Thiel on PayPal vs. Bitcoin

In an interview with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang (@emilychangtv) PayPal, Palantir and Founders Fund co-founder Peter Thiel said Carl Icahn should not be dictating what Silicon Valley does.

Thiel also said Bitcoin is “still slightly too cumbersome to work at the end of the day as a new payment system.”

Highlights:

Thiel on PayPal vs. Bitcoin:

“Well, [PayPal] was a failure in that we did not achieve our original vision of a completely new currency system for the world. I’m probably psychologically biased against [Bitcoin] since– if we couldn’t succeeded at PayPal, I’d be tempted to come up with the reasons why nobody would succeed at it at this point. My sense is that [Bitcoin is] still slightly too cumbersome to work at the end of the day as a new payment system.

On whether PayPal should be spun off from eBay:

“It certainly should not be dictated by Carl Icahn– who, I think– does not– so, I think it is– you know, I think there are very large synergies between– PayPal and eBay. You know, maybe it’s something that we should– that eBay (EBAY) should consider at some point in the future. But I think eBay was right to resist Carl Icahn. We don’t want him to be dictating what Silicon Valley does.”

On who should be the CEO if PayPal is spun off:

“It’s critical to have someone with a product sense and not someone who’s just running it as an operating business. You know, I don’t wanna name any names. But obviously, there would be people there that would be good.”

On 4 out of 6 PayPal founders building bombs in high school:

“I was not one of those four. But no, it was you know, I think there is something that’s always quite extreme about the personalities that go into starting a company. [Building a bomb is] not a good thing. But it is this thing that’s– you know, having some extreme personalities, I think, is a somewhat good thing.”

Video for viewing here.

Bloomberg Television

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