Episode 017 - JP Baric, CEO, Aurum Capital Ventures Cryptocurrency Mining & Energy Technology

Introduction

• Welcome to Distilling Venture Capital.  I am your host, Bill Griesinger
• Distilling VC is a visionary podcast that provides an insightful and informed view of the key trends affecting the VC and tech startup world.  My mission is to cut through and go beyond the hype that tends to dominate the tech landscape.  And provide you with information you can use.

Episode Introduction:

• Hello again everyone.  Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming back to the program one of my favorite guests, JP Baric, CEO and Founder at Aurum Capital Ventures, because he is my go-to source & expert in explaining and making sense of all things crypto;  BTC, crypto-mining, crypto-energy… JP thank you for coming back to join me on the show.   
• And to reiterate so that folks know, Aurum Capital Ventures is technology/energy company engaged in multiple aspects of the crypto-mining business.
• And we’re going to highlight a new Fund you’ve launched for providing exposure to crypto assets, called Lucid River Partners

BTC’s Very Volatile Week:

• I would like to anchor the conversation initially with:   All that’s been going on in the news over BTC volatility and in crypto-asset category over the last week to 10 days;
• Recent price crash and negative commentary around crypto mining activity in general; Including effects of China’s announcements on banning mining, Elon Musk “poking the bear” on ESG concerns, and Jim Cramer, who gets it completely wrong, suggesting it points to the need for regulation of crypto b/c of “systemic” risk…blah, blah, blah
• JP, I know you’ll make sense of this for us and put it into understandable English!  What do you make of all this?  What are your initial thoughts, your take?
• Mike Novogratz CEO of Galaxy Digital chimed in with a short video providing some perspective and reassurance – I thought some of his comments were insightful:
• • Mike Novogratz:  “The underlying progress that is happening in the BTC ecosystem, the ETH ecosystem and crypto in general is full speed ahead.  
  • “This is not trading Tulips – this is trading a technology that is going to revolutionize how we transmit value to each other…”
• JP, what do you think?  Is Novogratz right about this?

[Galaxy Digital/Galaxy Fund Mgt. - a full-service institutional player, with asset management, capital markets, and investment banking.]    

Galaxy is well positioned to compete with Coinbase and Gemini around institutional funds, as well as with Fidelity on third party wealth management, as well as Grayscale on asset management. This entire business exists because of Mike Novogratz’ bet on crypto assets.

Is Crypto-mining Eco-unfriendly?

• JP, I also wanted to spend some time discussing the energy use side of crypto-mining because, again, there is so much faulty information disseminated by folks in tech media and financial press that is just simply erroneous.  
• Many articles recently published are suggesting crypto-mining is not environmentally feasible due to the amount of energy used…and that this is unsustainable
• And China is often claimed to be a geographic center of concentration for BTC mining. 
• • However, several bloggers and others point out this is not true at all…
  • See Dec. 29, 2020 Forbes Article by Roger Huang, The ‘Chinese Mining Centralization’ Of Bitcoin And Ethereum

Link:   https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerhuang/2021/12/29/the-chinese-mining-centralization-of-bitcoin-and-ethereum/?sh=25b14792f669

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