Brock Pierce
Brock Pierce is a former actor and american entrepreneur known for his work in the cryptocurrency industry. President of the Bitcoin Foundation, advisor to Block.one.
Pierce was born on November 14, 1980 in Minnesota (USA). His father was a construction worker and his mother was a professional disco dancer until she became pregnant at the age of 20. At the age of three, Brock began appearing in commercials. His first major role was as the character of young Gordon Bombay in The Mighty Ducks (1992). After that, Pierce starred in D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994), First kid (1996), and had small roles in Little Big League (1994), Ripper Man (1995), Problem Child 3: Junior in Love (1995), Three Wishes (1995), Earth Minus Zero (1996) and The Ride (1997).
Brock Pierce in the movie «First Child (1996)»
Pierce ended his career as an actor at the age of 17. Later, he joined Mark Collins-Rector and Chad Shackley as a minor partner to create Digital Entertainment Network (DEN). The company was able to raise $ 88 million in venture capital.
DEN’s goal was to deliver original episodic video content via the Internet, targeting a niche audience. DEN was one of those dotcom startups that focused on creating and delivering original video content online in the late 1990s, i.e., before the spread of broadband Internet access. Pierce produced his first show, a pilot for gay teens called Chad’s World. At the age of 18, Pierce was earning $ 250,000 a year and owned 1% of the company’s shares.
In October 1999, DEN planned to hold a $ 75 million IPO, but the IPO was canceled due to sexual abuse allegations against Collins-Rector. Subsequently, all three executives resigned. In February 2000, layoffs began. While in May 2000 a new management team led by former Capitol Records president Gary Hersh and a former Microsoft executive tried to save and relaunch the company, DEN declared bankruptcy and closed a month later.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies
In 2013, Pierce, along with the Stevens brothers, founded the venture capital company Blockchain Capital (BCC), which reportedly raised $ 85 million in two venture funds by October 2017. Blockchain Capital raised a third fund using a digital security offering on the blockchain, one of the first security tokens sold.
Pierce worked with Mastercoin, a startup that raised capital through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2013. According to Bloomberg, it «kicked off the world’s ICO craze, with hundreds of startups raising billions of dollars.»
In March 2014, Pierce and a group of investors submitted an offer to buy Mt. Gox assets using a Cypriot company called Sunlot Holdings Ltd. A month earlier, Mt. Gox ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo after announcing the loss of 850,000 bitcoins.
In May 2014, Pierce was elected as a director of the Bitcoin Foundation. Several members of the Bitcoin Foundation resigned over concerns about the directors. The organization declared insolvency in July 2015.
In 2014, Pierce, along with Reeve Collins and Craig Sellars, founded the cryptocurrency Tether. Tether surpassed bitcoin with the highest daily and monthly trading volume of any cryptocurrency on the market in 2019.
Tether is a so-called stablecoin because it keeps $ 1 in reserve for every teaser issued. In 2020, the court allowed the New York Attorney General to file a lawsuit claiming that the affiliated exchange Bitfinex failed to disclose the loss of pooled funds. In an interview in July 2020, Pierce said that his involvement with Tether ended in 2015, but described Tether as «one of the most important innovations in the currency industry.»
The exec was a co-founder of Block. one, which released the EOS. IO software. The ICO raised over $ 4 billion, the largest investment in history. By March 2018, Pierce’s role at Block. one changed and he took on the position of chief strategy officer. In the same month, he left the company to continue building the community.
The businessman also led an international delegation to El Salvador in June 2021 to advise the country’s government on the official introduction of bitcoin as a national currency.
As a member of the delegation to El Salvador
Pierce enlisted Steve Bannon, a former employee of Goldman Sachs and Breitbart News, to raise venture capital, and in February 2006, a deal was made with him that brought in $ 60 million. Of these funds, Pierce took $ 20 million for a minority stake. The following year, the company faced a class action lawsuit. Without assets, the company collapsed, and Pierce was forced to leave.
In 2003, the businessman founded ZAM, a network of websites focused on massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), including World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Rift, EverQuest, etc. The ZAM.com network included such game sites as ZAM.com, Wowhead, Thottbot, Torhead and D3DB. In March 2012, Chinese Internet tech giant Tencent acquired ZAM.
World of Warcraft is one of the most famous games in the world of gamers
In 2010, Titan Gaming brought Pierce on board alongside EA CEO Keith McCurdy. Pierce joined other Southern California angel investors. In late April 2012, Titan Gaming announced a rebranding to Playsino to begin a complete revamp with Pierce as the new CEO and provided $ 1.5 million in new funding.
As of 2013, Brock Pierce was the managing director of Clearstone Global Gaming Fund, a board member of IMI Exchange (the remnants of the IGE restructuring), Xfire, Playsino (he was replaced as CEO in 2013), GoCoin, FGL, Spicy Horse Games, KnCMiner. cn, and the Mastercoin Foundation. He has also been a member of the Bit Angels investor community and an investor in BTC China.
Pierce has been invited to speak at the Milken Global Conference, Singularity University, and the California Institute of Technology.
In 2018, Pierce converted a former monastery in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, into its headquarters. Subsequently, it became the center of events for the blockchain community on the island.
In 2020, Brock purchased the Dwight Howard School Loft in Washington, DC. Built in 1893, the Pierce School Lofts is located in a former schoolhouse named after US President Franklin Pierce. The Pierce School Lofts is now used as a meeting place for national and local leaders and politicians.
In January 2022, Pierce acquired the W Hotel in Vieques, Puerto Rico, which closed after Hurricane Maria.
Politics, charity and personal life
In 2015, Pierce played the role of a technical consultant in an episode of the TV series «Silicon Valley».
In February 2018, Forbes magazine included him in the list of the «20 Richest People in Cryptocurrency» with an estimated net worth of $ 700 to $ 1.1 billion.
Forbes ranking of the richest people in the world of cryptocurrencies
On October 13, 2020, Pierce became the first presidential candidate in US history to receive votes through an app on a personal mobile phone using blockchain technology with the Voatz app. As a politician, he also supports a single-payer healthcare system and the legalization of marijuana.
Brock Pierce holds a press conference on September 14, 2020 to announce his presidential candidacy
Pierce is also the chairman of the Integro Foundation, which helped raise $ 1 million for KN-95 masks in April 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. In late 2021, Pierce funded the new NYPD Gaming Trucks initiative in New York City.
Brock Pierce is married to Crystal Rose, who is the CEO of Sensay and co-chair of the United Council of Rising Nations. Pierce has been living in Puerto Rico since 2017.
Brock Pierce together with his wife Crystal Rose in Puerto Rico