: Robinhood's doing that. [01:03:37] S3: Maps to real... Yeah. I think even DeFi in the long run is not crazy. I think, you know, lending, makes sense. But I do think a lot of the other speculative stuff, there's just, you know, hard to understand what is driving the value of those assets. There's no underlying asset to underwrite in many cases except, you know, belief in hype. [01:03:56] S0: Which makes giving a loan to a neocloud seem like a better option because you have the... You you you have the I think I think we need assets. You have the data center, and you have the chips. And you have the memory chips, and you have the GPUs. It's worth something. Alright. Let's wrap [01:04:10] S1: up, folks. [01:04:11] S4: Can I can I have