Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the identical twins who alleged Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their concept for Facebook, are now the world’s first Bitcoin billionaires.
The duo, who sued Zuckerberg over Facebook in 2009, received a settlement of US$65 million (A$85.5 million) and employed a fraction of that money (A$14 million) to invest in Bitcoin in 2013.
The Winklevoss brothers reportedly purchased 1 percent of all Bitcoin that was in flow at the time.
Since then, the digital currency has tripled in value by 10,000 percent, making the 36-year-old brothers billionaires.
The twin-duo described the cryptocurrency as better than gold. When compared to gold, Bitcoin shares all the same nine foundational qualities, including scarcity, durability and portability, and it matches or beats gold on all of these traits.
We see Bitcoin as potentially the greatest social network of all.
-said Tyler in 2016.
According to the Financial Times:
The brothers viewed Bitcoin as a missing piece of the digital economy that would change the way transactions are made.
The pair first learned of Bitcoin while on holiday in Ibiza in 2012, and in 2015 they launched a digital currency marketplace, known as Gemini, that allows investors to buy, sell and store Bitcoins.
We wanted to build an exchange that was similar to Nasdaq or NYSE for the digital currency.
-Tyler Winklevoss said at the time.
We wanted something that both Wall Street and Main Street felt comfortable with.
Despite a few obstacles over the years and ongoing consideration from financial experts, Bitcoin recently broke the US$10,000 (A$13,150) checkpoint.
I remember when people said Facebook was a fashion.
-Tyler told the Financial Times.
We saw this movie play out already with Facebook. We feel like we’re in the same movie again, just with a different cast of characters.
And yes, we can seldom deny that as the Winklevoss forsee the future of something like Mark had at the time of Facebook. Now given that they are extremely rich now, all we can say is- Karma has played its role yet again!
