Support the show, consider donating: 37GWXKviy7rGpJnBCnb9s7pLUrtTQ16Fr4 (http://bit.ly/1EMsTG0)

Peter Thiel argued in his book 'Zero to One' that the way to build a great and highly profitable company is to build a monopoly. But with decentralized technologies, there is a real question whether these monopolies can be built or whether the monopolies will end up being publicly owned goods (like Bitcoin) that can't be monetized directly.

William Mougayar, who is an experienced tech executive and angel investor, has been writing extensively about these issues and was one of the investors in OB1, the venture-backed company launched by the founders of the decentralized market place Open Bazaar. He joined us for a discussion of the cryptocurrency space, Ethereum, Open Bazaar and monetizing decentralized technologies.

Topics covered included:

- Bitcoin as the new, thin cloud

- His long-term predictions about where the space is going

- What kind of business models are the most promising

- Why he chose to invest in OB1, the company behind Open Bazaar

- What the state of Venture Capital in the cryptocurrency space is

Links mentioned in this episode:

- Predictions in Cryptography, Blockchains and Consensus Protocols http://bit.ly/1giM8gJ

- The Old Cloud is Dead, Welcome the New Cloud http://bit.ly/1H3AZGk

- The Business Imperative Behind the Ethereum Vision http://bit.ly/1JPRgms

- An Operational Framework for DAOs http://bit.ly/1NKQKr4

- Union Square Ventures: Introducing OB1 http://bit.ly/1S1YCFe

- Peter Thiel: Competition is for Losers http://on.wsj.com/1NKRbS8

Sponsors:

- Shapeshift: Buy and sell alt coins instantly at http://ShapeShift.io

- Vaultoro: Trade gold to Bitcoin instantly and securely starting at just 1mg at http://vaultoro.com

Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/086

YouTube: https://youtu.be/ROQDaagEDi8

Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sébastien Couture.

- Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com

- Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter

- Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc