The birth of a new thing is like a magical link that guides the intersection of all kinds of light or dark. The emergence of the Bitcoin white paper has opened up a new world for a group of people, and Brian Armstrong is one of them.
In 2010, Armstrong said that he had read the most exciting content in five years-the Bitcoin white paper. He repeatedly read Satoshi Nakamoto's masterpieces and couldn't stop imagining the reform potential brought by Bitcoin.
Two years later, a cryptocurrency trading platform called Coinbase was born and became one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world. Armstrong is its co-founder and CEO.
Coinbase recently submitted a listing application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) , becoming the first cryptocurrency trading platform to test the capital market. Messari evaluated Coinbase’s valuation based on Coinbase’s different businesses, such as trading, custody, and debit cards. For 28 billion US dollars. Armstrong holds approximately 16% of Coinbase and is valued at more than US$4 billion. So, what is the origin of Armstrong, who is only 37 years old?
01
What is the direction of life, why is the
education industry CEO, Silicon Valley code farmer and cryptocurrency entrepreneur?
Source: beincrypto
Armstrong was born on January 25, 1983 and grew up in San Jose, California. His parents were engineers. He studied at Rice University and has a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in computer science from Rice University.
In his junior year, he founded UniversityTutor, an online education platform. From August 2003 to May 2012, Armstrong served as CEO of Universitytutor.com.
While doing this, he also has work experience in internships in well-known companies such as Deloitte Accounting Firm, Touche and IBM. At the same time in Silicon Valley, he became an employee of Airbnb (a travel home rental community headquartered in San Francisco).
As a programmer at Airbnb, Armstrong's employer showed the inconvenience when sending money to landlords in other places, which made him see that this country is being affected by hyperinflation, and the shadow of the economic crisis has not been lifted.
He said: "At that time I just decided to travel to South America for a year, which I had never been to before, to figure out what I wanted to do in my life. I thought it was an interesting experience because I saw the financial system in another country. Hyperinflation."
In 2010, he saw a link to the Bitcoin white paper on Hacker News, a news platform belonging to the Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator. Armstrong mentioned that if Bitcoin can really have the influence of the Internet, then he should personally build the most distinctive company in the cryptocurrency field.
He started working on weekends and late at night, writing codes in Ruby and JavaScript languages to buy and store bitcoins, and began to develop trading platforms and wallet prototypes.
In the end, he developed an Android wallet in the Ruby language he is currently learning, and began to allow full nodes. He brought his product to Y Combinator and successfully obtained financing.
In June 2012, Armstrong stepped down as the CEO of UniversityTutor. At the same time, he resigned from his position as an Airbnb engineer and began to officially pursue his dream.
02 The
growth path of Coinbase, where
is the sword to create an open financial system for the world and become the "Google of the currency circle"
Source: beincrypto
In June 2012, Armstrong founded Coinbase. As CEO, he is responsible for Coinbase's retail and institutional divisions and all products and services developed by the two trading platforms.
At that time, Bitcoin was worth less than $10. But less than a year after Coinbase was launched, the number of users reached one million. Armstrong serves more than 10 million customers in 32 countries and provides more than $1 billion in custody services for digital assets.
There are unavoidable twists and turns. For example, its App was removed from the Apple App Store less than a month after it was launched in 2013, and then restored in 2014. Disputes about downtime, lawsuits, forks, invasion of privacy, etc. never stop.
However, Coinbase's development in terms of financing and compliance can be described as smooth and smooth.
1. Financing
In 2013, Coinbase's Series A financing received a USV 5 million investment;
In December of the same year, the Series B financing received USV, Ribbit Capital and A16Z jointly invested 25 million US dollars.
In January 2015, Coinbase's Series C financing was as high as 75 million U.S. dollars. This is the first time a blockchain company has received such a huge financing, with a valuation of 400 million U.S. dollars.
Coinbase became the Bitcoin company that raised the most funds at the time, and Coinbase's Bitcoin wallet has become one of the most commonly used Bitcoin wallets.
2. Compliance
In January 2015, Coinbase became the first Bitcoin trading platform in the United States with a formal license.
In January 2017, it obtained the "BitLicense" from the New York State Financial Services Agency, which means that Coinbase can provide cryptocurrency trading services in New York.
In March of the same year, Coinbase was authorized by the New York State Bureau of Financial Services to provide Litecoin and Etherum trading services in the state. In December, Coinbase was approved to provide BCH trading services.
In February 2018, Coinbase seamlessly docked cryptocurrency payments, pushing cryptocurrency transactions into the real economy. In March of the same year, Coinbase obtained an electronic currency license from the UK Financial Supervisory Authority, allowing Coinbase to operate the right to serve cryptocurrency cash alternative services in 23 EU countries.
In July 2018, the US Securities Regulatory Commission approved the company to use cryptocurrency transactions and wallet services in the United States. In August, Coinbase provided deposit and withdrawal services denominated in British pounds.
Some people say that it is "the most compliant cryptocurrency trading platform in the world." Armstrong believes that it is still in the early stages of cryptocurrency development, which is very similar to the early days of the Internet. In this campaign, the goal Coinbase wants to achieve is to become the "Google of the currency circle."
Emilie Choi, vice president of corporate and business development at Coinbase, said that their mission is to "create an open financial system for the world."
03
Loudly confess BTC: My "First Love"
launched an encrypted charity platform, and successively became influential figures
In 2019, Armstrong repeatedly expressed his love for BTC. In a series of tweets commemorating BTC's 10th birthday, he wrote that BTC was his "first love".
The Bitcoin white paper and the concept of a global currency prompted Armstrong to establish Coinbase. The purpose of Satoshi Nakamoto's creation of Bitcoin is to hope that people all over the world can freely control their assets, achieve a more efficient economy, and bring more freedom. The existence of Coinbase is to help people acquire this technology.
On January 3, 2020, Armstrong mentioned in his blog:
Perhaps people did not realize that for most of the past 10 years, people often discussed whether Bitcoin will continue to exist. People are worried that a flaw may be found in the Bitcoin protocol, it may be declared illegal, or it may be completely zero because it has no intrinsic value.
However, Bitcoin not only survived, but also thrived, becoming the best performing asset in the past decade.
After seeing the huge wealth brought by cryptocurrency, Armstrong launched GiveCrypto (a new charity platform), which will be fully funded by cryptocurrency to help those in financial difficulties.
He believes that the crypto ecosystem can influence the world by pooling resources, and other people can benefit from a "fair and open global financial system."
With the development of blockchain, Armstrong has received more and more attention and has become a dazzling superstar in the field of cryptocurrency.
In 2017, Armstrong was selected as one of the “100 Recode Influencers” on the famous technology website;
In 2018, the 35-year-old Armstrong was listed as a Fortune 40 under 40;
In 2019, he was on the list of "Top 100 People of the Next Generation in 2019" by Time Magazine, the first person on the list in the currency circle.
These upgrades and changes made by Armstrong also indicate that he will move into a wider world, and all of what he has done is also accelerating the development of decentralization.
04
Summary
On the other side of the ocean in San Francisco, or in a corner of an office in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, a group of passionate young people are being driven toward the future by decentralization. Armstrong, who is already standing in front of the stage, still adheres to his beliefs and leads Coinbase to continue to develop new ideas. Encrypted territory, together towards its next glorious moment, together to build the infinite possibilities of blockchain.
However, there is still a long way to go before the goal of "creating an open financial system for the world."
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"Disclaimer: This article is the author's independent point of view, and does not represent the vernacular blockchain position. This content is only for the popular science learning and exchanges of encryption enthusiasts, and does not constitute investment opinions or suggestions. Please treat it rationally, establish a correct concept, and increase risk awareness. The copyright of the article and the final interpretation right belong to the vernacular blockchain. 』
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