【Bitpush Biography Series】Brian Armstrong And The Rise Of His Crypto Empire

Introduction

Brian Armstrong is the founder of tech company Coinbase and today has a net worth clocking in around $1 billion dollars placing him as one of the 15 youngest billionaires listed by Business Insider.

Armstrong first discovered Bitcoin while back home visiting his parents over Christmas in 2010. He stumbled across Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper and after reading it he was gripped. At the time he was working as a software engineer for booming tech company Airbnb, but after reading about Bitcoin he knew this was an industry where he could build something.

His journey to success was riddled with self-doubt and setbacks, but Armstrong's self-described even-keeled personality allowed him to weather the storms and continue working towards creating his company.

Early Days

Armstrong graduated from Rice University with a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics in 2005. Shortly after, he moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina to work at a startup and experience living in another country. There, he had an early experience with a country suffering from the effects of hyperinflation which got him thinking about global economic systems.

When he returned back to the United States he landed a job at Airbnb where he worked as a software engineer. While working there he made critical observations that would allow him to create one of the premier crypto companies, Coinbase.

The most integral realization was that the global payments infrastructure at the time was made up of a patchwork of local companies. There were few systems in place to coordinate global payments which created large problems for a company like Airbnb where they had to orchestrate cross-border payments near-constantly.

This was stifling innovation and leaving it so that only the largest companies like Airbnb or Uber were able to invest in international expansion. It also meant that the countries which could benefit the most from the economic influx were the last to have access to these companies.

Armstrong's observation was correct and today cross border payments are one of the strongest arguments for the mainstream adoption of stablecoins which promise instant and seamless transactions without the raging fees from banks.

Discovering Bitcoin

"I remember reading it and thinking this might be the most important thing I've read in 5 years," Armstrong said during a recent interview with Peter McCormack speaking about the first time reading the Bitcoin white paper.

His earliest thoughts on Bitcoin were that the protocol sounded like the internet. Like many working in the tech space in the early 2000s, Armstrong wished he had been working a few years sooner to have the chance to build one of the earliest internet companies. However, when he read about Bitcoin he realized that it could be an opportunity of a similar scope. Over the coming weeks, he dedicated hours to rereading the paper and working out his understanding of Bitcoin.

Eventually, Armstrong began attending Bitcoin meet-ups in San Francisco's mission district. The meet-ups were small in those days and an odd assortment of academics and techy fanatics consolidated to talk about cryptocurrency before most of the world had ever heard the word.

"I remember thinking this is kind of a weird crew and I remember thinking do I really want to be the Bitcoin person or do I want to start to build something in this space," Armstrong said.

He kept showing up at the meetings and learning all he could about the new technology so that he could start to develop. As he shared his new hobby with friends they were skeptical and worried that the new digital money wave sounded like a scam.

"I had a lot of self-doubt about it. I thought I wanted to build something in this space and help it grow and play around in the technology, but all my friends think it's kind of silly," Armstrong said.

Despite the doubt he faced from friends and himself, Armstrong kept mulling over Bitcoin and one day got his billion-dollar idea.

Building Coinbase

The idea for Coinbase came as Armstrong considered platforms like Gmail which facilitated email services for people who didn't want to run their own email server. He realized he could design something similar for the Bitcoin protocol allowing people to deal in crypto without having to run their own wallet.

Armstrong was sure he had a good idea, but when he presented it at one of the Bitcoin meetups in San Francisco, he was met with criticism. Most responded that a hosted Bitcoin wallet wasn't worth building because it would only get hacked. Armstrong knew that was a risk, but he also understood that if crypto was ever going to go mainstream there would have to be a way to facilitate its use without people needing to run their own server.

Over the weekends and after work Armstrong began working on his prototype coding every line to design what everyone said was a far-fetched idea. After several weeks, he had a big break which would launch the project to new heights. The project was accepted by Paul Graham's startup incubator Y Combinator which gave him $150,000 to continue working. The break in the project was the push Armstrong needed to quit his job at Airbnb and transition to working full-time on what would soon become Coinbase.

The next three months were filled with intense work sessions developing the project alongside skilled mentors building up to demo day where the project would be introduced to swaths of investors whose money was crucial to keeping the project alive. Armstrong went in with a 1 million dollar fundraising goal, but investors were not as impressed as expected and he left $400,000 short of his goal.

To keep motivated he began writing down one goal on a slip of paper every morning: start a billion-dollar tech company. He continued meeting with investors to raise money so that he could keep developing and worked 6 days a week for hours alongside co-founder Fred Ehrsam. As they continued working the concept behind Coinbase expanded and the team realized that people wanted to buy Bitcoin on the platform rather than having it serve solely as a wallet service.

Controversial Criticisms

Soon, Coinbase grew to become one of the earliest crypto unicorn companies. Armstrong's days went from coding to figure out how to create a company culture and hire leading talent to contribute. But, the company has faced significant controversies in the crypto community which has at times lost trust in its ability to uphold the values first outlined in Bitcoin's white paper.

The most striking of recent controversies was Coinbase's acquisition of analytics platform Neutrino in March of last year. The platform is known to have deep ties to a group called Hacking Team which is known for helping oppressive regimes silence journalists and even murder pro-democracy dissidents. The acquisition raised eyebrows everywhere and crypto Twitter was soon alight with #deletecoinbase.

Public trust in the company has had its ups and downs and Armstrong has often taken the heat, but the longer he has held his position he has realized that his decisions will always leave somebody unhappy. However, he understands that they have to be made in order for innovation to continue.

"Nobody told me when I started the company people are going to hate you for it or be irritated or something like that and I remember that always came as a surprise," Armstrong said.

Moving Forward

There are big things on the horizon for Coinbase. In July rumors began swirling that the exchange is preparing for an IPO which could launch as soon as 2021.

In 2018, Armstrong also founded GiveCrypto, a charity that distributes cryptocurrency to those living in poverty who often have limited access to financial services. Recipients can cash out to redeem their crypto for their local currency, transact in crypto or hold it for the long term. To date, the charity has raised $4 million worth of crypto and has distributed it worldwide.

"Whether it's through improving education, creating a more level playing field, or increasing economic freedom, I'm interested in helping more people see their ideas come to fruition in the world," Armstrong wrote in his giving pledge. "My hope is that more people will write down a "crazy" goal someday, just like I did ten years ago, and it will turn out to be not so crazy after all."

By Emily Mason

Photos via Internet

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