Jimmy Song Talks Bitcoin at Texas Blockchain Summit

Jimmy Song is a Bitcoin developer and big supporter of the flagship cryptocurrency. He’s also an author and professor of programming at the University of Texas at Austin. Song participated in the Texas Blockchain Summit in Oct. 2021. What can you learn from Song speaking with Senator Ted Cruz at the Texas Blockchain Summit? What’s Jimmy Song’s net worth?

Bitcoin supporters believe it has the potential to change the world in a great way. The Bitcoin community cheered when El Salvador made the historic move of adopting the crypto as legal tender. The country even plans to build a veterinary hospital with its Bitcoin profits.

But Bitcoin critics believe the crypto is either worthless or dangerous to the environment. For example, China has banned Bitcoin mining and crypto transactions. Jimmy Song seems to believe that with more understanding, skeptics may change their mind on the crypto.

Senator Ted Cruz from Texas was among the legislators who attended the 2021 Texas Blockchain Summit. Jimmy Song and Cruz had a long conversation. At the beginning of the talk, Song asked the lawmaker when billionaire Peter Thiel told him about Bitcoin and how much he regrets not investing in Bitcoin early.

Cruz confirmed that he and Theil have been friends for 25 years. However, the senator said Thiel never told him about Bitcoin, joking that he was angry at Thiel about it. Bitcoin has made its early investors rich. For example, an investment of just $10 in Bitcoin’s early years would be worth more than $7 million now. Thiel was part of the team that founded PayPal and he was an early investor in Facebook.

Song’s chat with Cruz also touched on crypto regulation. In the senator’s view, Congress knows little about cryptocurrencies. He said that he attempted to make amendments to the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure bill to reduce the damage it could bring to the crypto world. But those efforts failed. Cruz and Song seem to believe that there is a need to educate people more about cryptocurrencies.

Texas is winning more Bitcoin miners as China intensifies the crackdown on the industry. The major reasons for that are the state’s crypto-friendly regulations and abundant cheap energy. In addition to making more people knowledgeable about cryptocurrencies, Cruz thinks that natural gas wasted through flaring can be used to generate electricity to power Bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin operations consume huge amounts of electricity, which is why critics argue that it harms the environment. In fact, Bitcoin’s environmental impact was what led Elon Musk’s Tesla to stop accepting it as a payment for car purchases.

Peter Thiel boasts a net worth of about $4 billion, and Senator Cruz’s fortune is about $3 million. Little is known about Jimmy Song’s net worth. Song asks to be paid in Bitcoin for services such as speaking at events and consulting.

Although Song’s personal wealth isn’t publicly known, his fortune should grow as Bitcoin appreciates in value, considering he receives payment in the crypto. Bitcoin price predictions vary, but venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya thinks the crypto will reach $200,000 someday. According to Palihapitiya, whose net worth is about $1.3 billion, Bitcoin has replaced gold.