A bet against $AMPL is a bet against Brian Armstrong and other big names
Do you recognize this guy?
It’s Brian Armstrong, the guy who co-founded Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in North America. Brian recently took Coinbase public at a valuation of $85.8 billion, which rivals tech giants Facebook and Airbnb during their debuts.
Looks like he has a sense of business, no?
Now, what if I told you he invested in the Ampleforth team in the seed stage and then later in the VC round?
That’s right, he invested $3 million in Ampleforth’s seed round and another $1.8 million in the VC round.
If you’re thinking, “so what, he probably makes these kinds of investments all the time…”
You’re wrong.
According to his Crunchbase profile, Brian has only made 7 personal investments, 2 of which are in Ampleforth. This shows that Brian doesn’t throw money at just anything. He’s a successful investor and businessman who carefully chooses what he supports.
Just like how he got hooked on Bitcoin while reading the whitepaper over thanksgiving in 2010, it seems like the same thing happened with Ampleforth:
In the tweet above, Brian says “I realized that crypto had the power to unlock a future where economic freedom was a reality for everyone.”
Economic freedom for everyone is something Brian strongly supports, which is why he has pursued a career in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and invests carefully in projects that support this vision.
As stated in his next tweet following the one above:
“This has driven me ever since as I believe creating more economic freedom is one of the biggest meta problems of our time. It has so many positive downstream effects in society.”
So, Brian wants to help create more economic freedom for everyone, which is why he’s a supporter of Bitcoin and created Coinbase to help people get involved with crypto. Also, I think this is why he’s so supportive of Ampleforth as well.
After all, Ampleforth’s $AMPL token is a monetary innovation and composable DeFi building block for the future of finance. It supports the vision of economic freedom for everyone and it’s fully decentralized, censorship-resistant, non-dilutive, and uncollateralized, just like Bitcoin.
Also, $AMPL has the potential to do even more for economic freedom than Bitcoin because, unlike Bitcoin, $AMPL can be used to denominate stable contracts.
It makes perfect sense as to why Brian supports Ampleforth. He understands its revolutionary potential and wants to see it succeed.
Brian Armstrong has Conviction for Bitcoin, $AMPL too?
In the same tweet thread as above, Brian divulges that he was ridiculed for creating Coinbase and had a lot of self-doubt because of it:
He said his friends in tech didn’t get Bitcoin, they thought it was a scam and that Coinbase was a crazy idea, does this sound familiar?
People feel the same way about Ampleforth today. They don’t understand it and therefore call it a scam… which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Regarding Bitcoin and Coinbase, Brian didn’t let the naysayers get to him. He continued building Coinbase and secured funding from investors that believed in him and the vision of Bitcoin:
Today, Coinbase is a massive success story because Brian and early Coinbase investors had a conviction for Bitcoin and invested in its future.
Now, with $AMPL, I feel like Brian is part of a similar story. $AMPL is a monetary innovation that’s wildly misunderstood, yet Brian Armstrong is betting on its future with not 1, but 2 sizable early-stage investments. That’s conviction if you ask me.
That said, a bet against $AMPL is a bet against Brian Armstrong and his conviction for economic freedom for everyone.
Other Big Names You Don’t Want to Bet Against
1. Sam Lessin
Sam Lessin is an advisor to Ampleforth and serves as a partner at leading Silicon Valley firm, Slow Ventures, which is also an investor in Ampleforth.
Sam is a guy you don’t want to bet against and if he’s advising Ampleforth and got Slow Ventures to invest in it, you don’t want to bet against Ampleforth either.
In addition to advising Ampleforth, Sam is the co-founder and CEO of Fin, a virtual personal assistant company, and served as the former Vice President of Product Management at Facebook. Sam is also an avid investor in the future of money and has personally participated in funding rounds for Ripple, Robinhood, and Venmo.
That said, Sam is a notable individual with a history of successes and he’s serious about fintech and investing in its future. The bottom line, he’s someone you don’t want to bet against.
2. Niall Ferguson
Niall Ferguson, a British historian and Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University is not only a respectable historian but a member of the Ampleforth advisory board.
Niall is fascinated by the idea of reinventing money which is why he has joined forces with Ampleforth to help them do just that.
In a press release on his involvement with Ampleforth, Niall stated:
“The idea of reinventing money excites me. Bitcoin, currently, is incapable of being ‘money’ that can be a means of payment. But at the same time, I am doubtful of fiat-pegged stablecoins. As someone who is deeply interested in financial innovation, I’m attracted by Ampleforth’s mission to reinvent money in a way that protects individual freedom and to create a payments system that treats everyone equally.”
3. Noah Jessop
Noah Jessop, a successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist at Founder Collective is an Advisor to Ampleforth and serves as the Technical Program Manager for Libra Core (Facebook’s cryptocurrency).
Noah has extensive knowledge in blockchain technology and is working on Facebook’s highly anticipated Libra cryptocurrency as well as serving as an advisor for multiple successful startups including Ampleforth.
That said, Noah has deep roots in the crypto industry and is actively involved with building out the financial infrastructure of tomorrow.
In a press release, he had this to say about Ampleforth:
“Many people are curious about crypto. They’re wondering if it’s the next internet or wondering where the developers are building and it’s an interesting thread, but it’s a far more economic and global phenomenon than is generally accepted. Ampleforth is allowing us to question a lot of the systems that society uses to network itself and that technology has never been able to evolve.”
Final Thoughts
Ampleforth is a project supported by notable individuals that you wouldn’t want to bet against, and the names mentioned here only scratch the surface. Ampleforth has a total of 7 core team members, 6 advisors, and 10 investors who believe in Ampleforth’s vision and are betting big on its future.
With that, this is all I have left to say:
A bet against $AMPL is a bet against the future of finance and some of the brightest minds in fintech and economics.
