YouSaid · the spoken record

Alyse Killeen

lines on the record: 59
first: 2021-06-23
most recent: 2021-06-23
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Well, I'd love if founders would visit us at stillmark.com. So that's the website for the venture firm that I lead. And then I'm present and active on Twitter at Elise Colleen.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On my desk right now. In the non-Bitcoin space, my longtime favorite book is The Agony and the Ecstasy, which is a historical non-fiction, basically, about the imagined life of Michelangelo. And it's just a really brilliant read. So if anyone that's also an art geek like myself will appreciate this book.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“By maybe 10,000 people, that their work is not Bitcoin, right? Their family life exists outside of these crazy discussions that we have, and they are just there to learn about the tech and to commune with Bitcoiners. They're there because they're excited about the tech. I listen to those folks to understand how what we're building at the protocol level, what core developers are building at the protocol level, and then what founders are building hopefully in league with Stowmark, how that impacts their life.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“about what it means if you can introduce mining to renewable energies and drop a profit center on wind and solar energy providers and what that would mean both for the energy space and for miners. So I'm paying attention to folks like that. People that are category leaders within their workspace and that have established both that they understand the tech and that then they have some sort of almost proprietary insight about how Bitcoin tech is relevant to their space of expertise like Brock and Andrew and the energy space. Then the third group that I'm paying attention to is folks that are that their family and their work life exist outside of Bitcoin. And so that was the most exciting thing to me about Bitcoin 2021. I don't know if you would agree with this or not, Preston, but to be surrounded.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Work was necessarily preceded Bitcoin. So the most important example of that is Adam Back, who is a forefather of Bitcoin, of course. He has a really clear vision of the space and foresight on how the space is going to develop. I've known him since 2014. And what he said in 2014 was like he was a time traveler. Because what he said in 2014 is kind of what's unfolded in the years since then. I pay attention to all those folks. Now the next group of folks that I need to pay attention to, of course, are the folks, the folks leading startups in the private space, right? And so those are folks like Paul I mentioned before, Nick Newman, Jameson Lop, all of these sorts of folks. Let me mention a group outside of my portfolio as an example. I pay really close attention to folks like Brock and Andrew at Satoshi Energy, who are really at the forefront of thinking.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To office when he was still an undergrad at University of Chicago, and he was whiteboarding with Peter Woole for two days straight. And I think if you can hang with Peter at the whiteboard for two days straight, then you're certainly someone to pay attention to. And I pay attention to him. There's folks that are better known that I'm also paying attention to. And I balance that between three different groups. All were present at Bitcoin 2021, by the way. So let me mention each. First, of course, I'm paying attention to protocol developers. So that's those developing Bitcoin core protocol, Lightning Protocol, and sidechain protocols. I pay attention to all of those sorts of folks. You know, of course, that means people like Andrew Palestra, that means people like Peter who already mentioned. And then I'm paying attention to folks whose”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I was actually, this is so funny you asked me this. I was just thinking about that today. So I actually want to mention two people who have low, lower than they should follower counts on Twitter, which is AJ Towns, who is just like incredibly brilliant, right? including at thinking through how to prioritize the next set of advancements at Bitcoin protocol level. And then there's a new guy on the engineering team at Blockstream, Sankit, who is just very lovely and very brilliant and is not, it's all signal. So you'll get very few tweets from him, but every tweet, including every reply tweet, is going to be just pure signal, basically. And so I met him actually in Blockstream.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That some of the messaging that's come out from folks in the Senate recently has been around a lack of curiosity about the trade-offs of the technology. And an example of that is the lack of curiosity about why proof of work versus proof of stake and why these sorts of choices were made. And so I think that the Bitcoin space is really comprised of folks that are that could have made a lot more money in other ways by rolling their own token and introducing ICOs and have chosen not to do that. And so asking the question why and understanding the story behind that, I think can lead people to a better understanding of really what's happening and how Bitcoin's differentiated.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, my recommendation, frankly, would be to understand that Bitcoin is sort of a separate space than cryptocurrency. So I think to have Bitcoin forced into a bucket of cryptocurrency projects kind of confuses actually what's happening here. Bitcoin as a decentralized network, as a store of value, as a digital money that is software governed, is quite different from other cryptocurrencies, other protocols that are governed by a few guys that are good at memes. These are different things. And so I think in recognizing and studying cryptocurrency and Bitcoin to the point of understanding that truth is what's required to have an informed decision on the space broadly. And then I think asking the questions about trade-offs is important. So one of the disappointments in the message”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“that Bitcoin is not, I think Bitcoin is not political. So it's not associated. It shouldn't be a Republican, Democrat, libertarian sort of thing. It's not that. Bitcoiners are not a monolith. And my hope is that it doesn't become a sort of political us versus them thing because I see Bitcoin as fintech for poor people. I understand that that's not how it's often spoken about on Bitcoin, Twitter or in social media spaces, but that's how I see it. And I, you know, my hope is that the United States doesn't sort of miss the opportunity here, or my hope is that folks don't choose to politicize this.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we see that every altcoin community leader has boarded a plane, has their bags packed, and is ready to pitch their vision. And the work then for Bitcoiners is to make sure that the resources, educational resources are available both to country government leadership as well as to the population so that the signal can be filtered out from the noise.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's what I'm hoping. And it seems as though folks are signaling that they want to be a fast follow, so a second mover. And that's not surprising, right? We saw that a little bit with Miami. I think Mayor Suarez is doing a wonderful job in Miami. And we've seen that other sorts of city leaders are willing to learn from the lessons that have been accumulated in Miami and are ready to be a sort of second follow to what happens in Miami. I think we'll see the same in El Salvador. And we've already seen countries sort of publicly flagged that they're willing to do that. And my hope is that in Latin America, that, you know, in South America and Central America, that we see a lot of quick follows. After that, my hope is that those will be Bitcoin follows versus folks sort of being sold a vision of a better business.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, this is really a sort of wait and see kind of thing. But what I've been really excited about, frankly, was that what I heard when I hear folks in government in El Salvador speak about the opportunities, I hear an acknowledgement of what Bitcoin can do for the population and an openness to provide that to the population. So an example of that is that Alice Gladstone asked the question, will folks in El Salvador be able to have their own wallets? Or will they need to use a government provided wallet? And the answer to that was that folks can hold their own wallets. That's still a question mark in the US, right? Can you self-custody your own Bitcoin? And in El Salvador, the answer has been yes, you can. And if that answer, if that remains true, then there's an opportunity for folks in the emerging market of El Salvador to really have unique access.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that is the reason why I'm in Bitcoin, right? So the reason why I'm in Bitcoin is because I think that everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, regardless of where you're born, what your gender is, what your race is, I think everyone deserves to be at equal level when they're participating in the financial space or in the global economy. And so my hope is that what will happen in El Salvador is that because they are so early, they will accrue some sort of oversized advantage through Bitcoin. So I'm hoping to see things like mining introduced in a way that can be meaningful for the population. I'm hoping to see things like folks be empowered through the ability to accept remittances over the lightning network versus through Western union. That's the hope. We're still quite early.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thinking folks like Paul are thinking, what does it mean for the world? Something where scarcity can be assured and where we understand the monetary policies and that those are fixed and that they can't be changed by five guys in a back room. Can that be powerful in emerging markets? Can that be important in chat? So we're looking for founders like that. And then I also mentioned in that example how a financial chat can sort of be a safer environment in a lightning environment because of the architecture that exists to support it. So that shows his competency and sort of somehow native understanding of this new protocol, that sort of founder is the sort of founder that we really want to back and be partners with. The hope is that our network that we bring to the table for them, our understanding of venture capital and building businesses, along with hopefully our understanding of Bitcoin can be in some way meaningful to”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's about introducing a sort of decentralized financial chat system. So, can we chat be decentralized? Can you use Lightning nodes to allow folks to sort of have their own space where data is transacted so that you don't get these sort of like big data dumps or hacks where there's a central server that all of our data sits on? And if that's penetrated, then we're all sort of in trouble. Paul's thinking like that. And then that links up with stack work, which is relevant for folks in emerging markets. And for those that don't know, what stack work is, is it's a mechanical turquoise marketplace where tasks are done on smartphones. And most of the workforce, most of the supply side of that is an emerging markets. And folks are earning their first ever smartphones by doing work and getting paid in stats. And so we're looking for founders like that that are really thinking big.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They can understand what's happening at the protocol level today and what the roadmap, what the near-term roadmap looks like and how that's relevant to their business. So a good example of this, a great example of this is Paul E. Toy with L&D work. And Paul L&D has two products. One is Sphinx Chat and the other is Stackwork. And so what Paul is doing is he has this sort of incredible vision for how lightning network is relevant to the masses and what that means to Paul is how can a Bitcoin native financial chat app be interesting to folks even outside of the Bitcoin space? So it's interesting to us Bitcoiners, right? I know Preston that you have a tribe on Sphinx Chat. I'm a part of that tribe. I use Bitcoin every day through financial chat and calls on Sphinx Chat. But it's not just about serving us.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so, one is the founder's vision. And of course, it's important when a VC is evaluating the opportunity to produce a return on that investment. That's what we're doing, right? So it's not an altruistic pursuit really, although there's some of that because of the space we work in. But we're looking for companies that can be incredible value for the folks they serve and that can capture a fraction of that so that they're building billion dollar businesses. We're looking at founders that have frankly really massive visions. That's the first thing. Is the market significant enough and is the founder thinking aggressively enough? And then we're looking for a team that includes leadership that can really speak with protocol level developers in a toe-to-toe sort of fashion. So what that means is what that means practically for the company is that”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think that there's a couple things, there's two things, really. So we're always looking for, when Stillmark backs a company, that's because we believe that the founders at the helm of that company are the best decision makers in that space, in that category. So an example of that that I've already mentioned is CASA. So CASA sees security as not just a technology challenge, but also as a UI challenge. And the way that Nick Newman and Jameson Lop are thinking about what it means to offer software that enables individuals to provide their own security and have that be just as robust as you would get if you were dropping dollars at Bank of America, for instance. The leadership there is what's most important. And so when evaluating a founder that's new to me, there's really two things that I look at first.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Those are the sorts of opportunities that we are most excited about. But frankly, I try to stay quite open. And so I'm looking to hear how founders understand the opportunity and then matching that, like I said, to the state of the tech and also to what's special about Bitcoin.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My preference is for decentralized finance to incur in an environment that is not separated from the core values of Bitcoin. So what I mean by that specifically is that one of the core principles and opportunities of Bitcoin is the opportunity to sort of be your own bank or be your own wallet and to take responsibility for custody into your own hands. And so when we think about opportunities like lending or other sorts of finance replication of the traditional finance system in the Bitcoin space, what's most interesting is when that capability is unlocked while not compromising on those values. So what does it look like to have lending where you have, you're not giving away control of your Bitcoin for a period? Can you do that?”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With companies, for instance, like Atomic Finance, who started in the Ethereum space and came over to the Bitcoin space once DLCs allowed them to sort of provide the same value that they had imagined being able to provide in the Ethereum space. But in Bitcoin, we know that they can offer that in an environment where the tech is stable, it's dependable, and there won't be a need for, for instance, a deep refactor of their own infrastructure once the security mechanism has changed, which is true in the Ethereum space. I think atomic finance is a first mover, and I expect and have been seeing more leading entrepreneurs switching from other protocols and into the Bitcoin space as utility is unlocked through advancements like Taproot.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At the processes behind those token sales, frankly, they were more responsible than what we saw happen in later years. There was an opportunity for best practices to be established in those earliers, 2014, 2015. And it's just what I found from my research and time in the space is that it just wasn't necessary and there wasn't utility unlocked by that token incentivized software that wouldn't be possible on Bitcoin that frankly I expected that Bitcoin would win. And the reason why it would win is there's many reasons. But one reason that's relevant to me is that founders, the best founders are looking to build on a stable and secure tech.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Would be great. It's frankly, I'm confounded by why you would need a token for that. So maybe one piece of context that I can add here is to say that I come to this, you know, sort of state of focus on Bitcoin after having been early in the what's now known as ICO space. So in fact, in 2014, we did diligence at the firm I was at at the time, which was ClearSone Venture Partners. I think we were, you know, the second or third VC firm to do diligence in the token sales space. And that was for the token sale for MadeSafe. I say that just to note that it's not that I was closed to the potential for tokens to be necessary to incentivize software participation. We did explore it. We explored it very early. We looked at the first token sales.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that's a great question. So, you know, frankly, to give you transparency on my process, that's the sort of question that I would ask founders building in the space to understand their business model and the scale that they needed to achieve in order to be a company that grows to be a significant size with this sort of business model. But what I expect to happen, my null hypothesis would be that exchanges would ultimately be competing to be a source of truth around this data point and that the fee for provision of this data would be very small, not present. That's my null hypothesis. And we'll see how this space shapes up. But like I said earlier in the conversation, my job is really to understand what's possible with the tech and then to sort of identify the founders that are going to actualize the utility, the value that it”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's hard for me to understand the argument that that is true. So, of course, you don't need a token. All you really need is a variable on the contract that says this is how we define the oracle that we will rely on. And it could look something like, for instance, what Bitmex does or what other exchanges do where there's multiple sources of the exchange rate that are pulled in, the outliers are dropped, and then the median of the rest of the range is considered the truth on the exchange rate for purposes of that contract.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you would have a smart contract that relied on an external oracle or a set of oracles that said when the exchange rate of Bitcoin TUSD changes, so does the balance between held in this channel. And so in that way, one side of the channel would be holding the value of that channel in USD. And the other side of the channel would be essentially like a long Bitcoin position.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So the possibilities of that, I think, are kind of endless. And really what it looks like is the promise that Facebook's DM came to the market with. And so we start to see how we can really unlock a breadth of utility on Bitcoin in a Bitcoin native environment without needing the existence of other tokens, even including stable coins.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Smart contracts in the lightning space starts to really press the boundaries of our imagination. And so when you see an opportunity like that, you know that the world's best entrepreneurs are going to be paying attention to it. And so I am also paying attention to it. Specifically, an example that really sort of has really sort of hooked me is the ability to denominate lightning channels in a currency other than Bitcoin through the existence of smart contracts in the Lightning Network space. So as an example, you can have a USD denominated Lightning channel through smart contracts on Lightning Network. And so that would be a Bitcoin collateralized USD lightning channel. Then we have the ability to transact peer-to-peer instantly and almost for free in USD without relying on an external state.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“maybe more publicly excited about how active the space actually is and less hesitant to talk about what's on the roadmap and what that enables.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think that's exactly right. So if you don't start with a decentralized and sound base layer, then you sort of have to try to hack it together in other ways. And I think the other thing, though, that you have to do is sort of obfuscate the fact that you don't have a sound and stable base layer by meaning, you know, a different truth into existence. And I think we see that a lot in other spaces. Bitcoin to me feels really like folks that are heads down on the science and the technology and then promote what they've achieved, what they have proved they can do in current day. Other spaces market what they expect to be able to do in the future. And so that can feel more exciting. But what I think the mission of Bitcoiners really should be in 2021 and maybe going forward is to be”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly, and that's one of the exciting things that Taproot unlocks as well is the ability to have DLCs in a lightning network environment so that they can be quickly traded peer-to-peer. And so it's not just taproot that needs to exist for that, but my understanding is that one of the exciting things about taproot is that it enables DLCs in a lightning network environment so that they can be traded peer-to-peer and quickly. So it's not just taproot that's necessary for that to happen in a lightning environment, but also for barrier escrow to exist in a lightning implementation. And so we're maybe a couple steps away, but yet much closer than we were prior to taproot locking in.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That facilitated that sort of application wasn't ready for it. And so my primary job is to know the protocols well enough so I understand what's possible and what's not possible. And one of the things that's possible today through smart contracts is something like an automated rev share. Another possibility that we're just beginning to explore is escrow contracts. So of course that can happen on Bitcoin core protocol, but it can also happen on the Lightning Network and on sidechains. We're also looking at things like DLCs, which can be used for option contracts or other forms of escrowed trades.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Don't get in a position of raising a financing based on metrics that aren't achievable simply given the state of the open source technology that they depend on. An example of that going wrong, you might be familiar with, is the investment that went into Bitcoin payment processors in 2014, 2015-ish. So you knew if you had studied Satoshi's dialogue and the cipherpunk forums, you knew if you had studied that space. His conversations with Hal and others that in order to get sort of MasterCard or visa scale transaction volume, you would need a second layer protocol like a Lightning Network. However, if you didn't have that context in 2014, it might have made sense to back a Bitcoin payments processing company, even though the open source protocol that”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, for automated Rev share, the protocol that I'm particularly excited about seeing that develop on is actually Lightning Network. And it's possible today through PTLCs. And so that is point time lock contracts. And I believe that's what LMBITs is using for their split payments extension. My job as a VC is just to acknowledge the tech that exists and be open to the capabilities that that unlocks. And then to help founders quickly actualize the vision they have to provide consumer enterprise value given the state of the tech. And then at the same time, my job is to also kind of acknowledge the flip side of that. So given the state of the tech at the protocol level, at Bitcoin Core, Lightning Network Protocol, Liquid Protocol, et cetera, is to acknowledge the state of the tech and what can't be done so that found”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so that's the space that I'm quite interested in. So that's the automated revenue share space, which can today be done on Liquid. We see that with a company like Ellen Bitz, for example, and their split payment extension. And I think that that will be a space that continues to develop in 2021 and 2022. So maybe let me stop there to see if what I just said made sense.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Something that I've been looking at since really 2014 is the concept of automated rev share. And so in 2014-2015, something like this, there was a company called STEM out of Los Angeles. The company is still in existence today. But in 2015 or 2014, they were focused on automating Rev Share through programmable Bitcoin, basically. And what that meant to them was that collaborative contributors in the music space specifically could sort of establish a smart contract that they would agree to in advance and that would automate the sharing of payments that happened on platforms like Spotify. And so of course, this company was just sort of ahead of their time, really, right? So the capability for that was rough then, but it exists now.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Have influence on it, undue influence on it. And given those dynamics, the options are pretty limited, right? It's Bitcoin. So now I'll talk a little bit about a smart contracting opportunities that exist.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not trying to fit it into a 20 minute panel. But frankly, it's just as shiny and sexy as any of the activity happening in other spaces. And so it's fortunate to have the opportunity to talk about that today. So maybe if I could just mention a few, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. So I want to start by saying that I'm focused on Bitcoin versus altcoin spaces really because Bitcoin is where there's sound tech and because Bitcoin is where there's a stable and secure protocol that can be built upon. And so of course as a VC my job is to deploy capital into companies that are building in sort of a sound tech state. We don't have control over open source development in a decentralized blockchain system. And so because of that, we have to acknowledge the state of the system without thinking that we will”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, they certainly don't all have association with a token, right? Because you know that I'm on the board of directors at Blockstream and Blockstream has liquid network, which is a sidechain to Bitcoin. And liquid network, of course, doesn't have a token. I'm not sure that a token is necessary, but you're right that some of the most exciting activity in the Bitcoin space right now is certainly around smart contracting. I would say multiplex smart contracting. greater capabilities of smart contracts. Of course, that's related to DeFi. So maybe you'll give me the opportunity to elaborate on some ideas that I would have wanted to discuss earlier at Bitcoin Miami on my panel. We sort of ran out of time. But I think that the Bitcoin space right now is kind of so dynamic that it's hard to fit it all into a 20.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I'm not sure that I think in 2013 it would have been hard to imagine that eight years later that Bitcoin would be on the balance sheet of an S&P 500 company. But I expect that by the end of the cycle that that won't just be one company, but it could be multiple.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Community. And it's been surprising to me. But every year I've been surprised at how quickly folks have ramped up. So as an example, in 2014 and 2015, I was a mentor in a Bitcoin accelerator program that had many corporate participants. And there was sort of broad participation from financial institutions. And that was surprising then. And folks were leaning in on sort of first test cases with companies that were very early and that were really still in R&D stage. Folks had an appetite for that then. And each progressive year that's continued to mature. And so I think the conversations you're seeing now are around how to engage with Bitcoin as a store of value and how to engage in the opportunity that Bitcoin blockchain, the protocol itself can offer.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I think that folks are certainly keen to understand what's happening with Bitcoin. Here's what has been most surprising to me in this market cycle, is that those folks, even folks that haven't been public about their interest in Bitcoin have learned almost through osmosis how to really start listening to signal rather than noise. So an example of that is that when we've seen some of the loud energy fud around Bitcoin mining, that's been something that actually hasn't been as distracting to corporate executives as I would have otherwise expected it to be or as it was four years ago. And so there's been sort of this ability to filter messaging that's taken place in folks, even though they haven't been actively engaged in the Bitcoin.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, my understanding, my secondhand understanding is that Michael Saylor has been very effective at communicating with other folks, other corporate leaders that have an appetite to learn about something new. You at least have to have somebody that is open-minded enough to consider frontier tech and the introduction of a new store of value. And for those folks, my understanding is that Michael Saylor has been very effective. Now, I think separate from his ability to teach is his ability to be an example. And I think that's effective not only for folks that are open and curious, but for folks that have kind of taken a pessimistic view of the space. So the example that Hill set, even without saying much about it, will carry as much weight, if not more, as what he's doing to educate. Corporate executives.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not how effective proof of stake will be at securing a multibillion dollar network. And so I think that to even guess at Ethereum's ability to establish Ether as a store of value, to even guess at that ahead of proof of stake being instituted and having a couple of years of historical performance behind it is challenging.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That creates a sort of known incentive system for the stakeholders that contribute to Bitcoin and to the security of the network. And it's proven. We have over a decade, well over a decade behind us with this security model. That's different, right, from Ethereum, that for the past, I'm not sure five, six years has been planning and plotting a switch from proof of work to proof of stake. My understanding is that at some point over the next 18 months, there should be a switch from proof of work to proof of stake. And at that point, once there is a switch, then Ethereum will start accumulating years, right? Years of historical proof that proof of stake is a valid security model for their network. But until that point, we're in sort of this kind of like halfway place where we understand what the roadmap promises.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, the first necessary piece for a digital currency to be established as a store of value is that the network should be decentralized and secure. At the very least, it should be secure and it should be historically secure. So the security model of the blockchain should be long established. There should be a record of there being a lack of hack or breach at the core protocol level and in any sort of intermediary pieces that are relevant to folks' engagement at the core protocol level. And so Bitcoin is kind of uniquely that. We know that since 2009, Bitcoin has had 99.9 plus percent uptime. There's been zero hacks or breaches at the core protocol. The security model has been stable. So we have proof of work as a security model.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bitcoin is amongst cryptocurrencies singularly established as a store of value. And there's multiple reasons for that, but really I think that the primary credit for that goes to the soundness of the tech that underlies Bitcoin, the digital currency. And so, you know, I think that the opportunity for companies in the space and then for folks deploying capital in the space like myself is that there'll be an ecosystem of tools, services, applications that are built around what it means for a first true digital currency to exist, a first true digital store of value to exist. We're quite heads down on that and making sure that we're supporting the founders that have a vision for the world post this new framework.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Example of that in the sort of recent money printing episodes is that folks would come to CASA and say, listen, I want to enter Bitcoin, but I want to do it in a safe and secure way. I want to set up CASA first. And so that's the sort of thing that we'll see as a result of the macro environment. But, you know, I suppose that my work is less driven by the traditional macro environment and more really driven by what's possible in Bitcoin as it relates to Bitcoin's maturation as a store of value. And then Bitcoin's growth or advancement as a technology.”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's a good question. So, I suppose that the impact we see of that is on the opportunities for growth with the consumer tech companies that we back. So as an example, one of the companies that Stillmark is invested in is CASA, which is a company that provides easy, simple security for folks that are holding Bitcoin, Bitcoin hodlers. And we will see through CASA that as the macro environment creates sort of an unfriendly space for folks or that as monetary policy becomes overly complex or kind of muddled or as Paul Tudor Jones said recently crazy, that folks will escape into Bitcoin and they'll then be thinking about their security, for example, and COSA will see that first. One of the things that CASA saw is”
2021-06-23 · We Study Billionaires · BTC031: Investments in Bitcoin Tech w/ Alyse Killeen (Bitcoin Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT