Tron CEO Justin Sun paid $4.6 million to have lunch with Warren Buffett on July 25 in San Francisco, bringing seven guests he selected with community input. Sun frames it as a bridge between traditional finance and crypto, not a pitch to convert Buffett.
Questions this video answers
July 25 (year implied 2019).
San Francisco.
Seven guests.
$100,000 donated to Glide (to replace the usual Smith & Wollensky $100,000 donation).
Smith & Wollensky (New York).
Chapters
Justin Sun's lunch date with Warren Buffett has been officially set for July 25th. Him and along with seven friends, will be lunching with Buffett in San Francisco, not in New York at Smith and Wolensky's. However, since Smith and Wolensky's originally was Planning to give $100,000 to Glide as they do every year, Justin sun has himself stepped up to donate $100,000 to the foundation just in order to get Buffett to be with him in San Francisco. We got the chance to talk to sun about all the things he's planning to speak about with Warren Buffet, a very well known bitcoin hater, as well as the people and how they were chosen to come to this lunch. So whatever restaurant sun has chosen, we better hope that they serve burgers. So my first question for you is, what are you hoping to get out of the meeting with him?
So basically what we want to do is all about communication. We just want to become the bridge between the traditional institutional investor and the crypto space. So our goal is not to persuade Warren Buffett to buy cryptocurrency or to convince him to even get bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, but we just want to update Warren Buffett about the recent progress we have been achieving our space.
So why and how did you decide to pick the seven people that you can bring along with you?
Sure, we have spent lots of the time to do the pool with our team and also a lot of our other partners. First of all, we will listen to the community to know which one is the best candidate. Also the same time we have consult lots of our partners, for example, like Binance, like Huobi, and also lots of our projects we have been working very closely. And third, of course we choose lots of the partners has been work with Tron for so many years. So we have like the mutual trust. So that's basically the three standards. We will choose the candidates.
So are you guys all going to meet up beforehand and try to come up with a strategy, or is it going to be more natural? You're going to show up, you're going to talk about your progress. Crypto blockchain, which way are you going to do it?
I think it's more like casual. So we don't want to make the whole launch to be literally like a commercial conference or just like some forum. So you need to prepare beforehand or make lots of the preparation. So it's very casual, but. But also we want to be prepared for that for sure. As you know this time the lunch will be held in San Francisco. July 25th in San Francisco. So this is also, It is on Euro. We change the location from New York to San Francisco. So. So that's why we just want to show our commitment and also our preparation for this event as well.
So I heard that since it's not in the normal Swiss, Smith and Wellensky New York location which normally donates $100,000 to Glide, now you'll be having it in San Francisco and you'll be donating. How did that come about?
So basically the first day I win the auction, I pick up the phone call from Warren Buffet and his team and they said they are definitely open to the choice. This time we can move to other cities. So that's why it's instantly come out with me. I just want to do the San Francisco. And then they told me the only orbits that Tico there is like the New York restaurant before they donate 100k to the client foundation. So I said I'm happy to cover the expenses to move to San Francisco because I think the San Francisco, most of the crypto companies and also the projects based in San Francisco and also it's near the Silicon Valley is also where the Goliath foundation is based. So I think this is the perfect location for the launch.
So you don't regret the extra $100,000?
Yes, for sure. Definitely. Yeah.
Okay, cool. So my next question is that one of the past auction winners, actually a two time auction winner, ended up actually getting hired at Berkshire Hathaway. Is this on the cards for you?
No, I don't think so because I have commit myself, dedicated myself the whole life into the crypto space. But definitely we are looking forward to collaborate with the Berkshire Hathaway in lots of the opportunities. I also personally speaking, I want to become Warren Buffett friends in the crypto space and in the blockchain space and update for him like, like every progress we have made in our industry because most of the time I, I think the Warren Buffett just gets our news from the meteor and even lots of it's like outsider meteors. So that's why I think he needs some like insider or recent progress of the whole blockchain technology.
So if big if you're able to convince him of the positive aspects of cryptocurrencies and he has spoken positively about blockchain. But what projects do you think that you would recommend that he works in? I'm assuming Tron and BitTorrent would be first on your list.
Yeah, sure. So basically we want to be neutral on this kind of the perspective. I would rather recommend him to certain technology rather than projects. For example, I will recommend him to know the blockchain space is not only about bitcoin, he has been known for a long time but also smart contract platform like Dapps has been really popular recent days like Ethereum got 2000 Dapps. EOS like us like Tron, we got like 500 Dapps. So it's really popular. So I mean there's lots of the exciting news happen in our industry like every day. So I just want Warren Buffett to know what's really going on in the industry.
So have you heard anything from Warren Buffett's team about whether he's excited to talk about crypto? Any sort of rumors like that?
Yeah, sure. I think first of all Warren Buffett is delighted to meet with us and then I'm 100% sure he is fully confident and also interested in learning about new technology. So. So that's why I also think the mainstream media is kind of misleading. So they gave us a portrait that Warren Buffett is dislike the blockchain crypto and all the new technology. Actually I think Warren Buffett is very interested in the new technology. Just like last year he said he regret not invest in Amazon and Google in the early times.
So in order for Warren Buffett to learn more about crypto and blockchain would you recommend him to read Cointelegraph?
Yeah, sure, definitely. I think that's also something I can recommend him definitely to look more news in the in like the Cointelegraph. Like those media is mainly focused pure on crypto so it's more like crypto friendly and also have more in depth report in the crypto space rather than, I mean most of the meteor nowadays we get from the crypto space. Lots of the meteor is like negative news, right. It's just about a random guy caught in the money laundry use bitcoin or some people trying to use anonymous or privacy payment channel just to try to get away from the law enforcement stuff like that. Right. So we definitely need more in depth in the progress and the technology in the space.
What is the first thing you're going to say to Warren Buffett?
Oh yeah, the first thing I think I'm going to ask him is is he like really use the like the smartphone right now or use like the old Nokia on or the like old Samsung phone?
I'm just curious what you would say to your critics about the whole Tesla giveaway situation.
I just Want to explain more to the due to the Tesla. So basically what I learned from the Tesla giveaway is that keep the community because the blockchain space is all community focus. So you need to be fully transparent and also made the community know all about all the process in the first place. So that's why in the future, any sweepstake or anything we do need related to the community, we will do the live streaming rather than the record the video. So because this is more like transparent and also the same time, because at the end of the day we end up giving away actually two Tesla. Lots of people didn't know actually we gave away two Tesla 2. The first winner and the second winner we choose in the live streaming. So that's why we also show our commitment.
I guess you won't be able to, but would you want to try to live stream your lunch with Warren Buffett?
Yeah, that's definitely. I think this is a fantastic idea. We definitely, I would like to communicate with Warren Buffett team to show if we can. I'm not sure if we can do live streaming, but definitely, I think at that day we're going to do something to let the community know what's going on. Lots of the stuff, we just want to keep the community update.
Great.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for talking with us and good luck with your Warren Buffett lunch because I'm a news editor here, so I cover all of his bitcoin comments and I think that it's going to be interesting to be in a room with him.
Yeah, definitely.
Thanks for talking with us, Justin. And we're going to check back in with you hopefully after this lunch. Cointelegraph, like subscribe and Hodl.
