a platform for selling illegal drugs where bitcoin is the
currency of choice.
But by late 2017 investors were, at last, starting to
take the cryptocurrency seriously, sending the price of
a bitcoin surging past US$10,000. That made the twins’
combined initial investment worth US$2 billion, making
them the billionaires of the title of Mezrich’s book. (It is
now trading at around US$8,000, but still.)
ADVENTURES IN
CRYPTOCURRENCY
As he chronicles their adventures in cryptocurrency,
Mezrich also finds space to update the twins’ dispute
with Zuckerberg. He reveals that one reason Zuckerberg
was initially reluctant to meet them to settle their claim
that he’d pinched their idea was “security concerns”.
He feared the twins would beat him up during mediation
in a lawyers’ office. “‘You want to handcuff us to the
watercooler?’ Cameron asked,” Mezrich writes. The
Winklevii’s lawyer responds: “That won’t be necessary.
There’s a glass conference room at the end of the hall.
Just one of you will go in for the face-to-face. The rest
of us will sit outside and watch.”
And that’s what happens. Cameron Winklevoss and
Zuckerberg exchange awkward pleasantries and forced
compliments and eventually – Cameron thinks – agree
to settle. As he leaves, Zuckerberg’s lawyer, Neel
Chatterjee, asks him how the meeting went. “Good,”
the boy wonder replies. “Good as in...?” Chatterjee
asks. “Good as in I’m going to f*** them in the ear.”
To him, US$65 million was a pittance.
It’s tempting to think that the publication of Bitcoin
Billionaires marks the end of the Zuckerberg vs the
Winklevii drama. A score draw. But there might be an
extra chapter – even another book for Mezrich.
Facebook is building a cryptocurrency that it hopes will
allow its two billion users worldwide to send money to
each other – most likely through WhatsApp, which it
owns. “I believe it should be as easy to send money to
someone as it is to send a photo,” Zuckerberg likes to
say. Facebook has discussed whether it might partner
with the Winklevoss brothers’ own digital currency
exchange, Gemini, to create the new service. Will the
old enemies become peers in a new era where money
is just bits and bytes? Or will Zuckerberg outflank the
twins once again?theceomagazine.com | 23New money | INSPIRE