shit, i hadn't realized andreeson invested! that is nutty
Venture Investors Pour in Millions
a $5 million investment in San Francisco-based Coinbase led by Twitter Inc. investor Union Square Ventures.
$2 million put into OpenCoin Inc., another virtual currency startup whose backers include venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Jeremy Liew, a partner with Lightspeed Venture Partners, which has invested in three virtual currency startups including OpenCoin, said he's "incredibly bullish" because it allows for cost-free micro-transactions—such as buying a single candy bar—that would be too small for other electronic payments.
"The appeal of zero transaction costs is really strong and extremely disruptive for a massive industry, the payments industry," he said.
Chi-Hua Chien, a general partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers who found the Facebook FB +0.78% investment while previously working at Accel Partners, said his firm is actively exploring investments related to Bitcoin and has already looked at more than two dozen such companies.
Mr. Chien estimates almost 100 companies are operating in the Bitcoin domain, including exchanges, payment processors and Bitcoin ATM machine operators. "It is completely crazy that money is not borderless," he said. "This is super-logical."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...375269952.html