Brock Pierce
Brock Jeffrey Pierce (born November 14, 1980) is an American entrepreneur known primarily for his work in the cryptocurrency industry.[2][3] As a child actor, he starred in the Disney films The Mighty Ducks (1992), D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994), and First Kid (1996). He ran as an independent candidate in the 2020 United States presidential election.[4]
Brock Pierce
United States
Entrepreneur
Former child actor
Acting: 1992–1997
Business: 1999–present
Crystal Rose[1]
Career[edit]
Acting[edit]
Pierce was born in Minnesota and appeared in commercials as a toddler.[5] His first major role was playing a young Gordon Bombay in The Mighty Ducks (1992). Pierce reprised the role in D2: The Mighty Ducks. He starred as Luke Davenport in First Kid (1996). Pierce had small roles in Little Big League (1994), Ripper Man (1995), Problem Child 3: Junior in Love (1995), Three Wishes (1995), Earth Minus Zero (1996), and The Ride (1997).[6]
Digital Entertainment Network[edit]
Pierce retired from acting at 16 and joined as a minor partner with Marc Collins-Rector and Chad Schackley in establishing Digital Entertainment Network (DEN), which raised $88 million in venture capital.[7] DEN's goal was to deliver original episodic video content over the Internet aimed at niche audiences.[8] DEN was one of a crop of dot-com startups that focused on the creation and delivery of original video content online in the late 1990s[9] prior to the wide adoption of broadband internet access. Pierce produced its first show, a pilot for gay teenagers called Chad's World.[10] As an 18-year-old, Pierce was making $250,000 a year and held 1% of the company's shares.[11]
DEN was slated for a US$75 million IPO in October 1999, but the IPO was withdrawn in the wake of allegations of sexual assault against Collins-Rector. All three executives subsequently resigned. Layoffs followed in February 2000. While a new executive team led by former Capitol Records President Gary Gersh and former Microsoft executive Greg Carpenter attempted to relaunch in May 2000, DEN filed for bankruptcy and shut down in June 2000.[12]
Internet Gaming Entertainment[edit]
In 2001, Pierce founded Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE), a company that pioneered the MMORPG currency-selling services industry.[13] 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.[14] In 2005, Pierce estimated that IGE accounted for about 50% of this online market in the U.S., which has about $500 million in annual volume.[14][15]
Pierce brought in Steve Bannon, formerly of Goldman Sachs and Breitbart News, to seek venture capital and a deal was made in February 2006 yielding $60 million of which Pierce took away $20 million for a minority stake. The next year the company faced a class-action lawsuit. With no assets, the company failed, and Pierce was forced out.[16]
Pierce founded ZAM, a network of websites oriented around massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), such as World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Rift, EverQuest, etc., in 2003.[17] The ZAM.com network included gaming websites such as ZAM.com, Wowhead, Thottbot, Torhead, and D3DB. In March 2012, Chinese internet and tech giant, Tencent, acquired ZAM.[18]
Titan Gaming/Playsino[edit]
In 2010, Titan Gaming recruited Pierce to sit on its board along with EA Executive Keith McCurdy.[19] Pierce joined other Southern California angel investors, including MP3.com's Michael Robertson, SOA Software's Eric Pulier and William Quigley, and Jim Armstrong of Clearstone Ventures.[20] Also that year, Titan Gaming purchased the rising online gaming network Xfire from Viacom.[21] 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.[22] 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.
As of 2013, Pierce was managing director of the Clearstone Global Gaming Fund a board member of IMI Exchange (a remnant of the IGE restructuring), Xfire, Playsino (having been replaced as CEO in 2013), GoCoin, FGL, Spicy Horse Games, KnCMiner.cn and the Mastercoin Foundation. He was also a member investor of Bit Angels and an investor in BTC China.[23] IMI exchange was subsequently acquired by Moda Inc.[24]
Pierce has been a guest speaker at the Milken Global Conference,[25] Singularity University,[26] and the California Institute of Technology.[23]
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency[edit]
In 2013, Pierce joined brothers Bart and Bradford Stephens in founding venture capital firm Blockchain Capital (BCC) which was reported to have raised $85 million in two venture funds by October 2017.[27] Blockchain Capital raised a third fund using digital security offering on the blockchain, one of the first traded security tokens.[28][29]
Pierce worked with Mastercoin, a startup that raised capital via an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2013. According to Bloomberg, this "kicked off a worldwide ICO craze, with hundreds of startups raising billions of dollars".[30]
In March 2014, Pierce and a group of investors filed an offer to purchase the assets of Mt Gox using a Cypriot entity called Sunlot Holdings Ltd. The month before, Mt Gox had shut down operations and filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo after announcing that it had lost 850,000 Bitcoin.[31][32]
Pierce was elected Director of the Bitcoin Foundation in May 2014.[33][34] Several members of the Bitcoin Foundation resigned over concerns about the directors.[35] The organization announced its insolvency in July 2015.[36]
Personal life[edit]
He is married to Crystal Rose, CEO of Sensay and co-chairman of the United Council of Rising Nations.[75]
In 2000, three former DEN employees filed a lawsuit against Marc Collins-Rector and Pierce alleging that they provided the plaintiffs with drugs and pressured them for sex when Pierce and one of the plaintiffs were still teenagers.[33][40][75][76][77] Pierce, along with the other two DEN employees, fled the United States. They were arrested by Interpol in 2002 in Marbella, Spain. Pierce was released without being charged.[76] Rector eventually pleaded guilty and left the United States.
The three plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed all charges against Pierce without receiving any compensation.[78] Court records show that Pierce paid $21,600 to one of the plaintiff's attorneys because said attorney refused to file the order of dismissal requested by his client until the attorney's expenses were reimbursed.[79]
In 2017, he relocated to Puerto Rico along with other traders, becoming the leader of a group focused on creating a cryptocurrency based local economy on the island, capitalizing on the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.[80]