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<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Trump Organization held failed talks with <keyword id="9465142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="parler">Parler</keyword> to become a part-owner, BuzzFeed News reported.</li><li>Parler offered a 40% stake in exchange for Trump making the app his go-to social media platform.</li><li>The talks could have violated anti-bribery laws, <keyword id="6364622" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ethics">ethics</keyword> experts told BuzzFeed.</li></ul>Parler and the Trump Organization, negotiating on behalf of then-President <keyword id="6354484" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Donald-Trump">Donald Trump</keyword>, held talks that would have given Trump's company a major stake in Parler in exchange for the president making it his go-to social media platform, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/trump-parler-ownership?utm_source=dynamic&amp;utm_campaign=bftwbuzzfeedpol&amp;ref=bftwbuzzfeedpolzfeedpol">BuzzFeed News</a> reported Friday.After former Trump campaign manager <keyword id="3724095" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Brad-Parscale">Brad Parscale</keyword> raised the idea to Trump last year, Parscale and Alex Cannon, a lawyer for the campaign, got together with Parler's then-CEO <keyword id="10573247" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="john-matze">John Matze</keyword> as well as investors <keyword id="10327240" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="dan-bongino">Dan Bongino</keyword> and <keyword id="10713743" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="jeffrey-wernick">Jeffrey Wernick</keyword>, according to BuzzFeed.Parler offered Trump's company a 40% stake, doled out over two years - and in exchange, it wanted to require Trump to post on Parler four hours before reposting his content on other platforms (while also always linking back to Parler), BuzzFeed reported.According to its report, the talks between Parler and the Trump Organization began last summer and were revisted after Trump lost the election to Joe Biden, but ultimately failed - and it wasn't clear how involved Trump was in the negotiations.Parler, the Trump Organization, and Trump's personal office did not respond to a request for comment.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/10-huge-hits-donald-trump-organization-business-empire-coronavirus-pandemic-2021-1?r=ts-sub">10 huge hits to Trump's business from the pandemic that may be permanent</a>Trump's sprawling business empire - and his refusal to distance himself from it while president - raised broad concerns about whether he was abusing the office to enrich himself.During the first two years of his presidency, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-earned-73-million-foreign-revenue-first-2-years-nyt-2020-9?r=ts-sub">Trump earned $73 million in foreign deals</a>. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also set up a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jared-kushner-trump-campaign-shell-company-family-ammc-lara-2020-12?r=ts-sub">shell company to secretly pay Trump family members</a> as much as $617 million.Ethics experts told BuzzFeed News that a deal with Parler would have violated anti-bribery laws because Trump would have received something of value in exchange for Parler getting a say over where Trump made his official statements.Parler quickly gained popularity among Trump supporters and far-right figures in November following the election due to its lax approach to moderating content, though Trump never made a verified account there.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-posts-capitol-riot-trump-bongino-pelosi-threats-2021-?r=ts-sub">Parler has been knocked offline for not moderating threats. Screenshots show what Capitol riot supporters posted before, during, and after the unrest.</a>But following the Capitol attacks, which rioters planned in large part on Parler, the company faced swift backlash over that approach. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-threatens-parler-ban-over-alleged-role-in-coup-attempt-2021-?r=ts-sub">Apple and Google removed the app</a> from their app stores, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-removing-parler-from-its-web-hosting-service-2021-1?r=ts-sub">Amazon cut off web-hosting services</a> to Parler, forcing the platform offline. The companies said Parler had repeatedly refused to remove violent content or adjust its moderation approach to be in line with their policies.Matze said this week that he was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-ceo-john-matze-terminated-fired-by-board-directors-2021-2?r=ts-sub">fired by Parler's board</a> and major investor Rebekah Mercer, a far-right donor that was particularly influential during Trump's 2016 campaign.

Parler offered Trump's company 40% ownership of the app to make it his go-to social media platform

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Former CEO <keyword id="10573247" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="john-matze">John Matze</keyword> sued <keyword id="9465142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="parler">Parler</keyword> Monday, accusing it of "theft" of his 40% ownership stake.</li><li>The lawsuit claimed that the company wrongly ousted him after he proposed stricter content moderation.</li><li>Board head <keyword id="4121075" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="rebekah-mercer">Rebekah Mercer</keyword> used the platform to advance her own political interests, the lawsuit said.</li></ul>Parler has been sued by its former CEO John Matze.Matze claimed in the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20521072-a-21-831556-b">lawsuit,</a>, filed Monday in Nevada, that he was wrongly ousted in January after he proposed stricter content-moderation rules for the social-media site, which is popular with the far-right.The suit also claimed that conservative megadonor Rebekah Mercer, who heads Parler's board, and other senior staff conspired to take Matze's 40% stake in the company and used the platform to advance her own political interests.Mercer, who already owned a 60% stake in the site, "sought to co-opt [Parler] as a symbol or as the 'tip of the spear' for her brand of conservatism, and plotted to force Matze out," the suit said.<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20521072-a-21-831556-b"></a>Matze is seeking "millions" in compensatory damages.<a href="https://lasvegassun.com/news/2021/mar/22/parler-co-founder-sues-over-ouster-claiming-theft/">The Las Vegas Sun</a> first reported on the news.Insider contacted Parler for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-erupted-with-talk-of-revolution-as-mobs-stormed-capitol-2021-1?r=ts-sub">Parler, which became a haven for far-right activity</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-erupted-with-talk-of-revolution-as-mobs-stormed-capitol-2021-1?r=ts-sub"></a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-erupted-with-talk-of-revolution-as-mobs-stormed-capitol-2021-1?r=ts-sub"></a> because of its lax stance on moderating content, came under fire during the January <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-erupted-with-talk-of-revolution-as-mobs-stormed-capitol-2021-1?r=ts-sub">Capitol riots</a>, when users cheered on the protestors or called for more violence. After the siege, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-removing-parler-from-its-web-hosting-service-2021-1?r=ts-sub">Parler was booted offline by its previous web host Amazon Web Services</a>, and shunned by other tech giants, including <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-threatens-parler-ban-over-alleged-role-in-coup-attempt-2021-1?r=ts-sub">Apple and Google</a>. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-removing-parler-from-its-web-hosting-service-2021-1?r=ts-sub">AWS</a> said that the site "poses a very real risk to public safety" and refused to remove content that incited violence. Parler denied this. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-billions-fake-accounts-removed-2020-presidential-election-donald-trump-2021-3">Facebook says it removed more than 1.3 billion fake accounts in the months surrounding the 2020 election</a>The new filing claimed Matze proposed new content-moderation policies that would have banned posts that incited violence while still supporting free speech. His ideas were shunned by Parler's board, who instead wanted to use the site for their own political interests, the suit said."Matze's proposal was met with dead silence, which he took to be a rejection of his proposal," the suit said.The lawsuit claimed that Matze was then "abruptly ousted in violation of the law and public policy."According to the suit, Jeffrey Wernick, the company's chief operating officer, contacted Matze on January 28 and "threatened him with financial ruin" and an "avalanche of legal claims" if he did not immediately resign.This was at the "clear and apparent direction of Mercer," the suit said.After Matze refused to resign, he was fired "without reason," the lawsuit said.<h2>Matze claims Parler stole his 40% stake</h2>The lawsuit also accused the defendants of the "orchestrated theft" of Matze's 40% stake in Parler.The lawsuit said Mercer had told Matze that Parler should be valued at <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-amazon-lawsuit-dropped-aws-antitrust-web-host-2021-3">"at least" $1 billion</a>, and that she knew Matze's stake was worth "multi-million dollars."But the defendants told Matze after he was ousted that his 40% stake was only worth $3, the suit claimed.Parler's operating agreement allowed the forced sale and purchase of Matze's stake, according to the suit. The suit said that the defendants shared out the 40% stake among themselves after Matze was fired - it didn't specifically say how much Matze was paid."This scheme is epitomized by oppression, fraud and malice, for which Matze is entitled to punitive damages trebling (at a minimum) the millions that he is owed in compensatory damages," the suit said.The suit names Parler, Mercer, Wernick, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-far-right-social-media-back-online-new-ceo-2021-2">interim CEO Mark Meckler</a>, and right-wing personality Dan Bongino, who is accused of fabricating misconduct claims against Matze, as defendants.Earlier this month, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-amazon-lawsuit-dropped-aws-antitrust-web-host-2021-3">Parler filed a new lawsuit against Amazon</a>, alleging that the tech giant had breached its contract with Parler when it took the site offline. The site is now back online <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-web-host-skysilk-first-amendment-rights-content-free-speech-2021-2">with web host SkySilk</a>.

Former Parler CEO John Matze has sued the social-media site and conservative megadonor Rebekah Mercer, accusing them of wrongly ousting him and taking his 40% stake

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In the five days from <keyword id="6494473" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="election-day">Election Day</keyword>, November 3, the conservative <keyword id="6354632" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="social-media">social media</keyword> platform <keyword id="9465142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="parler">Parler</keyword> was downloaded nearly 1 million times.</li><li>Prominent Republicans have encouraged people to use Parler instead of <keyword id="6354616" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Twitter">Twitter</keyword> and <keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword>.</li><li>On November 8, Parler took the number one spot for free iPhone apps on the US App Store — the following day, it ranked number one on Google Play for the first time ever.</li><li>Downloads of the app rocketed just as Facebook and Twitter cracked down on election misinformation, including the "Stop the Steal" campaign baselessly claiming voter fraud. A hashtag for the campaign has 15,000 mentions on Parler. </li></ul>Conservative social media site Parler, touted by prominent Republicans as a "freer" alternative to Facebook and Twitter, was downloaded nearly 1 million times in the five days after Election Day.Parler, similar to social networks like Gab and MeWe, <a href="https://parler.com/auth/access">advertises itself</a> as a platform for free speech, where users can post "without fear of being 'deplatformed' for your views."The social media app has emerged as a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-stop-the-steal-vote-counting-protests-mewe-parler-trump-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">central hub for Republican officials</a>, conservative pundits, and Trump supporters protesting election results.Downloads have surged just as Twitter and Facebook have tried to crack down on election misinformation. Facebook, for example, has removed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-group-stop-the-steal-removed-election-fraud-calls-violence-2020-11">groups promoting the "Stop the Steal" campaign</a>, which makes baseless allegations of voter fraud. Now, the #StoptheSteal hashtag has more than 15,000 "parleys," or mentions, on Parler.In the US, Parler was downloaded 980,000 times on the Google Play Store and iOS App Store in total between November 3 and November 8, according to data from <a href="https://sensortower.com/">SensorTower</a>. Craig Chapple, Sensor Tower's mobile insights strategist, told Business Insider that more than half of those downloads — 636,000 — happened on November 8 alone, the day after several major outlets called the election in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.This figure is more than five times its previous best-ever day, when Parler had 119,000 installs on June 26, he added.Chapple said Parler has hit around 3.6 million downloads in the US to date.On November 8, Parler took the number one spot on the top free iPhone apps on the US App Store — its highest rank ever — rising 1,022 places since November 2, Sensor Tower data shows.The following day, it ranked number one on Google Play for the first time ever. For comparison, it was at number 486 for downloads on November 2.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-trump-twitter-courts-judges-executive-power-2020-10?r=US&amp;IR=T?r=kd-sub-sub">Biden has promised to repair the norms Trump has shattered in Washington. But here are some Trumpian tactics he might adopt if he becomes president.</a>Twitter labeled multiple tweets from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-twitter-tweets-election-results-voting-labeled-disputed-possibly-misleading-2020-11">President Donald Trump</a> as "misleading" after Election Day, including false claims that he won the election, and claims, without evidence, of voter fraud.Facebook began actively <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-election-misinformation-voting-labels-demoting-presidential-election-2020-11">demoting false election posts on November 6</a>. In a statement, Parler's COO Jeffrey Wernick said that both Facebook and Twitter have lost user trust. "Parler is a breath of fresh air for those weary and wary of the way they've been treated by our competitors," he said.Wernick said Parler's growth is a result of Parler's efforts "to earn our community's trust, both by protecting their privacy, and being transparent about the way in which their content is handled on our platform."

Conservative social media app Parler has been downloaded nearly 1 million times since Election Day, topping app charts. A 'Stop the Steal' hashtag has 15,000 mentions.

Jeffrey Wernick is a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoins-value-solving-the-problem-with-fiat-money-2018-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hard money advocate</a> and an independent investor. His angel investment portfolio includes <a href="https://medium.com/@LindaCrypto/jeffrey-wernick-vip-speaker-at-blockchain-festival-in-vietnam-ca244f1df67b">early holdings in Uber and Airbnb</a>. Wernick serves on the advisory boards of <a href="https://medium.com/datawallet-blog/veteran-tech-investor-jeffrey-wernick-joins-datawallet-board-of-advisors-a228df967384" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DataWallet</a> and <a href="https://www.econotimes.com/Blockchain-startup-Qtum-welcomes-veteran-investor-Jeffrey-Wernick-to-advisory-board-974948" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Qtum</a>. Wernick started buying bitcoin in 2009, the year it was created. He says the fact that people aren't actively spending their bitcoin is not a sign of weakness or due to the cryptocurrency's limitations. He believes people aren't spending their bitcoin because it is "good money" that they value more than the dollars it can be traded for. Following is a transcript of the video.Sara Silverstein: You've been buying since 2009, have you been spending any of it?Jeffrey Wernick: I've never spent one. I've never - I've converted fiat into crypto. I've never converted - I've converted crypto into fiat.Silverstein: And what's your argument for people that say that that's proof that you can't spend it? That people aren't spending it?Wernick: Well, I think there's something called <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gold-greshams-law-and-the-dong-2011-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gresham's law</a> that says, "Bad money forces good money out of circulation." So as long as there's bad money circulating, you want to hold onto good money and you spend bad money. So eventually there might be less bad money - eventually bad money might become useless money, and when it becomes useless money, then people will begin circulating alternative forms of value, independent of how it's taxed. So, I mean that's what happened in - whenever we had hyperinflations, people bartered goods. So those goods were not officially designed as currency, and basically you'd have said every time somebody barter goods, that created taxable event, but at the end of the day, people didn't care, it was the only way they could have exchange in something that they had with some value. As you see in Venezuela right now people don't value the national currency very much, and the government has to discourage use of crypto by how most governments typically do things - is force. They have to threaten to kill you, put you in jail, all the things governments do when you don't behave the way government wants you to behave.Get the latest Bitcoin price <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/BTC-USD">here.&gt;&gt;</a>

An early investor in Uber, Airbnb, and bitcoin explains why its actually good sign that no one is spending their crypto

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A House committee has asked <keyword id="9465142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="parler">Parler</keyword> for information about its reported negotiations with Trump over an ownership stake.</li><li>Buzzfeed reported that the discussions fell through, and legal experts said they could have violated anti-bribery laws.</li><li>The committee is also investigating Parler over potential ties to Russian entities.</li></ul>Congress is looking into reports that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-trump-organization-40-percent-ownership-deal-talks-ethics-concerns-2021-2">Donald Trump's representatives </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-trump-organization-40-percent-ownership-deal-talks-ethics-concerns-2021-2">held talks for him to buy an ownership stake in Parler while he was still president</a>, which legal experts say could have violated anti-bribery laws.The House Committee on Oversight and Reform said Monday it was also investigating Parler's potential ties to foreign entities, citing reports that the far-right social media site allowed Russian disinformation to spread prior to the November 2020 election.Lawmakers are also looking into the site's connections with the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-destruction-inside-us-capitol-building-insurrection-riot-coup-2021-1">January 6 Capitol riot</a>.The committee on Monday asked Jeffrey Wernick, Parler's chief operating officer, to send information about the company's stakeholders, creditors, Russian ties, and communication with Trump by February 22.<a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/parlers-ownership-offer-to-trump-and-possible-russian-ties-probed-by-congress/">Ars Technica</a> first reported on the news.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/capitol-evacuated-trump-supporters-protesters-electoral-vote-count-pence-2021-1?r=gd-sub">Lawmakers, Hill staffers, and reporters recount the harrowing experience as a violent pro-Trump mob broke into the Capitol to protest the electoral-vote count</a>In the <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2021-02-08.CBM%20to%20Wernick%20-Parler%20re%20Negotiations.pdf">letter sent Monday</a>, Carolyn B. Maloney, the committee's chairwoman, referred to a <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/trump-parler-ownership">BuzzFeed News article</a> which reported that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-trump-organization-40-percent-ownership-deal-talks-ethics-concerns-2021-2">the Trump Organization</a> negotiated with Parler on behalf of Trump last summer. The talks were over an ownership stake in the platform that Trump would receive in exchange for making Parler his primary social network, Buzzfeed reported.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-join-parler-person-x-account-john-matze-2021-1">Trump considered creating an account under the pseudonym "Person X,"</a> former CEO <keyword id="10573247" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="john-matze">John Matze</keyword> said in a court filing in January. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-ceo-john-matze-didnt-want-to-work-with-trump-2021-2">Matze has since said that he didn't want to work with Trump</a> because he was concerned the then president would have "bullied" employees into doing what he wanted.By discussing an ownership stake, Trump could have violated anti-bribery laws because he was still in office, legal experts told Buzzfeed. Parler offered him a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-trump-organization-40-percent-ownership-deal-talks-ethics-concerns-2021-2">40% ownership stake</a>, BuzzFeed's report said, but the negotiations were derailed by the events of January 6.Parler's site was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-erupted-with-talk-of-revolution-as-mobs-stormed-capitol-2021-1">used by pro-Trump supporters in the run-up to the January 6 Capitol siege</a>, and became <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-erupted-with-talk-of-revolution-as-mobs-stormed-capitol-2021-1?r=ts-sub">a haven for far-right activity and misinformatio</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-erupted-with-talk-of-revolution-as-mobs-stormed-capitol-2021-1?r=ts-sub">n</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-erupted-with-talk-of-revolution-as-mobs-stormed-capitol-2021-1?r=ts-sub"></a> because of its lax stance on moderating content.Since the attacks, numerous Parler users have been charged in connection with the riot, Maloney wrote, and in some cases the Department of Justice referred to the threats they had made on Parler.Just days after the insurrection, Parler was dropped by its website host <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-removing-parler-from-its-web-hosting-service-2021-1">Amazon Web Services</a>, which said the platform "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-removing-parler-from-its-web-hosting-service-2021-1?r=ts-sub">poses a very real risk to public safety</a>" and refused to remove content that incited violence. This brought the site offline.Parler then <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-offline-ceo-john-matze-return-online-january-website-amazon-2021-1">re-emerged as a static webpage</a> using a Russian hosting service, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-partially-reappears-with-support-from-russian-technology-firm-2021-1">DDos-Guard</a>, which has ties to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-partially-reappears-with-support-from-russian-technology-firm-2021-1">Russian government</a> and is used by the Russian Ministry of Defense, Maloney said.Parler also reportedly allowed Russian disinformation to "flourish" on the platform prior to the November 2020 election, Maloney said, "facilitating Russia's campaign to sow chaos in the American electorate." Other social media platforms removed similar false claims, but Parler kept its users' content up, she said.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-ceo-john-matze-terminated-fired-by-board-directors-2021-2">Parler's board, headed by conservative megadonor Rebekah Mercer, fired Matze</a> in January. The former CEO said his ousting was in response to his push for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-ceo-john-matze-says-fired-moderation-extremism-capitol-riots-2021-2">more strict moderation of extremism and violence on the platform</a>.

Congress is investigating reports that Trump representatives held discussions with Parler about him taking a 40% ownership stake in the app

<ul><li>Jeffrey Wernick is an independent investor whose portfolio includes early holdings in Uber and Airbnb. Wernick was also an early investor in bitcoin. He started buying it in 2009, the year it was created.</li><li>Wernick's initial interest in bitcoin was not just speculation that the price would rise. He believes bitcoin's value comes from its ability to solve the biggest problems with fiat money.</li><li>Wernick believes the ability to run large deficits and debase the currency changes the relationship between the government and its citizens. He believes it gives the government the ability to do things without the consent of the people.</li><li>Wernick says bitcoin solves these problems because it is a "people's currency, it's defined by the people, and it's defined by rules and a protocol that people trust."</li></ul>Jeffrey Wernick is a hard money advocate and an independent investor. His angel investment portfolio includes <a href="https://medium.com/@LindaCrypto/jeffrey-wernick-vip-speaker-at-blockchain-festival-in-vietnam-ca244f1df67b">early holdings in Uber and Airbnb</a>. Wernick serves on the advisory boards of <a href="https://medium.com/datawallet-blog/veteran-tech-investor-jeffrey-wernick-joins-datawallet-board-of-advisors-a228df967384" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DataWallet</a> and <a href="https://www.econotimes.com/Blockchain-startup-Qtum-welcomes-veteran-investor-Jeffrey-Wernick-to-advisory-board-974948" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Qtum</a>. He started his career at Salomon Brothers and the National Bank of Detroit. Wernick founded, then sold, the risk management firm AVI Portfolio Services Company, Inc. before focusing on his private investment portfolio. Following is a transcript of the video.Sara Silverstein: We've been good friends since 2010 and ever since I've known you, you've been telling me to buy bitcoin. When did you actually buy bitcoin?Jeffrey Wernick: I initially acquired bitcoin in 2009.Silverstein: Wow, so the first year that it was around?Wernick: Yes.Silverstein: And what made you think that bitcoin was going to be the future?Wernick: Well, that has to go back prior to bitcoin itself, and really with my first interest in hard money. My interest with hard money really began in 1971 when Nixon suspended convertibility of dollars into - gold into dollars. In I think August of '70 - of 1971, I was someone as a - young, as someone in junior high, high school, and actually in elementary school, I became, very kind of, obsessed with the Constitution, the initial period, and prior to the Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, some of the debates during the Constitution between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, and the debates between Hamilton and Jefferson regarding the national bank, and also within the Constitution, there was a specific definition of the dollar in terms of gold and silver. So when that link was officially terminated in 1971, my belief was, and I was only 15 years old at the time, that that would cause a debasement of our currency, where we'd have high inflation and that's when Connally famously said that it's our currency, but their problem, to Europe. And it's also when Simon and Kissinger went to meet with the Saudis and began the petrodollars. So we had to create another reason for people to hold dollars, since we couldn't do it through good monetary fiscal policy, we'd do through force by basically having the all of oil invoice in dollars, so that way, central banks would not - they would basically collateralize by oil rather than gold. So that began the terms of when we had a period of high inflation and complete debasement of our currency, and I became very, very interested in basically a strong currency for multiple reasons. Because what was one of the reasons that drove that was we began to have the periods of deficit finance. So throughout our history, we basically had run a reasonably balanced budget and a reasonably small government, and now we were at war, we had the welfare state, and we started running big deficits, and debasing our money. So I thought that it was changing the relationship between the citizen and the governed, and who governs us. And I much prefer when a government gets the consent of the people for whatever it does, and the consent means, "I want to spend this money. Will you pay the taxes to support this spending?" And I think that builds a much better relationship than one where the government says, "I'm going to spend whatever I spend, but don't worry about it. I'm going to borrow money and I'm going to run a monetary policy, that'll mean don't ever worry about, you ever thinking that you'll ever have to pay this debt off, it's all a game anyway." So that basically has ended the relationship. Now the government can do a lot of things without the consent of the people, because as long as the people don't have to pay for it, they feel that they're less interested in it.So initially my interest in it was not just economic, it was also an issue of the fact of what would foster a good relationship between citizens and the government. And if the government doesn't - and if the government debases its money, what should a citizen have the right to do to preserve itself when the government is acting not in the citizen's best interest? So I became very, very interested in the issues of money, and that's also why I chose to study at the University of Chicago, because you wanted to go to school where... where monetary economics, you know, Milton Friedman was there, and the monetarists, and the quantity theory of money. So I became very, very interested in gold and monetary theory. And I was very anti-Keynesian and very anti - against governments trying to manipulate and manage aggregate demand. When I got to Chicago, though, I got disappointed, because ultimately I saw at U of Chicago, they also liked to manage aggregate demand, they just thought fiscal policy was less effective than monetary policy. And so I was very disappointed with the fact of, one is I really didn't support independent central bank. I don't support central banking to begin with, but if we're going to have central banking, I'd rather have it accountable to society than a completely unaccountable, you know, run by technocrats. For people that espouse limited government, it's sort of like, weird to have a central bank that's not accountable to anybody or anything. So for me, Friedman's support of an independent central bank seemed very inconsistent with his, quote, libertarian rhetoric. So I think, ultimately, central banking is what's enabled governments to grow as much as they have because they enable governments to spend with absolutely no discipline involved.Silverstein: And what problem with money does cryptocurrency solve for you?Wernick: I think that with respect to - there's several issues with money that crypto solves. I think first is: Who issues it? Okay, it's decentralized. So right now, nobody knows who Satoshi is, so essentially there's no author. We were delivered a protocol and we were delivered a protocol with incentives for people to produce it. And the people who produce it, produce it just based upon the design that incentivizes them to produce it. And the incentive mechanism is so well designed up to now, even though I know some people are concerned about some level of concentration, that it has avoided the double spending problem that, essentially, it can't be - it hasn't been counterfeited. So nobody's been able to go in and counterfeit a digital currency yet. So we have a currency that can't be counterfeited, that we kind of know the rules under which how it's created, and we know there's a hard budget constraint in how many are gonna be issued. And its distribution through the system is not determined by any authority.So it's not like somebody says, "If I need to have economic growth, I'm going to give this institution money, and they're going to transmit it to a certain universe of people." Okay, that ultimately, everybody has the same access to it at any point in time, just different units of it according to whatever their own personal budget constraints are. But nobody has privileged access to it, except, you could say, maybe the miners who pay to produce it and they take a business risk associated with it and anybody could choose to get into the mining business. So it's a people's currency, it's defined by the people, and it's defined by rules and a protocol that people trust. And I think in a world where people don't trust anything anymore, that it's good to have protocols that people trust that they control themselves, that are not controlled by third parties.Get the latest Bitcoin price <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/BTC-USD">here.&gt;&gt;</a>

An early investor in Airbnb and Uber explains why he started buying bitcoin in 2009

<ul><li>Jeffrey Wernick is an independent investor whose portfolio includes early holdings in Uber and Airbnb. Wernick was also an early investor in bitcoin. He started buying it in 2009, the year it was created.</li><li>Wernick says that people misunderstand bitcoin because it is often explained as a payment mechanism instead of as a store of value. He thinks many investors ignore the philosophy behind it. </li><li>Wernick says bitcoin is a "people's money." He sees cryptocurrency as the only way to object to a financial system which he believes is responsible for the growing wealth inequality in America.</li></ul>Jeffrey Wernick is a hard money advocate and an independent investor. His angel investment portfolio includes <a href="https://medium.com/@LindaCrypto/jeffrey-wernick-vip-speaker-at-blockchain-festival-in-vietnam-ca244f1df67b">early holdings in Uber and Airbnb </a>. Wernick serves on the advisory boards of <a href="https://medium.com/datawallet-blog/veteran-tech-investor-jeffrey-wernick-joins-datawallet-board-of-advisors-a228df967384" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DataWallet </a>and <a href="https://www.econotimes.com/Blockchain-startup-Qtum-welcomes-veteran-investor-Jeffrey-Wernick-to-advisory-board-974948" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Qtum </a>. He started his career at Salomon Brothers and the National Bank of Detroit. Wernick founded, then sold, the risk management firm AVI Portfolio Services Company, Inc. before focusing on his private investment portfolio. Following is a transcript of the video.Sara Silverstein: What do you think most people get wrong about bitcoin or cryptocurrency?Wernick: I think for many people it's - the concept seems very abstract and I think the hardest thing is for people to understand, and to the extent that they get it wrong, I think probably it's because not enough people are explaining it very well, because most of it, people are explaining it as a payment mechanism, not as a store of value, and why it might be a good store of value. So I think people don't understand the philosophy behind it, because the people now in the business were not there in 2009 and 2010, they didn't care about the philosophy. People who have got into it now talk more about blockchain than bitcoin, because they're just looking for an alternative model to make money and they don't care about - they're agnostic to the initial philosophical framework that drove people to adopt bitcoin to begin with and kept it alive from 2009 through 2013 or '14, when all of a sudden, adoption started to grow. There was a small universe of people that actively worked to keep it alive by continuing to mine and continuing to buy and they were doing it because of the concept that they believed in, and that it's a people's money.You know, from - and even what I told you years ago when I said, "If you buy crypto, all you got to sit back and think about is - don't think about how it's going to be priced today or tomorrow." First, be prepared to lose everything you invest in, and wait until - and wait for five years and don't even think about trading it. If bitcoin's alive in five years, it's going to be significantly higher than it is the day you buy it. Since bitcoin has been created in 2009, it's outperformed every currency, even with governments hostile to it, and a regulatory regime that's an uncertain regime and the governments have been designing, have been managing it in a way so people cannot know what to expect. So it's amazing the valuation it has today given the fact that it only faces, it only faces headwinds, no tailwinds. Every government throughout the world is trying to figure out how to stop and kill bitcoin.I think over five years, you're going to accumulate a lot more wealth than you would in any other alternative investment, but again, you don't want to buy more than you can afford to lose, because I could be wrong, and you'd be making a statement to the government that says, "What you're doing is completely unacceptable." Because if you think about how the financial system works, the financial system punishes the saver and benefits the borrower, but only benefits a small classification of borrowers. You know, I calculated - and you know and I have a pretty good net worth - I calculated that if I wanted to buy like a trophy property in Manhattan, that the cost of capital advantage that - like Blackstone has to me, I would have to generate 30% more in cash flows in the building to just - to be able to compensate for my cost of capital disadvantage relative to Blackstone. So we have to take a look at why is so much wealth concentrated? So much wealth is concentrated because certain - only a small universe of people have access to a cost of capital that's so much cheaper than just about anybody else and that cost of capital difference is so great that basically it means that they can win in every bid on any, any asset that they're interested in buying. And so there's no competition for buying the best assets because only a small group of people have access to the type of cost of capital that essentially zero in nature. And that's a product of this financial system. It's a product of the government, the government policy, it's a product of the tax code. So right now - it used to be you could accumulate some wealth through the power of compound interest, but at zero interest rates, you can't compound any wealth anymore unless you want to take the risk of going into the markets, and everywhere, everybody is warning that the markets might be overvalued. So given the fact that the capital markets are overvalued because they're subsidized by those low interest rates, that the biggest institutions that have the biggest access to leverage at cost of capital significantly cheaper than anyone else can produce. Then the question is, is what, what for a typical middle class person - how do they accumulate wealth? And I think their only answer is to put a certain percentage in crypto. There have been some studies that show that now, that if you put 5-10% of your money in crypto that actually on a risk-adjusted basis it improves your total portfolio returns. So I think everybody should put something into crypto. And the people who move first will make more money than those that move second, who'll make more money than those that move third, and - and eventually when crypto is broadly adopted, then people start using it as an exchange, and it will no longer be volatile in pricing, it'll be stable in pricing. But I want to be very clear is a lot of the volatility in pricing has to do with uncertainty on government policy towards it. So the government is creating this - while the government is trying to mitigate volatility in ordinary capital markets, they're trying to exacerbate volatility in crypto markets.Get the latest Bitcoin price <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/BTC-USD">here.&gt;&gt;</a>

An early bitcoin investor explains what most people get wrong about the cryptocurrency

Hello, and welcome to this Wednesday's edition of the Insider Tech newsletter, where we break down the biggest news in tech.<h4><a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-tech">Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Get Insider Tech straight in your inbox by subscribing here.</a></h4>Soundtrack: for maximum enjoyment of this newsletter, we recommend listening to <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2b1gFdxi7XkrFKlfRlt50Z?highlight=spotify:track:4bTkStyK8neJIcvFF3N1jD">the Steely Dan classic "Do It Again."</a><h2>This week: <keyword id="1659524" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Evan-spiegel">Evan Spiegel</keyword> and the imitator's dilemma</h2>If there's one constant in the consumer internet business, it's that today's innovators are tomorrow's imitators. Just a couple years ago, in 2017, <keyword id="6354630" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="mark-zuckerberg">Mark Zuckerberg</keyword> was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/all-the-times-facebook-copied-snapchat-2017-5">shamelessly copying Snapchat's hottest product features</a>. The cloning was so bad that even Snap founder Evan Spiegel's then-fiancee, Miranda Kerr, weighed in, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/miranda-kerr-evan-spiegel-appalled-by-facebook-copying-snapchat-2017-2">chiding Facebook for stealing "all of my partner's ideas."</a> How do they sleep at night, she wondered.If Kerr is still curious, she can now just ask her husband. The latest <keyword id="6358096" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="snapchat">Snapchat</keyword> feature, unveiled this week, is basically TikTok for Snapchat. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snap-tiktok-like-feed-spotlight-2020-11">Spotlight, the name of the new Snapchat feature</a>, serves up the hottest dance moves, amusing antics, and other short video clips. You don't need to follow anyone either: Snap's algorithm, like TikTok's, will show you what it thinks you'll like.Snap's business is doing just fine — users and revenue <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snap-q3-2020-earnings-revenue-daily-active-users-increase-stock-2020-10">both increased at a healthy pace in the third quarter</a>, and the stock is up 171% this year.But... the writing is on the wall. Kids are gaga for TikTok. And Spiegel (like Zuck, who rolled out his own <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-reels-tiktok-competitor-short-video-us-launch-explainer-2020-7">TikTok clone — Instagram Reels — in the US</a> in August) knows how important it is to pay attention to shifting user habits. There's one twist to Snap's TikTok envy: Benjamins! Snapchat will offer a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snap-tiktok-like-feed-spotlight-2020-11">daily $1 million rewards pot</a> to entice creators to make videos for Spotlight. Spiegel may not realize it, but this, too, is an imitation of another web company's gimmick — albeit a much less auspicious example. Cash rewards were part of a desperate growth gambit by Yahoo in 2015 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yahoo-launches-daily-fantasy-sports-app-giving-cash-prizes-2015-7">when it launched Yahoo Daily Fantasy Sports</a>. The product, which let users win cash by playing fantasy sports, was Yahoo's attempt to copy the success of DraftKings and FanDuel. (It didn't work.)Speaking of look-alike products, remember <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-parler-app-social-media-twitter">Parler</a>, the Twitter alternative for free-speech absolutists? <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-parler-rose-from-obscurity-conservative-alternative-twitter-platform-2020-11"><div type="image" title="parler" height="1500" width="2000" msid="79413907" hostid="261"></div></a>Business Insider's Paige Leskin and Rachel Greenspan <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-parler-rose-from-obscurity-conservative-alternative-twitter-platform-2020-11">took a look at the mysterious history of the social media app </a>that burst on the scene in the aftermath of the US election. <ul><li>The Nevada-based company, which is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parlers-investors-include-a-big-angel-investor-and-a-pro-trump-pundit-2020-11">bankrolled by conservative donor</a> Rebekah Mercer, is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-parler-rose-from-obscurity-conservative-alternative-twitter-platform-2020-11">not fond of pesky reporters asking questions</a> about its ties to the right wing — which date back to its earliest days in 2018.</li><li><keyword id="9465142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="parler">Parler</keyword> COO Jeffrey Wernick told BI <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-parler-rose-from-obscurity-conservative-alternative-twitter-platform-2020-11">the app is not a mere Twitter clone</a>. "We're trying to engage in another way of intermediating trust on the internet."</li></ul>After rocketing to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parler-election-conservative-social-media-app-stop-the-steal-2020-11">No.1 spot in Apple's App Store downloads chart</a> in the wake of the election, Parler's hockey stick growth curve has flattened a bit. Parler is still in the App Store's top 100, but it's now ranked 81, behind apps such as Chick-fil-A, Tinder, and MeowTalk Cat Translator, an app that uses "machine learning to interpret an individual cat's meows."<h2>The startup class of the annus horribilis</h2>For most of us, 2020 will not be on our list of favorite years.But for some tech entrepreneurs, 2020 will be memorable for more positive reasons. Business Insider rounded up <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-100-startups-2020-11">the 100 startups that broke apart from the pack this year</a>. Some of these <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="startups">startups</keyword> were founded in 2020, others already existed but managed to make important achievements amid the challenges of the pandemic. All showed uncommon grit and adaptability.<h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-100-startups-2020-11">The 100 top startups of 2020, according to VCs</a></h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-100-startups-2020-11"><div type="image" title="top 100 startups 4x3" height="1251" width="1668" msid="79413909" hostid="261"></div></a><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/expensify-david-barrett-ceo-defend-email-customers-vote-election-biden-2020-11">Quote of the week: </a></h2>"The grand bargain business has struck with society isn't to remain neutral and sell popcorn as the world burns; it's to do more than merely build shareholder value."— David Barrett, CEO of <keyword id="1486923" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Expensify">Expensify</keyword>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/expensify-david-barrett-ceo-defend-email-customers-vote-election-biden-2020-11">in an exclusive op-ed for Business Insider</a> explaining his controversial decision to email 10 million of his customers urging them to vote for Joe Biden.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/expensify-david-barrett-ceo-defend-email-customers-vote-election-biden-2020-11"><div type="image" title="David_Barrett_Expensify_BI" height="1000" width="1500" msid="79413913" hostid="261"></div></a><h2>Snapshot: <a href="https://www.insider.com/star-wars-hotel-disney-world-photos-2019-8">The 'Star Wars' hotel is almost ready for lift-off</a></h2>The "Star Wars" hotel is not scheduled to open its blast doors until sometime in 2021, but Disney gave Insider <a href="https://www.insider.com/star-wars-hotel-disney-world-photos-2019-8">a few mock-ups of what the accommodations would look like</a>. The hotel at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, is modeled after a galactic starship and guests will check in for a two-day, two-night immersive space cruise.<a href="https://www.insider.com/star-wars-hotel-disney-world-photos-2019-8"><div type="image" title="star wars hotel cabin mockup" height="1800" width="2700" msid="79413917" hostid="261"></div></a>The hotel itself never leaves the Earth, but the experience is designed to feel like you're travelling through space, with "windows" in the cabins providing ever-changing views of the surrounding cosmos and a cast of on-board Star Wars characters affecting what happens during the cruise.The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, as its known, won't open until sometime 2021. according to Disney.<h2>Recommended Readings:</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-fashion-boss-says-more-luxury-brands-want-sell-amazon-2020-11">EXCLUSIVE: Amazon's fashion chief told employees that 50 brands have inquired about selling in its new luxury store, as the company tries to shed counterfeit concerns</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/modern-health-report-stands-by-ceo-conduct-2020-11">$12 million startup Modern Health dropped a 102-page report that it says exonerates its CEO over alleged misconduct</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-alphabet-brin-page-leadership-style-2020-11">Inside Larry Page and Sergey Brin's quiet agreement with Sundar Pichai that has forced Google's CEO to distinguish his leadership style</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lanistar-uk-regulator-scam-instagram-warning-2020-11">The curious case of Lanistar, a flashy wannabe fintech unicorn hyping itself with branded Bugattis and facing warnings it might be a scam</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-amd-intel-mergers-acquisitions-chip-industry-2020-11">Nvidia, AMD and Intel are leading an unprecedented $100 billion wave of acquisitions as the cloud and AI change the chip market: 'The biggest year for consolidation ever'</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-buzzfeed-and-huffposts-acquisition-2020-2020-11">Inside BuzzFeed and HuffPost's merger, where talk is turning to who will be HuffPost's next EIC and what BuzzFeed will buy next</a><h2>Not necessarily in tech:</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-investing-stocks-sectors-set-to-benefit-from-biden-recovery-2020-11">How will Biden's administration impact space investing?</a>We asked the creator of the first pure-play space ETF, who highlighted the stocks and sectors that could benefit from Democratic policy — and rebound with the coming economic recovery.OK then, that'll do it for this week. Thanks for reading, and if you like this newsletter, <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-tech">tell your friends and colleagues they can sign up here to receive it</a>.And as always, please reach out with rants, raves, and tips at aoreskovic@businessinsider.com— Alexei

You Searched For "jeffrey wernick" and got 8 results

Parler offered Trump's company 40% ownership of the app to make it his go-to social media platform

Tyler Sonnemaker

Former Parler CEO John Matze has sued the social-media site and conservative megadonor Rebekah Mercer, accusing them of wrongly ousting him and taking his 40% stake

Grace Dean

Conservative social media app Parler has been downloaded nearly 1 million times since Election Day, topping app charts. A 'Stop the Steal' hashtag has 15,000 mentions.

Kate Duffy

An early investor in Uber, Airbnb, and bitcoin explains why its actually good sign that no one is spending their crypto

Ali Newhard,Kara Chin,Jacqui …

Congress is investigating reports that Trump representatives held discussions with Parler about him taking a 40% ownership stake in the app

Grace Dean

An early investor in Airbnb and Uber explains why he started buying bitcoin in 2009

Ali Newhard,Kara Chin,Jacqui …

An early bitcoin investor explains what most people get wrong about the cryptocurrency

Ali Newhard,Kara Chin,Jacqui …

Snapchat's Evan Spiegel goes from innovator to imitator

Alexei Oreskovic

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