5 ms·

21

25 points by mwilcox 12y ago

woah 12y ago
What does 21 do?
- pault 12y ago
  It's been speculated that they are developing a consumer-oriented hardware bitcoin wallet/node.
  - woah 12y ago
    This would indeed be very lucrative, as it is the missing component for adoption, IMO. I wonder why it's taken them 3 years though.
    - Mahn 12y ago
      There's been Trezor for some time now: https://www.bitcointrezor.com/ https://www.bitcointrezor.com/ Projects like these are great, but they won't drive adoption per se.
    - pault 12y ago
      Hardware is hard; crypto is hard. Most people seem to think the Trezor's usability leaves a lot to be desired.
- bgilroy26 12y ago
  I didn't know either. It looks like they're a company who want to 'take bitcoin mainstream' http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/10/secretive-bitcoin-startup-21-reveals-record-funds-hints-at-mass-consumer-play/?mg=id-wsj http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/10/secretive-bitcoin-sta...
- Mahn 12y ago
  According to CrunchBase [1]: > 21 Inc is a Bitcoin mining pool. It is working on specially designed chips that will drive new equipment specifically aimed at doing this more efficiently Though I guess that description is outdated now. Go figure. Perhaps they are randomly pivoting bitcoin stuff until something sticks? [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/21e6 https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/21e6
thesausageking 12y ago
His dual roles brings up up an interesting question: If you're founder of a Bitcoin startup that's doing well and has its pick of investors, do you pitch a16z, knowing that the founder of what could be your largest competitor is a partner there ?
- nostrademons 12y ago
  I thought that a16z doesn't invest in multiple companies that are competitors. The reason they gave for not investing in companies that were likely to pivot was the Burbn => Instagram pivot, which put one of their investments (Instagram) into competition with another (PicPlz) [1]. This makes me really wonder what's up with 21, though, because a16z has already funded a major Bitcoin startup (Coinbase [2]), and did so after Balaji claims to have founded Instagram. Does that mean that 21 has no intention to become a Bitcoin payment processor or exchange? [1] http://www.bhorowitz.com/instagram http://www.bhorowitz.com/instagram [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinbase http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinbase
Mithaldu 12y ago
> We just took the wraps off 21 Yet when going to that website it has literally no description of itself and demands your email address. I can see this going two ways: 1. He's honest and 21 is just another way of harvesting email addresses. 2. He's dishonest and hasn't taken the wraps off anything.

25 points by mwilcox 12y ago

woah 12y ago

What does 21 do?

pault 12y ago
It's been speculated that they are developing a consumer-oriented hardware bitcoin wallet/node.
- woah 12y ago
  This would indeed be very lucrative, as it is the missing component for adoption, IMO. I wonder why it's taken them 3 years though.
  - Mahn 12y ago
    There's been Trezor for some time now: https://www.bitcointrezor.com/ https://www.bitcointrezor.com/ Projects like these are great, but they won't drive adoption per se.
  - pault 12y ago
    Hardware is hard; crypto is hard. Most people seem to think the Trezor's usability leaves a lot to be desired.
bgilroy26 12y ago
I didn't know either. It looks like they're a company who want to 'take bitcoin mainstream' http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/10/secretive-bitcoin-startup-21-reveals-record-funds-hints-at-mass-consumer-play/?mg=id-wsj http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/10/secretive-bitcoin-sta...
Mahn 12y ago
According to CrunchBase [1]: > 21 Inc is a Bitcoin mining pool. It is working on specially designed chips that will drive new equipment specifically aimed at doing this more efficiently Though I guess that description is outdated now. Go figure. Perhaps they are randomly pivoting bitcoin stuff until something sticks? [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/21e6 https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/21e6

His dual roles brings up up an interesting question: If you're founder of a Bitcoin startup that's doing well and has its pick of investors, do you pitch a16z, knowing that the founder of what could be your largest competitor is a partner there ?

nostrademons 12y ago
I thought that a16z doesn't invest in multiple companies that are competitors. The reason they gave for not investing in companies that were likely to pivot was the Burbn => Instagram pivot, which put one of their investments (Instagram) into competition with another (PicPlz) [1]. This makes me really wonder what's up with 21, though, because a16z has already funded a major Bitcoin startup (Coinbase [2]), and did so after Balaji claims to have founded Instagram. Does that mean that 21 has no intention to become a Bitcoin payment processor or exchange? [1] http://www.bhorowitz.com/instagram http://www.bhorowitz.com/instagram [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinbase http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinbase

Mithaldu 12y ago

> We just took the wraps off 21 Yet when going to that website it has literally no description of itself and demands your email address. I can see this going two ways: 1. He's honest and 21 is just another way of harvesting email addresses. 2. He's dishonest and hasn't taken the wraps off anything.