2013-10-24 Bloomberg: Fortress’s Novogratz Says Bitcoin Will Be 'Worth a Lot'

[Arvicco]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/fortress-s-novogratz-says-bitcoin-will-be-worth-a-lot-.html

Novo's got quite a following among the Wall Street crowd: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Novogratz

[Rygon]

“I have a nice little Bitcoin position,” Novogratz said. “Enough that I’m smiling that it doubled.”

So now we know at least 1 billionaire that has purchased BTC in the last 6 months. Yet another reason for the run up in exchange prices. I wonder how many other deep pockets are out there quietly increasing their holdings?

[LiteCoinGuy]

“I have a nice little Bitcoin position,” Novogratz said. “Enough that I’m smiling that it doubled.”

So now we know at least 1 billionaire that has purchased BTC in the last 6 months. Yet another reason for the run up in exchange prices. I wonder how many other deep pockets are out there quietly increasing their holdings?

"a nice little position" in his world is maybe 20 millions 

[TraderTimm]

I told you guys that the yield-starved investors would get in once they realized what Bitcoin can do.

Honestly, the Federal Reserve is helping us, by keeping a near-zero interest rate policy, Bitcoin shines like a supernova against that kind of environment.

[bobdude17]

Xpost from the Wall Observer thread

Novogratz endorses bitcoin!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/fortress-s-novogratz-says-bitcoin-will-be-worth-a-lot-.html

Biggest news all week.. together with the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust filing.

who is this person? someone important?

A top hedge fund manager. Probably the most prominent person in the financial industry to endorse bitcoin to date.


This all really makes me think of Trace Meyers post a little while back:

I have been in NYC the past two weeks working on several very significant Bitcoin related projects.

Any chance you can elaborate? Also - Will you be posting to your blog anytime soon?

Wish I could.

Just wait for the news, serious journalists like the WSJ have already been getting briefed but cannot write about it yet, which should come out around the last week of September. Additionally, this fall there will be probably 6+ 'big names', like Richard Bove or Chamath Palihapitiya [starting at 19:15], in the investment community that will come out in favor of Bitcoin and that will cause a lemming like effect.

And the private wealth managers out of Asia are stacking Bitcoins away as the new favorite asset class. Many of the HNWI family offices will not make an investment in the sub-$25-50m range. So, when Bitcoin melts up then it is going to be free range for a lot of these ultra-rich Asia families to move in.

If about $1m of new capital moves the price $9 then just imagine what $500m-$1B of new capital flowing into this asset class would do to the price. Especially if that $500m requires 'clean bitcoins' from a known source of funds. The making of a 'melt-up' in price to a much more fundamentally sound valuation since Bitcoins are largely undervalued given their characterstics (no counter-party risk, cannot be seized and equity based like gold).

This is going to be a wild ride this fall. So strap yourselves in and let's kick the tires and light the fires!

I bolded the part relevent to the Novogratz news.

[Arvicco]

He is talking about "doubling" so it's clear he's got in at around 100 price point. It seems like we now have pretty good idea who was that mysterious "whale" buying all the dumps below 100 this summer. And from that we can assess the amount of BTC he's bought - I'd say couple hundred K BTC is a very conservative estimate, so he's currently sitting on USD 50-100 million worth of BTC investment at minimum. No wonder he is smiling...

[Tirapon]

He is talking about "doubling" so it's clear he's got in at around 100 price point. It seems like we now have pretty good idea who was that mysterious "whale" buying all the dumps below 100 this summer. And from that we can assess the amount of BTC he's bought - I'd say couple hundred K BTC is a very conservative estimate, so he's currently sitting on USD 50-100 million worth of BTC investment at minimum. No wonder he is smiling...

200k BTC = 40 Million USD at current price.

[ekiro]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/fortress-s-novogratz-says-bitcoin-will-be-worth-a-lot-.html

Novo's got quite a following among the Wall Street crowd: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Novogratz

I hear a lot of people say it'll be worth a lot.

Question is how high can it go? When? And what will be that driving force?

[knight22]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/fortress-s-novogratz-says-bitcoin-will-be-worth-a-lot-.html

Novo's got quite a following among the Wall Street crowd: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Novogratz

I hear a lot of people say it'll be worth a lot.

Question is how high can it go? When? And what will be that driving force?

I'm selling one of those if you want

[Carlton Banks]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/fortress-s-novogratz-says-bitcoin-will-be-worth-a-lot-.html

Novo's got quite a following among the Wall Street crowd: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Novogratz

I hear a lot of people say it'll be worth a lot.

Question is how high can it go? When? And what will be that driving force?

Development team are currently at the early stages of using the blockchain to store identity information, paid for by the transaction with which it is stored. Bitcoin could become a decentralised information auditing system that will obsolete every centralised organisation you could name, all because it can do the job more effectively and reliably. I think that could be worth a little extra on top of the whole decentralised monetary system thing (which may eventually look like the quaint beginning in comparison to the full extent to which this pandoras box can be opened).

[grondilu]

Development team are currently at the early stages of using the blockchain to store identity information,

WTF?

[LiteCoinGuy]

Development team are currently at the early stages of using the blockchain to store identity information,

WTF?

they will add little tiny 80 bytes of data, that you can sent with a transaction but identity infos?!


"...that will let people embed a tiny 80 bytes of data into a blockchain transaction record directly."

[BitChick]

He is talking about "doubling" so it's clear he's got in at around 100 price point. It seems like we now have pretty good idea who was that mysterious "whale" buying all the dumps below 100 this summer. And from that we can assess the amount of BTC he's bought - I'd say couple hundred K BTC is a very conservative estimate, so he's currently sitting on USD 50-100 million worth of BTC investment at minimum. No wonder he is smiling...

200k BTC = 40 Million USD at current price.

If he did buy that much that was probably the best investment of his life so far.  To get 100% returns in a few months is pretty hard to do I would think.

Wish I had bought more this Summer. Sigh. Did not have any money then. We took a nice vacation though.  

[knight22]

Development team are currently at the early stages of using the blockchain to store identity information,

WTF?

Yea why the fuck should I carve my identity into the blockchain forever??

[djalexr]

Yea why the fuck should I carve my identity into the blockchain forever??

I think the point is, the blockchain has a load of other potential uses, as well as its functions as an accounting ledger. You can permanently store info there that can't ever be changed and is verified by thousands of other computers - surely a robust system for legal purposes (one example is its use to copyright a first idea or concept - you can store proof in the blockchain, undeniable and time-stamped proof that you were the first person to come up with an idea for example)

Whether its a good idea or not that the blockchain is used for these types of things is another debate entirely though!

[kriwest]

Yea why the fuck should I carve my identity into the blockchain forever??

I think the point is, the blockchain has a load of other potential uses, as well as its functions as an accounting ledger. You can permanently store info there that can't ever be changed and is verified by thousands of other computers - surely a robust system for legal purposes (one example is its use to copyright a first idea or concept - you can store proof in the blockchain, undeniable and time-stamped proof that you were the first person to come up with an idea for example)

Whether its a good idea or not that the blockchain is used for these types of things is another debate entirely though!

I personally love it and find myself smiling at the thought. It's incredible the things you can potentially do with bitcoin. Think outside the box and.. what CAN'T you do?
I don't see bitcoin as currency or commodity anymore. I see it simply as an incredibly versatile decentralized protocol with which you can innovate to your heart's content.. like TCP/IP.

In fact, the name "bitCOIN" is kind of limiting in a way, and gives the wrong idea about what the protocol is capable of. I could see a future where people no longer call it bitcoin, rather just BTCP or something similar (a'la HTTP).

[Carlton Banks]

Development team are currently at the early stages of using the blockchain to store identity information,

WTF?

Yea why the fuck should I carve my identity into the blockchain forever??

Not yours, an identity which you can choose to use. And you can choose to have more than one, or none at all. Nothing to make any reference to you or anything specific to you unless you choose to do so. As stated above, it's a ridiculously powerful concept, I'm already calling it "blockchain backed information". It's an identity system, but one that you're in control of.

[aigeezer]

Development team are currently at the early stages of using the blockchain to store identity information,

WTF?

Yea why the fuck should I carve my identity into the blockchain forever??

Not yours, an identity which you can choose to use. And you can choose to have more than one, or none at all. Nothing to make any reference to you or anything specific to you unless you choose to do so. As stated above, it's a ridiculously powerful concept, I'm already calling it "blockchain backed information". It's an identity system, but one that you're in control of.

Ooh - that's cool. I haven't thought it through yet, but presumably there'd be non-centralized ways to control who uses which IDs - so "DPR" can't use "FBI" or vice versa?

[Carlton Banks]

Development team are currently at the early stages of using the blockchain to store identity information,

WTF?

Yea why the fuck should I carve my identity into the blockchain forever??

Not yours, an identity which you can choose to use. And you can choose to have more than one, or none at all. Nothing to make any reference to you or anything specific to you unless you choose to do so. As stated above, it's a ridiculously powerful concept, I'm already calling it "blockchain backed information". It's an identity system, but one that you're in control of.

Ooh - that's cool. I haven't thought it through yet, but presumably there'd be non-centralized ways to control who uses which IDs - so "DPR" can't use "FBI" or vice versa?

Crytographically certified ways, of course. Although strings containing "DPR" and "FBI" would need to be created using VanityGen style tools. And, amusingly, alphabet agencies become relegated to any other rear-end in the showers, so to speak. They'll be using the information system, not their information system. Hah!