The saying goes, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” meaning that if you’re offered something, including lunch, and you’re not picking up the bill, you will still have to ay for it in some way. I mention this because I found a story yesterday that proves the maxim.
According to Francois Aure writing at CCN, Justin Sun, the founder of Tron bid $4.5 million to have lunch with the crypto hater Warren Buffett. And Buffett cannot escape this date, because Sun made the bid at Buffett’s GLIDE charity auction and won.
Four point five million dollars is a lot to pay for lunch, even if it is with the legendary billionaire and head of Berkshire Hathaway. However, we hear that Sun is going to bring a few of his blockchain pals along to the event. It sounds a bit like an ambush, but I don’t suppose too many in the crypto community will feel sorry for Warren Buffett having to dine with a bunch of people who oppose his views on crypto. Indeed, I’m sure there are many crypto supporters who would love to be able to hear the conversation.
Sun tweeted his victory at the auction: “I officially announce I’ve won the record-setting 20th-anniversary charity lunch hosted by @WarrenBuffett. I’ll also invite blockchain industry leaders to meet with a titan of investment. I hope this benefits everyone.
Sun then maximised the PR potential of this event by posting a long open letter to the crypto community via his Medium blog. In it he talks about his respect for Warren Buffett as an investor and says he hopes to persuade the seasoned investor that blockchain is the future.
In one paragraph Sun wrote: “I’m a long-term believer (and certainly a big fan) of Buffett and his long-term value investing strategy. As some of you might know, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has said publicly; he sees no “unique value” in Bitcoin, the world’s largest Cryptocurrency. Yet, he has pointed to the potential in blockchain, the underlying technology behind all Cryptocurrency.”
As Aure writes, “Naturally, what we are all dying to know is who Mr. Sun plans to take with him.” Significantly, in his letter Sun said he may ask the community for their input and advice: “To aid in the conversation and support the overall cryptocurrency and blockchain community, I will invite several industry leaders — with your input — to accompany me to New York City for the lunch.”
Aure suggests that if Sun took John McAfee to the lunch and sat him beside Buffett the entire Internet would probably explode. There would certainly be a twitter storm at the very least.
But on a more serious note, it will be interesting to see what Buffett thinks of tron. After all he called bitcoin “rat poison squared,” so how he will respond to Tron that is worth only a few cents despite its place in the top tier of the crypto market is anyone’s guess.
Whatever happens at the lunch, it is certain that the crypto community will be looking for any crumbs of comfort from Buffett. If he says anything positive about crypto at all, it will be flying around Twitter before coffee is served.