Think bitcoin is a trending fad? Banks and institutional investors don’t. Goldman Sachs and IDG Capital Partners announced a $50 million investment in Circle Internet Financial yesterday, one of the largest investments yet into the bitcoin space. That kind of interest may be why Richard Branson will be inviting an elite few to his island to discuss the future of the currency.
Study up on the topic and the huge implications of bitcoin become, uh, clear. The decentralized blockchain (the system underlying bitcoin currency) calls into question the underpinnings of how we inventory information across multiple domains.
“As a currency created outside the reach of central banks and regulators, bitcoin has the potential to revolutionize money storage and payments by driving down costs — potentially to zero — in the way that the Internet revolutionized media and communications,” reported the Los Angeles Times.
It’s easy to pontificate, but the Goldman Sachs investment group that that closed the deal “generally puts money into projects that could have some relevance for the bank’s own business,” according to the New York Times. Goldman issued a report in March that said the most immediate opportunity for bitcoin is the $580 billion international money-transfer business.
Here are some of the largest investments in the field last year. Real money is being exchanged in a new territory that could redefine business and the economy in ways we haven’t yet grasped. Study up!
This post was originally published on ImpactAlpha.com
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