Peter Thiel, the billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist, discusses how he established Paypal with fellow co-founders Max Levchin, David Sacks, and Luke Nosek in a talk released on March 12, 2022. Toward the end of the hour-long discussion, the topic rapidly shifted to cryptocurrencies, with Thiel emphasizing that his 'worst error' over the last 10 years 'was getting too late and too little into bitcoin.'
Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, reveals the biggest mistake he's made in the last decade.
Last week, the new book "The Founders" by Jimmy Soni was discussed extensively during a panel discussion with the co-founders of Paypal. The book "The Founders: The Narrative of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley" was released last month and tells the story of Paypal's beginnings.
Paypal co-founders Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, David Sacks, and Luke Nosek appear on the March 12 callin.com show. While the majority of the discussion focuses on the history of PayPal, at the 55:30 mark, the conversation shifts to cryptocurrency. "It wouldn't be a tech talk without a little bit of wild-eyed forward-looking remarks," the discussion's host remarked, squeezing in one more question.
The debate moderator stated that there is a "whole crypto thing going on" in the midst of Paypal's rise, and he emphasized that Peter Thiel has "written and spoken a lot about it." Thiel responded when asked what the group thought about "payment systems presently and crypto." Paypal's co-founder stated:
The biggest mistake I made in the last decade was getting too late and too little into bitcoin.
Thiel was quite interested in Bitcoin, but he was'somehow programmed not to see it.'
"You know, we invested in Founders Fund in 2014 and did reasonably well, but it was on my radar in 2010 and 2011 — We had seen all these crazy cryptocurrency people, at the time at Paypal, it was one of the things that I was actually super interested in and it motivated me, but none of the models quite worked," Thiel continued. Thiel continued, saying:
With bitcoin, I was somehow programmed to not to see it as much as I should have.
The assertions made by the Paypal co-founder last week are identical to those made in October. Thiel told attendees at a cryptocurrency event in Miami last year that he felt "underinvested in [bitcoin]." Thiel emphasized bitcoin's virtues in Miami, saying it was "the canary in the coal mine — It's the most honest market we have in the country."
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