It should be noted also that no one should expect a balanced view of the market/Bitcoin from people who define their identity on Bitcoin being a failure either. Someone who claims they have no stake in the game, and is skeptical of Bitcoin (to the point of having it included in every post) should be viewed in the same light you are projecting on the these "salesmen". That is all.
Touché. However, the stakes are very different...
Draper invested 18 M$ to buy the 30'000 BTC at 600$/BTC or so. On paper, he lost at least 4 M$ so far. SMBIT may have sold almost 100 M$ in shares (at the then-current price) and therefore earned at least 2 M$ in fees, but has sold very little for the last 6 months. For them (and other bitcoin investors and entrepreneurs), convincing people that bitcoin will go to the moon means millions of dollars. They will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in BloombergTV and advertorials in Forbes to push that view.
On the other hand, skeptics like me, Krugman, "Prof Bitcorn", and millions others out there will not earn or lose a dime, whetever happens to bitcoin. (Actually, IIRC, Prof Bitcorn said that he does own some BTC.) We will only have to deal with bruised egos (but economists like Krugman and Bitcorn are quite used to being wrong). Apart from that, skeptics have no reason to try to influence the price; and they will not spend even 10$ to have their opinion published.
By the way, while I belive that bitcoin will not survive in the long term, I would not risk any prediction for the price in middle term. It may even go back to the 1000$ range or more, who knows. All I will risk saying is that,
unless and until a large new market opens, the price will probably keep falling towards the pre-bubble level of ~120$ (or even ~20$, if the Feb/2013 bubble too was made in China).
Tim Draper and Marc Andreesen et al have got nothing better to do than waste their time , their effort and their reputation and money on something like Bitcoin. I mean after the failure they have made of everything in their lives, maybe they should just stick to selling cut and shut cars? did you see how those guys have been attached to every scam going on the internets for the past twenty years, I even got a 419 scam letter that came from Tim Draper, or as he called himself "Masta Tim"
I am assuming they are putting their money, time, effort into Bitcoin because they think it is a bad idea and that it will never go anywhere and because they think it will fail, and well they were bored, an what the heck lets give this Bitcoin a shot, as that is how they and businssmen generally conduct themselves.
I bet what they thought was:
" I know!! my career and reputation mean nothing to me , nor my money or time, so what I want to do is invest my hard earned money and my time, on something that I think is a terrible idea, has no future, and that will never work, that provides no benefit, and that I think people will hate! Nevermind that I could enter many many forms of industry on the planet and make fortunes with less risk."
and then they probably thought
"what I will do is get involved in a scam that I do not believe in, and maybe con a load of stupid people... hmm I will set it up so it only works for a few months a year top and then retire because I dont care about anything but a few meazely bucks I can make scamming a few people for a few months. If only I could just retire and earn more money than most people make in a lifetime from my current investments and just the interest on the money I already hold"
I am sure that the Lawskys and the George Osbornes of the world are only looking for attention too, and are wasting their departments and their own time and effort and money and resources that could be better used elsewhere, making plans for regulations for something that is not ever going anywhere.
Hint for Jorge:
"actions speak louder than words"
"putting their money where their mouth is"
Also hint for Jorge: that new market you are talking about, it is the whole world (at least it
does have the potential to be)
In essence I think that these guys, have far more options at hand to them to make more money than they could with Bitcoin, and with less risk/less exposure. To paint these guys as out to make a quick buck from some noobs is a little weak in my opinion, it does not hold up to inspection. Sure they are talking their book, as you point out, but what businessman in the world worth their salt would not? none, nowhere.
ps: Richard Branson assures me that Virgin Galactic will not blow up, I am not sure though, I think he is saying that just to sell tickets, because salesman.
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