On Tuesday, Bloomberg published an interview with legendary venture capitalist Marc Andreessen in which Andreessen talked about Bitcoin and the financial industry.
Andreessen told Bloomberg that if you started the financial industry today you'd build none of these institutions in the same way, adding that, "To me, it's all about unbundling the banks... Bank regulation tends to backfire, and of late that means consumer lending is getting unbundled."
You can read the whole interview with Andreessen here.
But on Tuesday afternoon, Andreesseen took to Twitter to add a few more thoughts, firing off 13 straight tweets in one of his internet-famous Tweetstorms.
We've collected the whole thing below:
1/Bloomberg Markets was nice enough to publish an interview with me, mostly on finance and banking topics, this week: http://t.co/ZaQPIhqehY
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 20142/Since the interview is correct but abridged, and took place in early April and is just coming out now, I offer a few additional thoughts:
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 20143/Unbundling banks: I think banks are getting unbundled with or without Silicon Valley or Bitcoin--due to market changes + regulation.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 20144/Any big bank executive will tell you: Over time, ratio between what non-banks can offer vs what banks can offer is steadily increasing.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 20145/Post-crisis reforms like Dodd Frank are accelerating the unbundling, whether that's what regulators intended or not.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 20146/But Dodd Frank is double-edged sword: Also makes it harder for new entrants to the core banking system. Banks both protected & restricted.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 20147/Bitcoin and regulation: Since interview in early April to now, there's been substantial movement by many regulators on Bitcoin.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 20148/Plenty of current discussions and disputes between market participants and regulators, but overall I think a lot of progress is happening.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 20149/Finally, much like the Internet 20 years ago, Bitcoin as a technology can and will be adopted by both incumbents & new market entrants.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 201410/We are seeing a rapidly escalating level of engagement and interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency by large financial services companies.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 201411/The opportunity is clear and present for both big companies and startups to use new technology to improve financial services broadly.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 201412/Finally (again :-): Since the interview, the other huge earthquake to hit financial services industry is the launch of Apple Pay.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 201413/Between Apple Pay & Bitcoin, I predict more changes coming in financial services & banking in the next 3 years than in the last 20 years.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 2014