The price of bitcoin is a distraction, according to a technological investor

"People should be interested in the companies, not in the bitcoin  itself, bitcoin could be the winner, but also sink," says Glenn  Hutchins.

Although  the oscillations in the price of bitcoin caught the attention of the  financial sector in 2017, for Glenn Hutchins, one of the people who has  ventured into the world of cryptocurrencies, it is simply noise that  diverts attention from more important things than they are happening Hutchins, co-founder of Silver Lake Partners, a venture capital group  focused on the technology sector, is more interested in the ecosystem of  cryptocurrencies as a whole than the fact that the price of bitcoin  beat record prices.

In  fact, although he has invested some 5 million dollars in companies in  the cryptocurrency sector and plans to invest more, he recognizes that  he has not bought a bitcoin. "People should be interested in the companies, not in the bitcoin  itself, bitcoin could be the winner, but also sink," Hutchins said in an  interview with the Financial Times.

Hutchins is not the biggest investor or the first in digital currencies. The Winklevoss twins have won billions of dollars with bitcoin, at least on paper; Michael Novogratz, a former hedge fund manager at Fortress, is a strong supporter of the currency. But  Hutchins is possibly the best-known figure: he is a member of the  boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Brookings  Institution, the Economic Club of New York, the Center for American  Progress, the Council on Foreign Relations of the United States. , of AT & T and, until this summer, of the Nasdaq. He was also an adviser to Bill Clinton.

Hutchins  points out that this ecosystem can, in theory, facilitate financial  transactions instantaneously and free of charge: "It is a great  opportunity because the two most important things are business  information and value, we can now transmit information around the world  at the speed of light at no cost, why can not we do that with value in the future? "

His  first foray into the cryptocurrency sector was in early 2016, when he  invested in the venture capital firm Digital Currency Group (DCG), which  has invested in 110 digital coin companies. Hutchins,  who is part of DCG's board, has invested in approximately 10, such as  Ripple, Abra, Chain and Circle: "I want to create companies, not  speculate with currencies, if the sector takes off, one of these  companies will be like Google, Amazon and another like Yahoo ", predicts.

Advocates  argue that bitcoin and other digital currencies are the greatest  technological advance since the invention of the internet. However, there are aspects that remind the boom of the companies dot.com. Simply  the fact that a company has the word "blockchain" in its name causes  its action to skyrocket, even if there is little evidence of tangible  progress. And due to the volatility of the bitcoin price, it is practically  useless as a traditional means of exchange or storage of value, the two  traditional indicators of a currency, according to critics.

"It  could be a bubble, but the companies I have invested in are very  serious companies that are doing very important things, and if they do  it well, they have the opportunity to change the way we make payments  around the world," Hutchins concludes.  

Sources: Coinsdesk

Thanks for reading ;)

Follow me @sweetiebo !