JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been publicly dismissive of bitcoin, calling it a "fraud" that will not survive. "It's just not a real thing, eventually it will be closed," Dimon said at the Delivering Alpha conference in September presented by CNBC and Institutional Investor. "It won't end well. Someone is going to get killed."

But Bart Stephens, co-founder and managing partner of San Francisco-based venture capital firm Blockchain Capital, recently slammed Dimon's remarks as hypocritical and ignorant. "While Jamie Dimon was making those comments, I was an invited speaker at JP Morgan's offices in San Francisco to give a talk with other fund managers and clients of JP Morgan who are really curious about cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology," says Stephens, speaking with Fortune's Term Sheet newsletter. "So there's a lot of hypocrisy going on with Jamie Dimon," he says. JPMorgan declined to comment.

Also, Stephens says that Dimon's comments discounting the significance of bitcoin were reflective of his lack of understanding of the technology's potential. "The blockchain and cryptocurrencies have elicited an emotional response from financial incumbents. The technology is controversial and misunderstood, but that doesn't make it any less real," he says to Term Sheet. "I would encourage Jamie Dimon and others to do some homework first. It is not a fraud. It is not a Ponzi scheme. It's a robust technology that is going to impact multiple industries," Stephens says. "Don't discount it." Stephens says the wave is coming. "For too long, Silicon Valley has ignored the tsunami," he says. "Many of my friends who are at generalist VC firms dismiss this stuff out of hand because they're not spending the time to do the homework." Of course, it is in Stephens' interest to publicly promote the potential of bitcoin technology. He is an investor in it. Blockchain Capital has a whole portfolio of blockchain-enabled companies, including Coinbase, Ripple and Abra.

I would encourage Jamie Dimon and others to do some homework first. It is not a fraud. It is not a Ponzi scheme. Bart Stephens co-founder of Blockchain Capital