Crypto has seen its ups and downs. Starting from Bitcoin and obscurity and moving towards worldwide acceptance now, even though a number of countries remain skeptic to its potential. Yet, to my opinion as with everything new, mass adoption and acceptance becomes easier when people with a large followership advocate and show explicit support for something.
Thus, in this article, I will presenting the stories of renowned entrepreneurs who are fervent supporters of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Let's start
Elon Musk
As expected, the first name on that list is that of multi-entrepreneur Elon Musk. A late-joiner in crypto Musk's Tesla Inc., invested in 1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in January 2021 as part of its policy to diversify its investments. He is the founder of Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Company, and Neuralink among others. He has become the richest person in the world (or second richer as he alternates in that position with Jeff Bezos), which if you consider that more than a decade ago, during the financial crisis of the late 2000s he was in the brick of bankruptcy is a amazing feat in itself. Known for his controversial and funny internet persona, his tweets that have lately focused a lot on Bitcoin and meme coin Doge. His status and strong followership in social media will increase societal awareness around cryptocurrencies and help make them a global mainstream alternative to cash in the near future.
Winklevoss twins
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, also known as the Winklevoss twins came into the spotlight through the movie The Social Network, detailing the story behind the creation of FaceBook. In a series of lawsuits they claimed that Zuckerberg stole the social network idea from them when they attended Harvard together. Early adopters and evangelists of cryptocurrencies they bought 11 million USD worth of bitcoin in 2013 and founded the Gemini Exchange in 2015 becoming the first bitcoin billionaires in the process. Due to its finite supply and its potential to protect against inflation as a store of value they have predicted that at some point in the future Bitcoin could be worth up to $500,000.
Michael J. Saylor
Michael Saylor is another cryptoevangelist and entrepreneur. Co-founder and CEO of Microstrategy, a business intelligence, cloud services and mobile software firm he is also the author of "The Mobile Wave" and founder of Saylor Academy. Microstrategy bought more than 1 billion USD worth of Bitcoin during the pandemic and he hosted the "Bitcoin for Corporation" online conference with more than 22,000 participants. He sees Bitcoin as a store of value, in the form of digital gold and expects that by 2026 more than 1 billion people will be holding bitcoin in their mobile wallets.
Jack Dorsey
The fourth person in the list can be a controversial choice for many, as his actions with Twitter (curtailing free speech and de-platforming or shadow-banning people on twitter) many times have been contrary to what decentralization and blockchain technology represent. Jack Dorsey, is the co-founder and CEO of Twitter and CEO of Square a financial payments company. Also, he has been one of the early investors and supporters of Signal, one of the most important encrypted messaging services. He has advocated and invested in Bitcoin through his firm Square, investing more than 220 million USD in total in the past months. He is also involved in the establishment of a bitcoin development fund with rapper Jay Z.
*This article was first published in my Hive blog.
