Tim Draper Discloses How His Family Moved Into Bitcoin
Tim Draper, an offshoot of the Draper VC dynasty, is renowned throughout Silicon Valley for his impressive venture capitalism skills, being an early investor for projects like Tesla and Skype. But it was his shift to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that ultimately changed the Drake family's investment path and defined the venture capitalist's storied career. A move to a new asset class certainly caused quite a buzz in traditional investment circles and forever altered the Draper family's existing roadmap.
Tim Draper's curiosity about digital property, as well as the potential for trading it using fiat currency and vice versa, laid the foundation for the Draper dynasty's involvement with cryptocurrency. Engrossed by the concept, he began examining the nooks and crannies of bitcoin, the other altcoins available, and the blockchain technology which serves as the backbone of it all. His interest flourished and before long, he was devoting a significant amount of time into learning as much as he could about the industry.
Draper reminisced about the time he came across a remarkable person from Korea and purchased a virtual sword for his grandchildren - at the cost of $40. It truly raised the perplexity of Draper, as to the disparity between a physical currency and its digital form. “It was definitely strange to wrap my head around the idea that people would even spend real money on something entirely intangible” he mentioned. He had a hunch that one day people would use virtual funds to purchase physical things.
Tim Draper had a certain interest in the concept of a currency such as Bitcoin, even prior to its development in 2009, though his favor for it was not immediate. Despite this, he didn't hesitate to amass BTC when it was founded, declaring it a universal monitory system for the whole world. His belief in Satoshi Nakamoto's encrypted virtual currency didn't waiver when 40,000 Bitcoin were unaccounted for with the Mt. Gox breakdown of 2011, leading him to buy an additional 30,000 BTC from the government auction of funds retired from Silk Road in 2014.
Tim Draper's extensive enthusiasm for cryptocurrency didn't go unnoticed by his sons, Adam and Billy Draper. After noticing Draper's advocacy of Bitcoin, the two boys decided to embark in the business. This was evidently seen in 2012, when Adam instantly built Boost VC, a crypto-focused venture capital company that had a third round of $90 million as of 2022. On the other hand, Billy Draper indicated his own interest in the crypto market in a very outspoken manner. Quoting Draper himself, "My son showed great interest in the idea of me doing it. So both came up with the plan of cooperating with each other, and one of them constructed the Boost accelerator, motivated by my Bitcoin purchase.”
Tim wasn't keen about his father's attitude towards cryptos - Bill Draper. He said: "My dad isn't too pumped about crypto. He's all about the American dollar". Bill has been vehement about his stance on the matter, unimpressed with the hotness of crypto. Unaffected, Bill has stayed true to his opinion on the topic.
