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Fred Ehrsam

Cofounder, Paradigm

Search every verified Fred Ehrsam interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase and managing partner at Paradigm, has described his view of crypto as developing in three stages: a new digital money, a new financial system, and a new broad internet application platform. He stated that the industry is roughly "an order of magnitude into a new digital money, maybe one tenth of one percent into a new financial system, and effectively at zero on a new internet application platform." Ehrsam has characterized the current internet as "feudalism," where large platforms operate as closed systems, and has said that "crypto is the metaverse" in the sense that it provides a shared data layer for digital ownership. He has also commented on the potential for the U.S. to "get crypto wrong" regarding regulation and noted an opportunity for miners in the United States to help make crypto more decentralized following a government crackdown on mining in China. In public addresses, Ehrsam has encouraged graduates to "follow your curiosity," citing his own experience spending 4,000 hours playing World of Warcraft, which he said taught him about digital worlds and currencies. He has stated that "the world is highly malleable" and that "people will try to tell you that there are rules to how the world works; there are no rules." Ehrsam has also discussed the potential for NFTs to evolve beyond static art, suggesting that creators could build highly aligned communities where consumers are also part owners of a product. He has described the current era as an "internet renaissance" where crypto is beginning to affect social media.

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