Highlighting the perspective of “whales,” bitcoin investors with access to significant amounts of fiat capital to inject into the market, a slew of high-net-worth Bitcoiners spoke to attendees of the Bitcoin 2022 conference in a panel titled “Billionaire Capital Allocators.”
The panel featured Ricardo B. Salinas; the Mexican billionaire chairman of a multifaceted conglomerate who has called bitcoin a better asset than gold; Orlando Bravo, the billionaire cofounder of Thoma Bravo who has called himself “very bullish” on bitcoin’s potential value; Marcelo Claure, the CEO of SoftBank Group International who sees “incredible potential” for bitcoin in Latin America; and Dan Tapiero, the CEO of 10T Holdings who has predicted a $500,000 bitcoin price. The group discussion was moderated by Greg Foss, the founding shareholder of a Canadian digital asset manager and prominent bitcoin advocate.
Foss started the panel by bringing awareness to the community.
“The Bitcoin community is absolutely beautiful,” he said. “It’s about giving. I’ve never met so many givers in my life.”
He also made clear the distinction between bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies when he said, “No other shitcoin solves the fiat ponzi. Bitcoin solves this.”
Salinas was the first panelist to speak and he shared about his experience with hyperinflation in Mexico.
“It’s one thing to understand a theoretical problem and another thing to live it in your skin,” he said.
He compared what is happening now with times earlier in his life when he was making $2,000 per month, which then went down to $20 per month.
“Unfortunately today in 2022, the guys who are earning dollars, it may go from $2,000 to $20,” he said. “Unless you buy bitcoin”
Bravo agreed with him: “You don’t have to be an economist to see what’s going on with inflation. It is plainly obvious.” Then, he brought awareness to the reason for inflation, saying, “When you pump that much money into the economy, you’re going to grossly devalue that currency.”
The group agreed that the Federal Reserve is in a tricky position. Claure said, “If they overcorrect, we are going to move from inflation to recession very very fast.”
Bravo expanded on the reason for Bitcoin, “For me bitcoin represents a competitive system to those government owned monopolistic currency systems.”
Foss made the solution for the money printing issues clear, “Look outside of the U.S., people see stuff happening more quickly. The U.S. is privileged, it has the reserve status, but bitcoin is going to become the global reserve asset.”
Salinas added, “Things change gradually, then suddenly.”
Tapiero expanded on the possibilities with bitcoin adoption, “The voice is being heard and i think we are starting to see greater movement from institutions. When you have these sovereign wealth funds adding exposure to bitcoin, the next thing is the central bank.”
Claure has a name for this phenomenon, “Then I started seeing what I like to call the Bitcoin Revolution.”
Foss brought the conversation back to the bitcoin price, “There is a high probability that it goes way the heck higher from here and you’re supposed to be happy if the price goes down so you can buy some more.”
Salinas compared buying bitcoin to buying a house. “When you buy a house, you’re not checking the price of your house every ten minutes. You just sit on it for ten years. When you buy your first bitcoin … just sit on it for ten years, twenty years and get on.”
Claure compared it to being an early investor in internet companies, “This is like being in the internet in 1994… A few people have turned into the richest people in the world by betting on the internet in ’94. I think crypto today is where the internet was in 1994, 1995”
Going back to the innovation in technology, Foss said, “Once I [studied Bitcoin], I found hope… This is hope, this is freedom, it’s beautiful, it’s technologically sound.”
Bravo went on to share, “Everyone who takes the time to slow down and understand what’s going on, becomes a big believer.”
Bitcoin is a major disruption to the way people move value. Claure said, “The big disruptors are centralized companies … the new world is going to be one in which you will be able to transact in a peer to peer process. They [innovators] were never able to perfect the free flow of value until Bitcoin.”
Bravo added to this thought, “When we send money to people in Ukraine and use Bitcoin, that money’s getting there and absolutely not Russia, nobody can stop that money from getting there.”
Tapiero went on, “I think it’s important to understand the invention of bitcoin is a unique invention in the history of monetary history; it’s certainly bigger than I’ve seen or studied. It’s the ledger of truth.”
In closing, the speakers brought their attention back to the Bitcoin community. Bravo said, “30,000 people, together that have created a new financial system that is across all borders, that is fair.” He went on, “This is a group of phenomenal people that want what is right, that want freedom, that want democracy, that want to cross borders. This is just an awesome community.”
Foss closed the discussion by saying, “You can vote whatever way you want, but Bitcoin is freedom.”
Bitcoin 2022 is part of the Bitcoin Event Series hosted by BTC Inc, the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine.