Winklevoss Twins’ Father Donates $4M Bitcoin to School Teaching Theory That Inspired Satoshi

Howard Winklevoss, father of the famous crypto twins, is donating $4 million in bitcoin BTC in a first-of-its-kind donation to Grove City College, where he developed an interest for sound money and the Austrian school of economics that also later influenced Satoshi.

His cryptocurrency donation is the first bitcoin gift the college has received and will fund new business programs, Grove City said in a press release on Tuesday.

Winklevoss said his ‘eureka’ moment, when crypto first caught his attention, occurred when he realized that bitcoin was non-government, digital money with a fixed supply. “In short, sound money that works like email.”

He first learned about the principle of sound money at Grove City College while studying under Hans Sennholz, a free-market, Austrian-School economist and professor who studied under Ludwig von Mises. “Connecting the dots between this economic school of thought and what Satoshi created turned the light bulb on in my head,” Winklevoss said.

He bought his first bitcoin in 2013, and later invested in ether (ETH) and a few other crypto projects that looked like they were also solving interesting problems.

When asked if the twins were responsible for getting their dad into crypto, Tyler Winklevoss said the short answer is yes. “When Cameron and I first discovered bitcoin back in 2012, no one called it crypto, it was just bitcoin,” he said. “There was no Ethereum white paper yet, we told our dad about bitcoin shortly after first learning about it, so we were definitely responsible for getting him into bitcoin.”

But reflecting on his father’s gift to Grove City College, it was probably in some ways the other way around, Tyler said, and really our dad who got us into bitcoin. “I say this because he first discovered the principle of sound money when he studied at Grove City College in the 1960’s and was heavily influenced by the Austrian school of economics that was being taught there. This school of thought also clearly influenced Satoshi.”

He talked about these ideas all the time at home and this influenced us at an early age, reminisced Tyler, and this helped us understand the importance and value of bitcoin when we discovered it.

“For the Austrian school the best form of money was gold, but there are issues with gold such as portability and security,” Tyler said, adding that it “tends to become centralized and moves via IOU’s when used as global money, so it loses its decentralized nature.”

“Satoshi took the best money traits from gold and codified them into digital money,” Tyler noted, adding that “bitcoin is not only an asset, but also a network, so it is much easier to send around the world, as easy as an email. This solves the portability problem.”

Their father was very influenced by his time at Grove City College and hence his desire to give back, his son said.

Winklevoss senior has enjoyed a highly successful career in academia and business. After teaching actuarial science as a professor for over ten years at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he entered the private sector. He was responsible for founding multiple ventures, including Winklevoss Consultants and Winklevoss Technologies, which was acquired by Constellation Software for $125 million in 2023.

“Our dad is the first startup tech entrepreneur we ever knew,” Tyler said, “he was launching software businesses in the seventies. We grew up in a startup environment and this heavily influenced us to create startups ourselves. So in the end, we have Grove City College to thank at least in part for our interest in bitcoin.”

Howard Winklevoss cited his father, Grove City College, and his wife Carol as the biggest influences on his career as a professor and a businessman.

The twin’s mother is also an advocate of digital assets. She believes that crypto is the future of money and beyond, and according to Tyler has been their biggest supporter from day one.

The school of business will be officially named the ‘Winklevoss School of Business’ at a ceremony at the Staley Hall of Arts and Letters in November.

UPDATE (Sept. 17, 15:28 UTC): Changes lead photo