LET’S TALK BITCOIN

Episode 35

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The Smart Money

Participants:

Adam B. Levine (ABL): Host

Stephanie Murphy(SM): Co-host

Charlie Schrem(CS): CEO of BitInstant

Alan Safahi(AS): CEO of ZipZap

Shakil Khan (SK): Creator of Coindesk

Marc Hochstein(MH): Editor of American Banker

ABL : Hi and welcome to Let’s talk Bitcoin , a twice weekly exploration of the ideas people and projects building the new digital economy and the future of money. My name is Adam B Levine and today we’re going to focus on some of the most influential doers in the Bitcoin space today. Shakil Khan is an investor and serial entrepreneur most often associated with spotify. He is the creator of Coindesk , one of the top sources of original reporting in the Bitcoin space and he sat down with Marc Hochstein , editor of American Banker for a fireside chat at the end of last month’s Inside bitcoins conference. This is a really fantastic talk , if you want to know what the smart money is talking about Bitcoin and it occupies the last 36 minutes of today’s show. But backing up for a moment , Stephanie starts things up with a lightning interview by LTB standards with Charlie Schrem. Alan Safahi is next with a 19 minute interview conducted by Stephanie discussing the cash transfer business , freedom , regulation and more. If you appreciate the work we are doing , stop by the new letstalkbitcoin.com , send us a tip and check out our new daily guest blog. So far this week we’ve had John Light introduce us to the trust framework that will guide our personal cloud future. Mark also looks into an alternative reality where the internet was created in 2009 rather than cryptocurrencies and what kind of response it would invoke. Mark Matthews makes the argument that crypto keys are free speech and should be protected as such. I’m thrilled we’re able to keep the conversation going with new ideas and analyses from a wide variety of perspectives , all for free , at the new letstalkbitcoin.com. Okay , that’s enough from me , let’s join Stephanie now on the floor of inside bitcoins as she talks with Charlie Schrem , CEO of BitInstant.

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Stephanie Murphy interview with Charlie Schrem

SM : Alright , I’m here talking with Charlie Schrem. Hi Charlie , I just heard your keynote speech at the Inside Bitcoins conference.

CS : Was it good ?

SM : It was great !

CS: Thank you.

SM: You know , I learnt some new things about you , because I started to know that we have some mutual friends and everything , in the Bitcoin community and as well as going to events like the porcupine freedom festival.

CS: Yeah , that was a lot of fun. SM: But I learned today that you are 23 years old , right ?

CS: Yup.

SM: And there’s another number that people associate with you , its four

-fingered Charlie , right ?

CS: Yeah , four-fingered Charlie.

SM: Can you tell me about why you are called that ?

CS: I used to wear a ring that had my Bitcoin private key.

SM: Where did it go ?

CS: I take it off because everyone knows and I don't want to get my finger chopped off. I have a ring on that has my bitcoin private key on it, and I dont wear it any more. I havent worn it for awhile because i'm scared.

SM: Thats probally a smart move, I see. So, you told a really interesting story about how BitInstant got started, and of course your the founder and CEO BitInstant. Right?

CS: Mmmhmm, yep.

SM: What is BitInstant in just one sentence for anybody who doesnt know?

CM: It's the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to buy and sell Bitcoin. We make it really easy to buy bitcoins, with partnerships with 7-11, C.V.S., Duane Reade. You can walk in and buy bitcoin there.

SM: So, you can buy Bitcoin with cash instantly, by the time you get home, make a cash deposit. It's there.

CM: Yep

SM: And, right now your doing a little bit of a revamp as you explained.

CM: I'm pretty excited about that, yeah.

SM: Can you tell me what's coming next for BitInstant?

CM: We're changing a lot. You'll see kind of a whole new website. We're changing the way our system works. The way we interact with our customers. And, we're lowering fees and changing the whole fee structure around. And, getting our regulatory stuff in check. We decided to, like I said in the thing.

SM: What does that mean, "changing the fee structure around"?

CM: You'll see.

SM: We'll see?

CM: It will be cheaper to buy Bitcoin.

SM: *Laughter* So, what about new features? Are you going to have new features?

CM: Yeah, we're going to have some real locations, we have bank transfers now. You can buy Bitcoin instantly with a bank account. Um, and a few other stuff. We have the ability withdraw money back to your bank account instantly. So if you have a debt card, we can actually fund your debt card. That's really exciting.

SM: I know a couple years ago BitInstant had this idea, that they were working on, with bitcoin debt cards. Yeah, is that still in the works or what?

CM: So, we finally got approval for the european version of a card. But, the U.S. version is really really hard to do. Because of regulatory reasons and stuff. So, I dont want to launch the card just in Europe. I want to have it global, so we're waiting.

SM: Tell me real quick, the story of how BitInstant came into being. You said you were out of college, and.

CM: I was still in college.

SM: Oh! You were still in college?

CM: Yeah, I was just browsing the internet forums one day. I saw someone post an interesting idea for a bitcoin company. It was our CTO Gareth Nelson