Digital Currency Group (DCG), a leading venture capital company supporting bitcoin and blockchain companies, has announced its first investment in an Ethereum-related startup, Etherscan, Bitcoin Magazine reported.
Launched in 2015, Etherscan is a block explorer and analytics platform for Ethereum, a decentralized smart contracts platform.
DCG is one of the most active investor in the digital currency industry with over 85 investments in 25 different countries. During Consensus 2016, DCG Founder and CEO Barry Silbert expressed his excitement about Ethereum in general, but also hinted his skepticism about the early DAOs. He also suggested that practical applications of Ethereum are yet to be found. He stated:
“I am incredibly excited about the enthusiasm in the Ethereum community, about all things Ethereum, about ether, and about the potential for smart contracts.”
“I don’t think the world needs a decentralized Uber, which is one project. I don’t think the world needs a decentralized AirBnb, which is another project.”
Speaking with Bitcoin Magazine, Silbert said that his opinion on Ethereum’s decentralized applications has not changed.
“Our view is decentralizing a company or an idea for the fact of decentralization does not necessarily solve a real problem,” said Silbert. “Although, we haven’t seen everything, so maybe there is a decentralized project out there with merit.
“We’ve essentially looked at every Ethereum company looking to raise capital in a traditional way, and we’ve passed on all of them,” added Silbert.
He further expressed his excitement on DCG’s first Ethereum investment, saying:
“We are excited to make our first Ethereum investment in Etherscan, alongside a great group of other industry investors,” said Silbert. “The Ethereum blockchain contains a vast amount of rich data on native smart contracts, AppCoins and DAOs, but is difficult for a nontechnical user to navigate. We believe Etherscan will be a useful service for entrepreneurs and enterprises building on top of the Ethereum blockchain, and are eager to see more infrastructure developing around the budding Ethereum application ecosystem.”
