10 Things We Learned From Our Crypto Titans
This week, we’ve assembled a
roundup of all the best (in our opinion) nuggets of insight that the
Crypto Titans series has taught us. Consider this a “quick-read” version
for those that have missed some of our past interviews! If you treat
[crypto] like money in the bank, then you will buy Bitcoin from an
exchange like Coinbase and leave your money there. That’s risky, leaving
Bitcoin on an exchange. You need to learn how to protect your own keys,
learn about hardware wallets, learn about multisig and other solutions to
have control of your own Bitcoin, which is hard for most people.
It’s definitely a big learning curve. I don’t have to pay those people
who wear these beautiful suits coming out of big fancy banks to hold my money
for me. I can hold my money right here. I don’t have to watch all that money
disappear into these big, beautiful buildings and these people with fancy
suits. I’ve got my money right here on a Ledger. That is a really
powerful feeling. Payments: it seems like it’s a solved thing, but it’s
really not. All those middlemen and all the reassignment of
responsibility that happens with credit cards is a mess. I think that for
merchants, if there was a better choice, [they would take it] […] But one thing
is, people who pay us in Bitcoin, I don’t have to worry about
fraud. I know I’m not going to get charged back. I can even give them a discount
for paying with it, because for me as a merchant, it’s cheaper. If all
mining in China shut down tomorrow, the mining would migrate, move to
other places in the world. It’s a fluid thing. No one controls that, even though
lots of people have influence on it. It’s an important thing to
understand, because this is one of Bitcoin’s most important
properties: that no person or group controls it. That’s a myth I would like to
see it go away, but it’s just hard for people to really understand
what decentralization means. People like to ascribe control
because I think it makes them feel a little more like they understand how
it works. You still need to have a reasonable business model. You still
need to be able to do all kinds of things that normal entrepreneurs do. If you
cannot explain your business model, how you make money, why you make money, what
you’re trying to accomplish and you’re just saying “blockchain” or “magic,” then
you’re probably misguided. Don’t get enamored or dazzled by the power of these
tools, and don’t believe that they do more than they actually can do. Despite
the fact these tools exist, you’re not allowed to not have a business model and
you’re not allowed to not take profit. You have to figure that out. I always
believed in the future of crypto, but at the back of your head, you have
to sometimes wonder, what if I am wrong and Bitcoin goes to zero? After
going through the cycle once, you learn to adopt a longer view. The best
investment you can make is in yourself. Get intimate with the technology.
Start contributing to projects that interest you. Then, when crypto
inevitably goes mainstream, you’ll be in high demand for the experience
and knowledge that you’ve accumulated. You should be skeptical of anything
promising to make you a quick fortune. I think that crypto can turn into
a scam very easily unless there is a societal net surplus being produced, unless
the technology is being used to create value that would otherwise not be there.
Just the mere act of selling and buying coins is not going to produce returns.
The only people who can come up with money are those people who
are taking the money from other people or losing that same money. It’s a
net-zero game, and the miners can end up playing a role here for money transfer
from one to the other. What other industry has a common goal? Crypto will
compete, but we all want our industry to continue growing. So long as we
continue to remember that and maintain that, it will be our biggest strength. In
comparison with software companies, running a hardware company gives you an
extraordinary sense of achievement, especially since we were working on bleeding
edge chip technology for mining. Because I fail constantly and
because I accept my failures and my flaws as a human, I am perfectly able
and perfectly happy with failing all the time, learning and having people
tell me I’m wrong. People are like, “Oh, you’re wrong.” I’m like, “Great.
Tell me why. Help me be smarter.” People joining the space, three to six
months — just stay quiet and listen and learn, because it takes a good year and
a half to two years to really understand why it’s only going to be Bitcoin.
Bitcoin can change the world. My recommendation to anyone new to the
crypto world is to experience it first hand. Don’t just store your
coins in exchanges like with stock brokers. Use the non-custodial wallets,
properly keep the passphrases and learn the principles of brain wallets. And
begin to take some cryptos for jobs or favors! This is truly the new experience
with the money of the virtual worlds, with freedom and privacy. Learn risk
management, practice self-responsibility and self-accountability. Particularly
for people who are early in their careers or are looking for a lot of
opportunity, the unique feature that crypto offers is that there’s almost
nobody who has more experience than you, because there are very few people
who’ve been working in crypto. You can come into this space, bring your skills,
your background, your mindset and get to work. In a year or two, you have a set
of experiences that is very rare and that’s unique. Enjoyed reading our Crypto
Titan series? Check out the full list here.
This week, we’ve assembled a
roundup of all the best (in our opinion) nuggets of insight that the
Crypto Titans series has taught us. Consider this a “quick-read” version
for those that have missed some of our past interviews! If you treat
[crypto] like money in the bank, then you will buy Bitcoin from an
exchange like Coinbase and leave your money there. That’s risky, leaving
Bitcoin on an exchange. You need to learn how to protect your own keys,
learn about hardware wallets, learn about multisig and other solutions to
have control of your own Bitcoin, which is hard for most people.
It’s definitely a big learning curve. I don’t have to pay those people
who wear these beautiful suits coming out of big fancy banks to hold my money
for me. I can hold my money right here. I don’t have to watch all that money
disappear into these big, beautiful buildings and these people with fancy
suits. I’ve got my money right here on a Ledger. That is a really
powerful feeling. Payments: it seems like it’s a solved thing, but it’s
really not. All those middlemen and all the reassignment of
responsibility that happens with credit cards is a mess. I think that for
merchants, if there was a better choice, [they would take it] […] But one thing
is, people who pay us in Bitcoin, I don’t have to worry about
fraud. I know I’m not going to get charged back. I can even give them a discount
for paying with it, because for me as a merchant, it’s cheaper. If all
mining in China shut down tomorrow, the mining would migrate, move to
other places in the world. It’s a fluid thing. No one controls that, even though
lots of people have influence on it. It’s an important thing to
understand, because this is one of Bitcoin’s most important
properties: that no person or group controls it. That’s a myth I would like to
see it go away, but it’s just hard for people to really understand
what decentralization means. People like to ascribe control
because I think it makes them feel a little more like they understand how
it works. You still need to have a reasonable business model. You still
need to be able to do all kinds of things that normal entrepreneurs do. If you
cannot explain your business model, how you make money, why you make money, what
you’re trying to accomplish and you’re just saying “blockchain” or “magic,” then
you’re probably misguided. Don’t get enamored or dazzled by the power of these
tools, and don’t believe that they do more than they actually can do. Despite
the fact these tools exist, you’re not allowed to not have a business model and
you’re not allowed to not take profit. You have to figure that out. I always
believed in the future of crypto, but at the back of your head, you have
to sometimes wonder, what if I am wrong and Bitcoin goes to zero? After
going through the cycle once, you learn to adopt a longer view. The best
investment you can make is in yourself. Get intimate with the technology.
Start contributing to projects that interest you. Then, when crypto
inevitably goes mainstream, you’ll be in high demand for the experience
and knowledge that you’ve accumulated. You should be skeptical of anything
promising to make you a quick fortune. I think that crypto can turn into
a scam very easily unless there is a societal net surplus being produced, unless
the technology is being used to create value that would otherwise not be there.
Just the mere act of selling and buying coins is not going to produce returns.
The only people who can come up with money are those people who
are taking the money from other people or losing that same money. It’s a
net-zero game, and the miners can end up playing a role here for money transfer
from one to the other. What other industry has a common goal? Crypto will
compete, but we all want our industry to continue growing. So long as we
continue to remember that and maintain that, it will be our biggest strength. In
comparison with software companies, running a hardware company gives you an
extraordinary sense of achievement, especially since we were working on bleeding
edge chip technology for mining. Because I fail constantly and
because I accept my failures and my flaws as a human, I am perfectly able
and perfectly happy with failing all the time, learning and having people
tell me I’m wrong. People are like, “Oh, you’re wrong.” I’m like, “Great.
Tell me why. Help me be smarter.” People joining the space, three to six
months — just stay quiet and listen and learn, because it takes a good year and
a half to two years to really understand why it’s only going to be Bitcoin.
Bitcoin can change the world. My recommendation to anyone new to the
crypto world is to experience it first hand. Don’t just store your
coins in exchanges like with stock brokers. Use the non-custodial wallets,
properly keep the passphrases and learn the principles of brain wallets. And
begin to take some cryptos for jobs or favors! This is truly the new experience
with the money of the virtual worlds, with freedom and privacy. Learn risk
management, practice self-responsibility and self-accountability. Particularly
for people who are early in their careers or are looking for a lot of
opportunity, the unique feature that crypto offers is that there’s almost
nobody who has more experience than you, because there are very few people
who’ve been working in crypto. You can come into this space, bring your skills,
your background, your mindset and get to work. In a year or two, you have a set
of experiences that is very rare and that’s unique. Enjoyed reading our Crypto
Titan series? Check out the full list here.
