When Will Yale Buy Bitcoin?

比特币，加密货币和初始硬币产品中区块链和投资机会的革命潜力是今天的主题Du Jour。

Yet for all the talk, direct institutional investment in the space is essentially nonexistent.

所以耶鲁何时 - 或者另一个思想领袖 - 潜入？

资本分配者将他们的时间过期调查世界寻找增量机会来改善他们的投资组合。它们看起来像位于脱位和不对称的顶上，并为高质量的经理底部。新投资通常适合现有的框架，作为投资团队和治理委员会在遵守商定的政策声明和投资策略时最有效地运作。

Investing for the long term and sticking to the plan get challenged when a new idea like the blockchain arises that might warrant investment outside of the existing framework.

Diverting a board’s attention can derail the consistent application of a sound process and can take scarce time away from the important decisions that drive returns.

On the other hand, successful investing requires evolutionary thinking — and occasionally a new idea can have a positive impact on a portfolio.

For example, investing in China and India over the last two decades, or recognizing the risk of leverage in the financial system leading into the global financial crisis, would have substantially moved the needle if incorporated at the time.

大多数董事会followin违约g inertia — and are wise to do so. Governance bodies work hard to execute on a defined process in normal times; adding a layer of complexity by defining a process for change is even harder. Adopting a new investment area is the very “uninstitutional behavior demanded of institutions” that Yale endowment legend David Swensen wrote about years ago.

然而，新想法不可避免地进入主流。在全球股票，绝对返回策略和私募股权的多样化均均遵循机构，只能成为常见的做法。

The mechanism for their adoption follows a recurring pattern. Early adopters tend to be high-net-worth family offices and individuals who can take risk on their capital without risking their careers. When the investments prove fruitful, those individuals encourage the boards on which they serve to investigate the areas. Early institutional movers with credibility and support from their boards then dip their toes in the water. If those early allocations are successful, word eventually gets out broadly, offering support for those with more rigid requirements to put big dollars to work.

The rise of hedge funds as an asset class exemplifies this process.

After generating high returns for a small group of investors in the 1980s and ’90s, Yale and the California pension giant CalPERS publicly gave credence to the category. Shortly thereafter, hedge funds experienced a wildly successful period of relative performance, and board discussions flipped from “Why would you consider such a risky, opaque investment?” to “Why aren’t we investing in this important diversifying return stream?” Over time, hedge funds grew from a boutique investment area serving wealthy individuals and families to a full-blown phenomenon.

Investment in Bitcoin and crypto assets is starting with individuals, family offices, and venture capitalists. Should these investments prove successful — and the perception of risk-reward shift from volatile and binary to exciting with definable risk — we may see a move up the food chain.

为此发生，有人必须先搬家。

Ari Paul left his seat at the University of Chicago endowment two years ago to create BlockTower Capital, a leading crypto hedge fund. Asked when the University of Chicago endowment would invest in Bitcoin, he proclaims, “Six months after Yale does.”

Crypto assets are a long way from constituting a new asset class. Stewards of capital researching crypto investments find sufficient concerns about security, volatility, and intrinsic value to risk a substantial position. Instead they are getting limited indirect exposure from their venture capital and hedge fund manager allocations.

如果您倾听像保罗这样的专家描述了在未来十年或两年内将发生的事情，那么很难忽视我们在另一个技术创新的尖端的可能性与互联网一样重要。

If that proves to be the case, the early movers to make significant direct allocations will reap the greatest rewards.

The next big investment opportunity could be staring us in the face. Who will be first to make the leap?