Topic: How hard would it be to pitch a bitcoin investment on "Shark Tank"/"Dragons Den" (Read 4462 times)

Exactly! Bit-pay, bit bills, bitcard...

You couldn't just stroll in there and say buy bitcoins! Something to both promote BTC and ease its use for the masses would be ideal. Yes, you'd have to promote the wonderful uses/potential of BTC to pitch the venture (you'd also have to be prepared to counter the stupid argument that it's only been used so far to pay for porn and drugs - which shouldn't be too difficult as all currencies share this negative aspect).

And going in there asking them to sink $1m into mining BTC could, as I mentioned above, eventually lead to monopoly or cartels i.e. centralization!

That's a valid point. You could sell them on a particular merchant client such as bit-pay. It could be the next Mastercard and the pitch would still promote bitcoin.  What we really, really don't need are more miners- particularly ones looking to sell coins for dollars rather than to spend them.

Devil's advocate. They'll ask this if the question as to the ownership of the "idea" that is being pitched to them comes up.

It would be very easy to go into the Den and come off as boiler room salesmen, except selling currency instead of penny shares. Why bitcoin, why not FRN? That could use some help right now as the US govt is having to buy as other nations withdraw from taking more on.

And is the popularity of BTC to be gained by promoting it as an investment or as a usable currency? If it's as a usable currency, then these shows are not such a good idea.

You're making this way too complicated. You get a share in the twenty on million bitcoins every time you buy one. You get a 1/21,000,000th of the total BTC economy.  You need nobody's authority. You just need a seller.

Yes, this would do it.

I've never watched Shart Tank, but I assume it operates in a similar way to Dragon's Den.

The question then is, what would you be giving them in return for their £1,000,000 investment?

They're generally looking for a share in a business/venture (hopefully one they think can make lots of money). Remember, they haggle over how much of a stake in a business they want in exchange for their investment. Sure, a guy offered them a share in his poker winnings once, but are you going to give them a share of 21 million bitcoins? How, and by whose authority?

It couldn't really be an investment in bitcoin per se (as in buy $1m worth of bitcoin as an investment!), it would have to be in a bitcoin related venture.

For a venture like an ASIC mining project, on the other hand... I guess a $1m investment would make the difficulty increase 100-fold overnight, making it unprofitable for even the biggest miners currently in operation, and then they'd have a monopoly on mining... unless another millionnaire stepped in and set up his or her own operation... and soon they'd be taking the open source code and developing a new currency, using their already existing business establishments and resources to promote this new inflationary virtual currency, and then... Why don't we just ask the Rothschilds and Rockefellers to invest in the mining of bitcoins - they've already got centuries of experience in creating and promoting fiat currencies behind them. Hey, they even managed to sucker in national governments!

+1

True I have seen Shark Tank. I'm a fan of it, I plan on buying some beef jerky I saw on it!

The Dragons Den is supposed to be for businesses but there was once a man that offered a share in his poker profits, so it's not always as you'd expect on there. 

The show is for "businesses" not bitcoin but good idea. I think the lady and the guy on the right would go for it. Everyone else is a dick on that show.

But.. Patents are evil!

Edit: Specifically, they allow you to prohibit competitors from using the same technique. Not good for a decentralized currency. Also, Artfonz may have prior-art.

get gavin here now!

An ASIC would be a "patentable" idea I believe.

Well someone could go there and talk about coding a bitcoinwallet with pro security etc, would give some good publicity.

A TED talk would also be great.

I don't think this is a great idea. I read the terms and conditions for entry: they are allowed to reject your idea/concept and promptly introduce a similar product or service. Now, understanding that nobody really "owns" ideas, this may not be a problem for a bitcoin-related pitch.

The problem is that the dragons want exclusive deals. They will ask if it is patented. They will ask if the presenters themselves have any sales. Of course, presenters looking for ASIC funding won't have sales (unless they sell FPGAs using the same circuitry first). For the proposed "EasyCoin" Payment processor, they will balk at releasing the source code to allow competition. They likely won't understand that the success of the project hinges on being open and accountable to the public.

Meh. You might have something w/ the software guy, but it would all be lost on the others. The exposure would do BTC some good however.

How does one go about applying to be on the show?

Heck, even go on as a bitcoin mining company.  You still have a 600% ROI/yr at this point with mining.  Of course, it's not guaranteed, but it'd make for an interesting pitch to the sharks.

Totally taking it off topic but I agree!

Ok back to our regularly scheduled program people... what do you think about a possible Shark Tank / Dragon's Den sales pitch of some sort?

I was just thinking... both the Shark Tank and Dragon's Den are both relatively unpopular shows.

They have viewers, but a very select type.

They might enjoy the exchange of viewerships so to speak...

They could introduce a few thousand people to Bitcoin, and our community could introduce a few thousand to theirs. Unless every bitcoiner on here already watches one of the shows that is.

What we need is a TED presentation.

they are 99 percent only interested in tangible items.. I doubt it.. the exposure would be great though..