There are many reasons for the wealth inequality that is arising around the world. Of course, in the poorer countries, this was always the case. However, over the last few decades, we saw this trend rising in the developed world.
While we could spend many articles sifting through all the reasons for this, there is one factor that is standing out: Venture Capitalism.
Source
To start, we must state that VCs perform a terrific service. They are willing to invest money in companies that are very risky. In fact, they take losses more often then they succeed, especially in the technology arena. That said, their service is now going above and beyond.
The problem is the Venture Capitalists are the first in line. They are also protected. When a VC gets into a deal, you or I are not included. We are exempt from participating.
It is an exclusion that is supposed by the government, obviously "for our protection".
Coinbase is a prime example of this. We saw the company go public with a $100 billion valuation. Perhaps this company becomes worth half a trillion in 5 years. Who knows. The problem is the Venture Capitalists were able to extract $100 billion before the public even had a chance to participate.
We see another potential situation forming with Epic Games. This company keeps raising billions of dollars from the VC world. Since it is involved in the laying the foundation of the Metaverse, this could hit the market at $250 billion (or more). That is a lot of cheddar before the general public can get involved.
While either of these companies could see valuations higher in the future, the issue comes in the return. Will someone see a 20x in Epic games if it goes public at a quarter of a billion dollars? A $5 trillion company would be quite a feat considering the largest publicly traded entities only just crossed $2 trillion.
There certainly were VC firms that made more than 20x on their money with Coinbase. Again, it is a situation where the average person was excluded.
Would you have liked to get that type of return? Perhaps many reading this would have been willing to put $250 or $500 into it. That would have turned into $5K or $10K. Probably not life changing money for the developed world but a heck of a return.
It is easy to look back at Coinbase with hindsight. However, would you like to be involved with some funds in the next round of capital raises by either Epic or SpaceX? I would surmise there are many here who would toss a few bucks at a situation like that.
For the stability of the global economy, isn't it better to spread things out? Presently, a billion dollars can be raised through 3 or 4 companies. Wouldn't the overall market benefit from 1 million people putting up $1,000 apiece? Then, if there is a 20x, 50x, or 100x, the payouts are affecting large groups of people.
Of course, this cannot take place unless those one million people are "accredited investors".
Do we realize now how the laws are structured, not to protect us but, rather, to protect the big money players?
In the drafts for professional sports, the players taken early tend to be the best players, at least at the time of being selected. Of course, this is not a science and there are many instances where the top draft picks fail. However the present system we have is akin to the best teams selecting earlier in the draft and the others selecting afterwards, taking what is left over.
Source
Cryptocurrency has the opportunity to change this. In fact, cryptocurrency has to change this if we want to see financial freedom spread throughout the world. We need to use this technology to change the system in such a way that will collapse the Venture Capital market. Instead of projects going to major firms for funding, it turns to the public markets, via tokenization, for this.
Here we see an opportunity for everyone. We then would have a system whereby anyone could participate. Some might only put up a few dollars while others get involved with large sums. It will be up to each individual to judge the amount of risk one wants to take.
Of course, this is best done with people who take the time to financially educate themselves. The fact that most people lack the basic understanding that goes along with this is a serious problem. Fortunately, the Internet changes all of that.
There is now a wealth of educational material available for free online that enables anyone to learn about investing, money management, and wealth building. This will enable them to enter this arena in a sound manner.
We are now seeing a lot of Venture Capital money flow into cryptocurrency. It is not buying up tokens but funding the development of applications that could become mainstream in a number of years. Here we see another problem. Just like with Bitcoin, we are seeing the hijacking of the entire industry. While the blockchains might be public and open to all, the applications which will be a big part of the wealth building going forward are still structured (and funded) in the same manner as everything else.
Who do you think is going to reap the bulk of the rewards?
On a number of occasions I wrote how we need to start funding ourselves. Cryptocurrency has the opportunity to generate a circular economy where a self funded system that generates profits keeps reinvesting them into other projects that grow the system.
Ironically, this is exactly what VC firms do.
In the end, cryptocurrency has the opportunity to completely restructure the funding world and destroy how the VCs do business. This does not mean they will disappear, simply that they will have to adapt.
If we can develop a more inclusive system, then the wealth inequality will start to diminish as others enjoy some of the rewards earlier.
We are seeing companies going public much later now. This means that the VCs are taking even more of the early profits. It will only continue down this path unless we step in and change things.
This is how Venture Capitalism is making the wealthy even wealthier.
If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and rehive.
gif by @doze
logo by @st8z
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
The great part is that we already had Venture Capital funding beat with ICOs during last bull market which had very young ecosystem in the cryptosphere. We have already made the first steps into a better future.
One of the largest legal barriers is banning certain investments for anyone who is not an "Accredited Investor"
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accreditedinvestor.asp
Some projects like Hashgraph were not within the reach of investors like me due to the legal environment these laws that were allegedly created to "protect investors".
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Last time we might have had them beat and look at what the SEC did among other regulatory agencies. It went after all those companies that held ICOs for dealing in unregistered securities.
This is why decentralization is so important. Put it outside the reach of the regulators.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Decentralized version of ICOs and IEOs have been around for years. People simply didn't pick up on them. https://komodoplatform.com is one of the greatest cryptocurrency projects ever working on both privacy and decentralization.
It would be great if you can give a shoutout to the project in one of your articles. Below are some information to get you started. We need people to adopt these technologies. The innovation part is mostly done.
https://docs.komodoplatform.com/whitepaper/chapter4.html#the-challenges-in-current-ico-platforms
https://developers.komodoplatform.com/basic-docs/start-here/core-technology-discussions/initial-dex-offering.html
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Education is quite an important part and must be done before putting in money. VCs are getting wealthier because they are taking and as you said that they are not always in profit and they bear losses as well. Maybe the case that the percentage of loss is quite lower than the profit.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
The loss is often complete.
Just when they are right, they really profit. It is a numbers game. How many losses can one absorb if there was a 50x on Coinbase?
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Its indeed a number game and cases like Coinbase makes a huge impact.. I got it. thanks.
For our protection-like hell lol. I looked at StoreDot recently hoping to get some shares at some point as the battery industry will explode with what they are doing. The likes of you and me have no chance and by the time shares hit the market the 1000x gains have already gone.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Yep. That is how it works. There is no way to get in the early days unless you are an accredited investor and even then it is slim pickings. The VC firms have so much money locked up that they get to pick from the best projects.
Crypto needs to change that and it starts with our mindset.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
For our protection for our freedom collectively as a people, I’m all up for everything but Venture Capitalism, they haven’t really done much for me. Did you invest in $COIN?
No I did not. I dont mess with IPOs. Sometimes they run on you but most often they drop back.
They are bad returns because of the fact that the early stages already had the money taken out by the VCs. They are inflated beyond belief. Then the hype train can get going.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Hmm very interesting thanks for the insight
This is a process and won't happen overnight. They may dominate for some time but I'm sure not forever. People are accumulating wealth every day, just as we do here. That is also a process and takes time. Patience and knowledge :) and it will happen, one day they will not have so much power.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Well the problem is the laws that favor them. So without this changing, it is going to be difficult.
Hence we need to see it operating in a decentralized way where the SEC really has nobody to go after or see it take place in countries that allow it and have it spread from there.
Either option is not very easy. But the more the bags are filling up in crypto, each day the playing field tilts a bit more.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Excellent assessment of the problems associated with the notion that we need government to protect us from our own decision-making.
Same has been the situation with the pandemic, which my friend @johntamny addressed when he spoke to our students a few weeks ago. Links to an overview and an archive of his talk are available here.
The way you put it looks like VCs are perfectly aware of the two sides of the sword. I see such risk management quite similar to investing in low cap coins. High risk high reward.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
They understand the situation very well. They tend to have a breakdown where they know they are going to lose all their money on half the deals. On 3 out of 10 they might break even and one or two make a profit.
It is the one of the two that they are seeking to cover the rest. They money in a Coinbase makes up for a lot.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Its hard to get into the door to be a venture capitalist. I think you need a ton of money and then you need the connections to know the business owners. In the youtube video I saw, I think he was a millionaire and he bought a part of one of those online banks. Basically he put down a decent chunk of money and he was hoping for it to succeed. So a high risk high reward opportunity but the problem is its not very inclusive. The normal person can't get in without enough money or connections.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
It is great but I also need some help with Hive power boss..could you delegate some for me.
I just delegated some to you.
Try to leave more comments that are more than just "Wow. Great article" or stuff like that.
Comments are to stimulate engagement. This is something that most do not do. Give content creators something to respond to.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Okay, thanks for your advice.. Really appreciated with the delegation. I will leave more impressive comments and thoughtful ones..have a great day
Good job. I want to see all succeed.
And comments are a great way to do it, if they are thought out and applicable to the topic.
That is how you start to stand out and get a bit of a following.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Congratulations @taskmaster4450! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP
To support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
And this is only getting worse with AI and robotics. People are being pushed out of the equation.
I dont think it is debatable that some of what have come out of venture funding has done a lot of good for society. I agree with you that there is only one focus of corporations is profit and that is a problem. However, many of the things we have now were funded by VCs. In fact, their hand is all over the tech wave of the last 30 years.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta