From Bitcoin Pioneer to AI Revolution: DCG Founder Barry's Crypto Assets Empire and Bittensor Vision

Barry Silbert, the founder and CEO of DCG, is undoubtedly one of the pioneers in the crypto assets and blockchain industry. In a recent podcast interview, Barry shared his journey from an early Bitcoin investor to building DCG and its subsidiaries, experiencing the market's bull and bear cycles, including the crypto assets crash of 2022. Now, Barry is setting his sights on the next major bet - Bittensor. He elaborated on his role as the founder and CEO of Yuma, and how Bittensor could potentially become a more transformative decentralized intelligent network layer than Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Enlightenment Journey

Barry was originally an investment banker before founding Second Market, a private equity and illiquid asset trading platform. In 2011, he was first introduced to Bitcoin through an article. After six months of research, Barry realized that Bitcoin could have a profound impact on the world and decided to get involved.

He purchased a large amount of Bitcoin at a price of $7-8 and began investing in early Bitcoin infrastructure companies like Coinbase, Chainalysis, and Ripple. Interestingly, if Barry had just held onto those Bitcoins instead of investing in these companies, he might have achieved better returns.

The Birth of Grayscale and DCG

Barry realized that something significant needed to be done in the Bitcoin space. He decided to create a Bitcoin version similar to the SPDR Gold ETF. Since the SEC would not allow a Bitcoin ETF at the time, they launched it as a private instrument and then publicly traded it on the OTC QX market, which became the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

Subsequently, Barry sold Second Market to Nasdaq and fully invested in Bitcoin. The Bitcoin products became Grayscale, the trading business became Genesis, and the investment portfolio became DCG.

Grayscale currently manages approximately $30 billion in assets, with over 30 different products. Barry sees Grayscale as the next pioneer group, leading the way in crypto asset investment.

DCG's investment strategy is to identify protocols and tokens with the potential to change the world, and then provide investment, build, purchase, educate, and create access opportunities for these ecosystems. As a private company, DCG has the advantage of permanent capital and time, which allows it to make long-term investment decisions.

2022 Crypto Assets crash

The cryptocurrency crash of 2022 was triggered by the asset bubble following the global economy's shock from COVID. The decoupling incident of Terra Luna sparked a series of chain reactions, and the subsequent collapse of Three Arrows Capital (3AC) became the tipping point. As the largest lender and major broker in the field, Genesis was severely affected. The occurrence of the FTX incident further intensified the market's distrust, ultimately forcing Genesis to shut down operations and enter bankruptcy proceedings.

Barry is under tremendous pressure during this crisis, not only dealing with the business crisis but also taking care of his daughter who has cancer. Fortunately, his daughter has now recovered, and DCG is also thriving.

AI and the Cross-Innovation of Encryption: Bittensor

Barry has developed a strong interest in the intersection of AI and blockchain. He believes that Bittensor is the next important topic in the encryption field, similar to significant milestones like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and NFTs.

Bittensor is a decentralized intelligent network aimed at creating a global permissionless platform that incentivizes global intelligence to solve various problems through crypto assets. It is described as the intelligent World Wide Web in the information Internet.

The Bittensor project has attracted widespread attention with its unique fair launch mechanism and mission-driven community. It employs the same token economics as Bitcoin, with a maximum supply of 21 million tokens and a halving mechanism.

The Bittensor platform has currently launched 88 subnets, each with its own token, traded through TAO. This structure promotes collaborative development across the entire ecosystem.

Future Prospects of Bittensor

Barry believes that Bittensor could become a better global value storage method than Bitcoin. It allocates funds to incentivize a global problem-solving network, encouraging people to find solutions to major world issues.

Bittensor is exploring intelligent decentralized applications. Currently, some subnets are directly related to AI, involving reasoning, training, or fine-tuning. These subnets encourage competition through incentive mechanisms, providing incentives for decentralized working teams.

The Yuma plan is to launch product solutions this year that will enable people to directly access subnets, further promoting the development of the Bittensor ecosystem.