Andreessen Horowitz's Recent $1.5B Round Could Be Big for Bitcoin

Just recently Andreessen Horowitz has raised a whopping 1.5 billion dollars to invest in the next big technological breakthroughs. This injection of capital into Andreessen Horowitz could mean big things for Bitcoin-related and distributed ledger technology startups and projects.

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Andreessen Horowitz Loves Bitcoin

Andreessen Horowitz is one of the biggest venture capital firms dedicated to technology and innovation. The company formed in 2009 was founded by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz the former CEO of Opsware.

The venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has just made headlines for its recent Fund V round, which raised $1.5 billion USD similar to its past couple of funding rounds. This could very well be a blessing for Bitcoin and blockchain startups as Marc Andreessen is a huge fan of this emerging technology.

Back in 2014 Andreessen wrote a blog post in the New York Times called “Why Bitcoin Matters” citing the many attributes of these up and coming technological advancements. At the time the post was written, Andreessen Horowitz had already invested $50 million into Bitcoin-related startups within the industry. Andreessen explained the reasons why Bitcoin mattered and how the protocol would revolutionize the world, stating:

Bitcoin at its most fundamental level is a breakthrough in computer science – one that builds on 20 years of research into cryptographic currency, and 40 years of research in cryptography, by thousands of researchers around the world.— Bitcoin is a classic network effect, a positive feedback loop. The more people who use Bitcoin, the more valuable Bitcoin is for everyone who uses it, and the higher the incentive for the next user to start using the technology. Bitcoin shares this network effect property with the telephone system, the web, and popular Internet services like eBay and Facebook.

Since this blog post, Andreessen Horowitz has continued to put money into the pockets of emerging Bitcoin and blockchain startups helping them get off their feet and create breakthrough software and hardware innovations.

Andreessen Horowitz operates differently than most VC firms by having partners concentrate on behalf of its portfolio companies, which is very similar to the Creative Artists Agency structure. The firm has a vast portfolio of well-established companies like Lyft and Airbnb. As well as these well-known businesses Andreessen Horowitz has a vast amount of Bitcoin and blockchain related startups under its wings. Investments in the cryptocurrency and distributed ledger space by the venture capital firm include Coinbase, Mediachain, 21 Inc., GitHub, OpenBazaar, Cyphercloud, Tradeblock, Ripple Labs, and many more financial technology-focused startups.

Bitcoin for IoT

Andreessen is also a believer in the Internet of Things (IoT) technology and Bitcoin innovation could be a reliable vehicle for this coming evolution. This is probably why the firm is heavily invested in companies like 21 inc or Samsara.

In a recent discussion with the TelegraphUK, Andreessen confirmed his visions of the IoT revolution stating, “The end state is fairly obvious – every light, every doorknob will be connected to the internet. Just like with the web itself, there will be thousands of use cases.”

Protocols like Bitcoin and Ethereum are currently showing the world a vast array of IoT use cases such as smart contracts, decentralized autonomous organizations, microtransactions, online content monetization, tamper-proof voting protocols and more. It’s also safe to assume that blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies will be a significant influence on these innovations as they are already being experimented with for this very reason. Andreessen in his NYT post details the innovations Bitcoin micropayments offer the world saying:

Think about content monetization, for example. One reason media businesses such as newspapers struggle to charge for content is because they need to charge either all (pay the entire subscription fee for all the content) or nothing (which then results in all those terrible banner ads everywhere on the web). All of a sudden, with Bitcoin, there is an economically viable way to charge arbitrarily small amounts of money per article, or per section, or per hour, or per video play, or per archive access, or per news alert.

The recent funding of $1.5 billion dollars and the company’s previous rounds are a pretty big deal to the cryptocurrency world as most likely Andreessen Horowitz will bolster more of these types of startups within its vast portfolio. The firm’s thesis of “software is eating the world” shows that through technological breakthroughs like Bitcoin, legacy institutions and startups can change the whole paradigm of business solutions on the internet and in the real world.

Bitcoin and blockchain technology will be in the thick of all the innovative changes happening globally. Smart investors like Andreessen Horowitz are very aware of the positive influences cryptocurrencies and blockchains will offer this world.

What do you think about Andreessen Horowitz raising $1.5 billion? Will this benefit the Bitcoin economy? Lets us know in the comments below.

Images via Pixabay, and Andreessen Horowitz