Brock Pierce
Brock Pierce (born November 14, 1980) is an American entrepreneur and former child actor. As a child actor, he was in films (1992), (1994) and (1996).
In 2000, three young actors filed a civil lawsuit claiming Pierce sexually abused them, also naming fellow executives and .
Pierce founded in 2001 and in 2003. Pierce has been involved in the establishment of digital currencies and virtual goods. Many of Pierce’s companies have operated in this virtual space.
Pierce is active in the Bitcoin/Blockchain ecosystem, with numerous speaking engagements, conference activities, and community involvement. In May 2014, Pierce was elected Director of the Bitcoin Foundation. Pierce is co-Founder and Advisor at Blockchain Capital, a venture capital firm that is amongst the most active venture capital firms in fintech.
Pierce supports non-profit and advocacy efforts, and is a member of the . He has been a guest lecturer at the Milken Global Conference, Singularity University, Stanford, USC, Caltech, and UCLA.
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Acting career
Pierce was born in , and appeared in commercials as a toddler. His first major role was playing a young Gordon Bombay in (1992). Pierce reprised the role in . He starred as Luke Davenport in (1996). Pierce had small roles in (1994), (1995), (1995), (1995), and Earth Minus Zero (1996).
Entrepreneurship
Digital Entertainment Network
In 1999, Pierce was an executive vice-president of the , a company that created four-to-six minute streaming-video series, having raised $88m dollars from blue chip investors. As an 18-year-old, Pierce was making $250,000 a year and held 1% of the company’s shares, a board member describing him as “the guy who could tell us what Gen-Yers were likely to think”.
IMI Exchange
Pierce founded IMI Exchange (originally ) in 2001 and resigned from his CEO position on June 26, 2007, but remained an adviser and vice-chairman of the board of the company. Under Pierce’s leadership, IMI Exchange nurtured DAX, the largest virtual goods exchanges in South Korea and the US/Europe market with sites, such as ItemMania and Player Auctions, respectively. IMI Exchange raised over $100 million from investors such as Goldman Sachs and Oak Investment Partners.
Pierce worked at ZAM, a network of websites oriented around massively multi-player online role-playing games (), such as World of Warcraft, , , EverQuest, etc. The ZAM.com network included gaming websites such as ZAM.com, Wowhead, Thottbot, Torhead, and D3DB.
Internet Gaming Entertainment
In 2001, Pierce founded (IGE), a company which pioneered the services industry that link virtual economies with the real one. In 2004, CNN Money reported that IGE brought in more than $1 million USD each month. Between 2004 and 2005, IGE spent more than $25 million buying out seven smaller competitors, including four auction platforms and a number of fan and content sites.
Titan Gaming/Playsino
In 2010, recruited Pierce to sit on its board along with Executive . Pierce joined other Southern California angel investors, including ’s Michael Robertson, ’s Eric Pulier and William Quigley and Jim Armstrong of . Also that year, Titan Gaming purchased the rising online gaming network Xfire from Viacom. In October 2011, after Xfire received over $4 million in fresh funding from Intel Capital, Titan Gaming and Xfire cut ties and went their own ways. Titan Gaming and Xfire now operate independently. In late April 2012, Titan Gaming announced that it would be rebranded as Playsino to embark in a complete makeover, with Pierce as the new CEO and $1.5 million of new funding.
Bitcoin/cryptocurrency career
Pierce is known for his work with Bitcoin and other digital currencies, as an advisor, founder, and investor. Pierce has invested in over 30 companies in the blockchain ecosystem, helped raise over $200MM for companies he is involved with, is a mentor for startup accelerators, and runs a top AngelList syndicate.
Pierce was elected Director of the Bitcoin Foundation in 2014. His election led several members of the organization to resign, citing allegations that Pierce had been involved in child abuse. Pierce has not been criminally charged and has repeatedly denied the allegations which stem from a 1999 lawsuit.
Pierce is a founder, board member, or advisor for several Bitcoin companies, including GoCoin, Tether, ZenBox, Blade Financial, Expresscoin, Noble Markets, BitGo, AirSwap, and ChangeTip.<ref name=”:0″ />