Frederick Ehrs on early adoption
From Coinbase Direct Listing Discussion · · Coinbase
“I kind of got the cool kid job out of college — I was a trader at Goldman Sachs. I found bitcoin on a Georgetown professor's blog and became obsessed; I literally offered a friend of mine at Goldman twenty dollars to use his phone in the bathroom so I could trade bitcoin while I was at work.”
On , Frederick Ehrs, Co-Founder & Director at Coinbase Global, spoke about early adoption during Coinbase Direct Listing Discussion on Coinbase.
About Frederick Ehrs
Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase and co-founder of the crypto investment firm Paradigm, has described the current state of cryptocurrency as being in its early stages. In a 2022 interview, he outlined a framework for crypto's development, stating he thinks of it in three stages: a new digital money, a new financial system, and a new broad internet application platform. He estimated that the industry is roughly 10% into the first stage, 0.1% into the second, and effectively at zero for the third. Ehrsam has also discussed the potential for crypto to enable global applications, arguing that for a truly global application, "crypto might be the only way you can do that now." He has characterized the current internet landscape as "internet feudalism" dominated by a few large platforms, and suggested that crypto represents a shift where users own their own property. In a 2021 graduation address, Ehrsam advised graduates to "follow your curiosity," citing his own path from playing video games to co-founding Coinbase. He has also reflected on the history of Coinbase, noting that early attempts to sign up merchants were unsuccessful and that the company's focus on regulatory compliance was a key decision. Ehrsam co-founded Paradigm with the goal of enabling crypto as "the most important technology and frontier for the next 30 years." He has described the hype cycles in crypto as drawing in more talent and attention, leading to a higher baseline even after market downturns.