Feb. 25, 2020

Who leaked the Mt. Gox Memo? Ryan Selkis, CEO of Messari, on Bitcoin's Near Death, His Failed Challenge of the Bitcoin Foundation, and the Good That Came of it All

Who leaked the Mt. Gox Memo? Ryan Selkis, CEO of Messari, on Bitcoin's Near Death, His Failed Challenge of the Bitcoin Foundation, and the Good That Came of it All

Ryan Selkis and Charlie Shrem discuss the Mt. Gox and Bitcoin's existential threats.

Ryan Selkis, CEO of Messari, joins Charlie Shrem on this week’s episode of Untold Stories. They begin by talking about what drew Ryan into researching Bitcoin in the first place and what led him to writing about it. Ryan talks a bit about Messari's mission to improve industry data standards which leads the discussion to his research into Mt. Gox just as it was unraveling in late 2013-2014. He reveals details about the insolvency of Mt. Gox and how it was an existential threat to Bitcoin itself. Charlie and Ryan discuss the importance of controlling the narrative through responsible research and reporting rather than leaving it to market forces. They talk about Ryan as a Bitcoin entrepreneur and his extensive work with Coindesk, the Digital Currency Group, and Messari, particularly his mission to build a Bloomberg for crypto. Finally, they outline some of the good that came from crypto’s historical bad events.

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