Paul Graham Endorses Bitcoin

Posted on Jun 29, 2012 by rasengan
Some rights reserved by pragdave (Flickr)
Some rights reserved by pragdave (Flickr)
Some rights reserved by pragdave (Flickr)

History is in the making.  Although this is not a major announcement pertaining to Bitcoin directly, today may be one of the most historic days in the life of the crypto currency.  Today, it was announced that YCombinator, the biggest and most well known technology incubator, has funded a Bitcoin startup.

What does this mean?
This means that Paul Graham, who is one of the most respected and influential early stage investors in the industry, has just indirectly endorsed Bitcoin.  Like any startup investor, Paul Graham takes risks when he invests in startups.  However, with Bitcoin startups, there is a double risk as one bets on both Bitcoin as well as the startup itself, not to mention money transmitter licensing issues.  This means Paul Graham must consider Bitcoin legitimate enough that he is willing to take that risk.

Paul Graham is currently the third major technology investor to show support for Bitcoin. The first was Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, and the second major investor was Tim Draper.

Furthermore, Bitcoin may now have the support of the YCombinator family and network which consists of hundreds of startups and investors.  This is the kind of support that could be crucial for Bitcoin to be adopted.

The Startup
The YCombinator funded Bitcoin startup, Coinbase, aims to be the paypal of Bitcoin.  While other websites already exist that perform this role, one with the legitimacy and trust of YCombinator behind it may be just the thing Bitcoin needs to succeed.

Bitcoins in the Open Market
We at Private Internet Access love Bitcoin, because it allows our customers an extra level of privacy when buying VPN service.  We have been seeing increasing Bitcoin sales in the past months and are watching it closely.

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3 Comments

  1. Potato

    This is HUGE!  Go Satoshi!

    12 years ago
  2. J.R. Willett

    Done! Good luck Brian. The person who makes bitcoin usable to Grandma will change the world.

    12 years ago
    1. Gary Rowe

      We’re working on exactly that. It is on it’s way.

      12 years ago