If this is true, it is a stunning piece of news for the Bitcoin economy. According to the South China Morning Post, Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing has made an investment of an undisclosed amount in BTC payment processor Bitpay, a company I have highlighted on these pages on several occasions.
From the South China Morning Post:
Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing has invested in BitPay, the digital currency equivalent of PayPal, through his venture capital company, Horizons Ventures.
A spokeswoman for Horizons Ventures said the group would not comment on the details of the investment.
BitPay said it was “fortunate to have the benefit of many supportive investors, including Horizons Ventures”.
BitPay, founded in May 2011, handles transactions for 14,000 companies across 200 countries. About half are in the United States, with 25 per cent in Europe and 25 per cent in the rest of the world.
Simply incredible.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
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Obviously, the guy never used Bitpay as a merchant. Coinbase is much better and other companies (outside the USA) will show up in time to overtake Bitpay. Any Bitcoin company that is based in the USA that doesn’t have congressional people in their pockets are simply not going to make it.
Any Bitcoin related company in the USA that has no lobbyists or powerful people backing them will be suppressed at every possible junction in time and is not going to make it. At some point when the USG gets their act together they will come after all these companies in a big way. You think raw milk in California requires a SWAT team to shut down? A Bitcoin company they go after will be getting an infantry team at their front door. Watch and see.
Why bother going with a USA based bitcoin service company? It makes no sense at all. The USA jurisdiction is about the worst place possible to initiate a Bitcoin start up. Bitpay is better off selling to some bigger foreign dummy now before they start coming down on them and hampering their operations.
You think the USG is going to let these Bitcoin companies operate freely and without any hindrance? If you do, it’s time to wake up from your dream state.
The USA is irrelevant at this point/juncture in time. Sorry.
IMO the impact of this news blip (whether or not it is major or minor I can’t say) is that Ka Ching! thinks the Bitcoin protocol is more valuable than the BTC currency. I find this a fascinating thing to ponder. There are too many ‘what ifs’ for me to get a handle on it, but my current thinking is that if the world’s central banksters continue to keep their Ponzi scheme going without loosing faith of the general middle and upper classes, then the ‘protocol’ will be the winner and the BTC a mere token to facilitate its goodness… at that point, what is the minimum value a BTC needs to be to do this? That is what its value will be. But if people wise up or “Banksters Gone Wild II” draws enough bad reviews, then BTC could easily double up as a major store of wealth and hit the moon. I’m long on my holdings but not to the point where I’d be comfortable putting it in cold storage for 3-10 yrs and not bother to think about it. As if that could happen… 🙂
Jorj X McKie,
Fascinating thought indeed. We all have an unprecedented historical opportunity to make our grand children proud of our generation for not being too ignorant but to grasp all facts available at hand to not repeat historical mistakes all over again when it comes to the evolution of Money.
I am devoted and obsessed with this for the Protocol itself and what Satoshi’s white paper made available for the 99%. For selfish and financial reasons I hope Bitcoins will carry the evolutionary flag.
Glenn Greenwald Year End 2013 Speech