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Chinese Billionaire Building $300M Cryptocurrency Hub in Hartford, CT

86 points by Dowwie 8y ago

ianwalter 8y ago
Things are looking up for New England's rising star!
- DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
  Not sure crypto-based business will be a real, lasting gain for the region.
  - Alex3917 8y ago
    Of course it will. Hartford is the insurance capital of the world, and insurance is one of the biggest use cases for blockchain. Think of how many startups are going to get funded and then bought out by those companies and completely transform them.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- Arubis 8y ago
  Do they actually still call it that? I recall thinking that was a terrible slogan 20+ years ago. At some point, it's not that the star you see is rising--it's a distant headlight on high beams to make up for the other one being busted.
  - ianwalter 8y ago
    I don’t know really. My wife, who is from the region, is the only person I’ve heard call it that now that I think about it. I find it amusing though so now I do too.
- sgspace 8y ago
  Haha who calls it this beyond politicians unfamiliar with Hartford’s history?
arcticbull 8y ago
Make it $250M.... $200M... $700M... $3M... GONE :P With the crypto market cap down 70% since January (and general interest with it) they better hurry. Even entrenched players in the crypto space are moving into traditional assets. Makes me wonder if they're not just trying to move money out of the mainland.
- pfisch 8y ago
  I don’t see why that bubble was different than the previous crypto bubbles.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- dclusin 8y ago
  Would love to hear you elaborate on your statement about established crypto players are moving into traditional assets. Do you mean crypto exchanges allowing customers to trade equities? I haven't been following these developments closely. I'm interested in what you're referring to.
  - dgacmu 8y ago
    One example is Bitmain (largest bitcoin asic manufacturer) trying to move into making chips for machine learning.
    - arcticbull 8y ago
      That’s one I was thinking of the other was a charting service that has started displaying traditional data, I can’t remember the name for the life of me rn
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  Money. Laundering. Bitcoin lets one convert power bills paid with renminbi into cryptos sellable for hard currency. Switching up the crypto makes it look less suspicious.
kentosi 8y ago
If anyone else is having troubles accessing this link here's an alternative one: https://www.businessinsider.sg/fintech-college-being-built-2018-7/ https://www.businessinsider.sg/fintech-college-being-built-2...
zaroth 8y ago
For those reading headlines, at first I thought this was a $300 million mining operation, and was wondering how Hartford CT was a competitive power supply. Actually this idea is crypto-focused college campus, research park, and coworking spaces.
mark_l_watson 8y ago
Great! I love to see new research centers, especially in the US. My company has my office in the university research park at UIUC (Urbana/Champaign Illinois). A great environment for innovation, supporting startups and entrepreneurs, etc. I have been an working in AI since the 1980s and I am just becoming interested in blockchain (I can recommend the edX blockchain classes). Hartford is an interesting location to choose. I think cost of living is reasonable there and it is only 1+ hours from Boston and not so far from NYC.

86 points by Dowwie 8y ago

ianwalter 8y ago

Things are looking up for New England's rising star!

DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
Not sure crypto-based business will be a real, lasting gain for the region.
- Alex3917 8y ago
  Of course it will. Hartford is the insurance capital of the world, and insurance is one of the biggest use cases for blockchain. Think of how many startups are going to get funded and then bought out by those companies and completely transform them.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
Arubis 8y ago
Do they actually still call it that? I recall thinking that was a terrible slogan 20+ years ago. At some point, it's not that the star you see is rising--it's a distant headlight on high beams to make up for the other one being busted.
- ianwalter 8y ago
  I don’t know really. My wife, who is from the region, is the only person I’ve heard call it that now that I think about it. I find it amusing though so now I do too.
sgspace 8y ago
Haha who calls it this beyond politicians unfamiliar with Hartford’s history?

arcticbull 8y ago

Make it $250M.... $200M... $700M... $3M... GONE :P With the crypto market cap down 70% since January (and general interest with it) they better hurry. Even entrenched players in the crypto space are moving into traditional assets. Makes me wonder if they're not just trying to move money out of the mainland.

pfisch 8y ago
I don’t see why that bubble was different than the previous crypto bubbles.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
dclusin 8y ago
Would love to hear you elaborate on your statement about established crypto players are moving into traditional assets. Do you mean crypto exchanges allowing customers to trade equities? I haven't been following these developments closely. I'm interested in what you're referring to.
- dgacmu 8y ago
  One example is Bitmain (largest bitcoin asic manufacturer) trying to move into making chips for machine learning.
  - arcticbull 8y ago
    That’s one I was thinking of the other was a charting service that has started displaying traditional data, I can’t remember the name for the life of me rn
JumpCrisscross 8y ago
Money. Laundering. Bitcoin lets one convert power bills paid with renminbi into cryptos sellable for hard currency. Switching up the crypto makes it look less suspicious.

kentosi 8y ago

If anyone else is having troubles accessing this link here's an alternative one: https://www.businessinsider.sg/fintech-college-being-built-2018-7/ https://www.businessinsider.sg/fintech-college-being-built-2...

zaroth 8y ago

For those reading headlines, at first I thought this was a $300 million mining operation, and was wondering how Hartford CT was a competitive power supply. Actually this idea is crypto-focused college campus, research park, and coworking spaces.

mark_l_watson 8y ago

Great! I love to see new research centers, especially in the US. My company has my office in the university research park at UIUC (Urbana/Champaign Illinois). A great environment for innovation, supporting startups and entrepreneurs, etc. I have been an working in AI since the 1980s and I am just becoming interested in blockchain (I can recommend the edX blockchain classes). Hartford is an interesting location to choose. I think cost of living is reasonable there and it is only 1+ hours from Boston and not so far from NYC.