5:  The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Bitcoin Giant, Charlie Shrem

November 15, 2016

​

There was a time; not so long ago, that Bitcoin was just an obscure little diversion for the hardest of the hard-core crypto geeks existing on the fringes of the internet.  Out of those recesses rose a quiet young yeshiva student from Brooklyn who would seize upon a unique opportunity, using his own personal experiences and his love of computers to create one of the first successful retail Bitcoin enterprises.  His name was Charlie Shrem, and by the time he was 21 years old he was a Bitcoin titan.  His startup, BitInstant, allowed ordinary people to easily purchase bitcoins from retailers like 7-11 or Walmart. Within months of starting BitInstant, Charlie was traveling and speaking all over the world about Bitcoin and gaining a reputation as a Bitcoin superstar.  But what goes up can also come down.  Listen to episode 5 of Wall & Broadcast to learn more about how Charlie rose to prominence and ultimately found himself confronted and detained by federal authorities at JFK Airport.        

Sponsored by:

• Charlie's Blog

• BitInstant Wikipedia Page

• Satoshi Nakamoto’s Original Bitcoin white paper

• Bitcoin Historical Pricing: Bitcoin was not always as expensive as it is now.  In fact, when it first came out, its value was so low that early Bitcoin enthusiasts would routinely send around 10,000 bitcoins to their friends for the heck of it.  Little did they know that 10,000 bitcoins in October of 2010 (valued at a little under $500) would be worth over $10 million in December of 2013.  Bitcoin’s rise and subsequent fall and rise again is a story unto itself.  For those interested in learning more, here is a chart that displays Bitcoin’s pricing and volume history from July 2010 to Nov 2016:

​

Click here for the historical data.

​

Contributors: