Spencer Bogart on the $20 Trillion in Store-of-Value Assets - Ep.138

Spencer Bogart, general partner at Blockchain Capital, the first VC firm to tokenize one of its funds, talks about how well offering tokenized shares has worked out, why it didn't do so for the following fund, the appeal of security tokens generally and what advantages tokenized securities offer over non-blockchain platforms like Second Market, in which investors can trade shares in private companies. He also explains what entrepreneurs are looking for from VCs now that they have more ways to raise from the crowd, how Blockchain Capital decides between investing in equity vs. tokens when there is an option, and why the firm believes there will only be five or fewer dominant blockchains. He describes why he thinks it's likely Bitcoin will take the lion's share of the market, noting its $200 billion market cap vs. the $20 trillion in other store-of-value assets such as gold, real estate and art, and whether or not it's possible to invest in Lightning, the second layer built on top of Bitcoin. We also cover the Bitcoin ETF proposals, stablecoins, how crypto might take off in video games and its 66x return within two years on its investment in Block.One. 

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Episode links: 

Blockchain Capital: https://blockchain.capital/

Spencer Bogart: https://twitter.com/CremeDeLaCrypto

Unchained interview with Brock Pierce: https://unchainedpodcast.com/this-vc-is-sure-venture-capital-is-about-to-be-disrupted/

BCAP Q2 Nav: https://blockchainloop.com/blockchain-capital-releases-q2-2019-bcap-token-nav/

Upgrading of BCAP to Securitize platform: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/09/04/1565117/0/en/BCAP-Tokens-to-be-Upgraded-Utilizing-Securitize-Platform.html

Funding of Securitize: https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-backs-security-token-startups-12-75-million-funding-round

Blockchain Capital’s fourth fund: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/blockchain-capital-closes-fund-iv-at-150-million-300617495.html

Story about Blockchain Capital trying to separate itself from Brock Pierce: https://decrypt.co/6876/is-blockchain-capital-trying-to-scrub-co-founder-and-mighty-ducks-star-brock-pierce-from-its-history

Interview with Brock Pierce in which he describes leaving Blockchain Capital: https://hackernoon.com/brock-pierce-interview-tales-from-the-bitcoin-floor-e479693a49bd

Lightning Network statistics: https://bitcoinvisuals.com/lightning

Tweets from LNBig on how they earned $0.10-$0.30 a day on Lightning fees: https://twitter.com/lnbig_com/status/1163055682964348934?s=20

https://twitter.com/lnbig_com/status/1159538637597487104?s=20

LNBig on how they spent $1,000 or so to open their Lightning channels: https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/bxh0ny/lightning_network_capacity_takes_a_sudden_dive/eq9x4i9/

Profitability of running a lightning node: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/a9dmzw/how_profitable_is_running_a_lightning_node/

Letter to the SEC: https://blockchain.capital/examining-bitcoins-valued-attributes-a-letter-to-the-sec/

Blog post about Bitcoin’s likely dominance: https://blockchain.capital/the-past-future-of-blockchain-where-were-going-and-why/

Spencer's Reddit post with questions/concerns about MakerDAO: https://www.reddit.com/r/MakerDAO/comments/asb9n6/a_couple_questions_concerns_about_maker_and_mkr/

+ tweetstorm: https://twitter.com/cremedelacrypto/status/1103428046621618178