Silicon Valley Draper Heir to Headline Raleigh Bitcoin Expo

Cryptolina Bitcoin Expo adds star power to its lineup for August conference in Raleigh

BY LAURA BAVERMAN • @laurabaverman • 7.2.14
Comments:  

Filed Under: NEWS: Startups

One of the nation's biggest Bitcoin enthusiasts is a fourth generation venture capitalist who bears the famed name Draper.

He's Adam Draper and he runs Boost VC, a venture capital firm and accelerator focused on building up at least 100 bitcoin-related startup companies over the next three years. He'll sit for a fireside chat at the Cryptolina Bitcoin Expo coming August 15-16 to the Raleigh Convention Center.

Draper is the second high-profile national personality to join the field of speakers at the event. Last week, ExitEvent reported that former U.S. Mint Director Edmund Moy would keynote a dinner on the final night of the conference.

But Draper is an especially big win. Draper's father is Tim Draper, an early Internet investor (in companies like Hotmail and Skype) and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Just today, it was revealed that he won the U.S. Marshals Bitcoin Auction of 30,000 bitcoins seized from the online black market Silk Road.

He'll partner with a Boost VC bitcoin exchange for financial institutions called Vaurum to use the bitcoins to provide liquidity and confidence to markets with weak currencies. Vaurum revealed the partnership in a Medium post this morning.

Tim Draper's Silicon Valley school, Draper University of Heroes, was also the first college to accept Bitcoin as tuition payment.

The elder Draper has obviously been influenced by his son's involvement. When Adam Draper announced the decision to invest in Bitcoin companies in March 2013, he wrote:

I firmly believe that we are at the beginning of a trend much like the time of Napster and the MP3, but instead of music being updated, it is currency. There is a thriving hacker community behind Bitcoin, there are purchases being made with it (some of them legitimate), and there is $300m worth of Bitcoin. Not only that, through Coinbase and other companies it is becoming readily available to the common internet user rather than just hackers. I believe that this movement will spur not only the iTunes of Bitcoin, but an entire economy of ideas.

In March 2014, he doubled down and announced the 100 company goal.

Besides Boost VC, Draper is an investor in Coinbase and at least 40 other bitcoin startups. His non-bitcoin investments include the to-the-point dating app Bang With Friends, an SAT gaming adventure app called Test Legends and the edgy Hermosa Beach, Calif. winery, Rebel Coast Winery.

For full details of the conference, and to register, visit the Cryptolina website.

Companies We Mentioned In This Post

Coinstate Ventures







You Might Also Be Interested In

CellBreaker's Media Blitz Peaks with David Muir Appearance
So, this is pretty awesome. Durham's own Jon Colgan will appear on ABC's David Muir show as early as tonight, helping a high-profile Philadelphia-area blogger and her family get out of their cell phone contract using CellBreaker's proprietary algorithm



ExitEvent's Top Stories from August 2014
At ExitEvent, we want you up on all the topics trending and news happening in the Triangle, so here's a feature we run after each month ends recapping the most popular 10 stories and posts on our site.