Bitcoin

**David Rosenthal** (0:01)
This is the key line. This is a quote from Coin Daddy. Right now, all our entertainers come from outside crypto culture, not even inside crypto. We've got to change that, he said.

**Ben Gilbert** (0:13)
Oh my God. What a mission to be on.

**David Rosenthal** (0:17)
What a mission.

**Ben Gilbert** (0:30)
Welcome to Season 8, episode 1 of Acquired, the podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert, and I'm the co-founder of Pioneer Square Labs, a startup studio and venture capital firm in Seattle.

**David Rosenthal** (0:45)
And I'm David Rosenthal, and I am an angel investor and advisor to startups based in San Francisco.

**Ben Gilbert** (0:51)
And we are your hosts. After close to 150 episodes over the last five and a half years, this will be the first one covering something that is not a company. And while today's topic is nowhere near a corporation and is often thought of as quite the opposite, it has had a better investment return over the last decade than any company in the world, including Amazon, including Apple, including Domino's Pizza, and even including Tesla.

**David Rosenthal** (1:23)
So great. We're gonna have to talk about a little bit of pizza as we go along here.

**Ben Gilbert** (1:28)
We are, but not from Domino's. Today we are talking about the single greatest 10-year investment return in human history, Bitcoin. And in just over a decade, it has gone from less than one cent per Bitcoin to over $30,000, a 3 million X investment return.

**David Rosenthal** (1:49)
It's just mind-blowing.

**Ben Gilbert** (1:51)
Yeah, I was going to say, David, I don't know totally for sure that it's the single greatest decade investment return in human history, but it kind of has to be.

**David Rosenthal** (2:00)
I was even thinking, I was looking at, so there's the NASPERS investment in Tencent and the SoftBank and Yahoo investment in Alibaba. Both of those were like between 20 to 30 million that turned into like 100 to 200 billion. So even that's like, what, a thousand X-ish? Like it doesn't even come close. Yep.

**Ben Gilbert** (2:23)
Yep. Pretty crazy. I have not computed the IRR, but I bet that's pretty good too. So whether you are hodling on for dear life and riding it to the moon, or whether you think this whole thing is a crazy bubble that's about to pop, there is no denying the unbelievable cleverness of invention of all the math and mechanisms behind the Bitcoin protocol itself.
It is truly a beautiful and ingenious system. But by who? We don't even really know who invented it. Today David and I will dive into the complete history behind the creation of Bitcoin by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, the different factions that pushed it to evolve through its several chapters since 2009 into the mainstream today. And we'll evaluate its position today with the same strategic lens we use on every episode here at Acquired. Is Bitcoin a new form of money? An investment opportunity? The start of a new global economy? Or just completely a scam? Today we dive in. Well, if you love Acquired and you want to be a deeper part of what David and I do here, you should become an Acquired Limited Partner. You'll get access to our library of over 50 interviews and deep dives on company building topics, our monthly Zoom calls, and this is new, live access to listen in while we record big events like emergency pods, like the Slack one we did last month, a couple months ago.

**David Rosenthal** (3:43)
Yeah, so great.

**Ben Gilbert** (3:44)
It feels like 10 years ago.

**David Rosenthal** (3:45)
That was back when Bitcoin was under 20,000.

**Ben Gilbert** (3:50)
Yes, and also listen live into our book club discussions with the authors. Most importantly though, and this is what's so cool about what the show has become, you'll be a part of the Acquired community. We've been amazed at the caliber of people and insights that have showed up to our LP calls. It is so clear to David and I that we truly do have the greatest audience in the world from young people just starting out their careers to CEOs and top executives, some of which are running $100 billion companies and general partners at venture and investment firms of every size around the world. People have made friendships, gotten jobs, raised capital, launched new careers, and even met their co-founders through the Acquired community. So if you aren't already an LP, click the link in the show notes or go to acquired.fm slash LP and we can't wait to see you there. This is a great time to tell you about one of our very favorite companies, Crusoe.