Welcome to the After-On podcast. I'm your host, Rob Reed.

And this is a series of conversations with thinkers, founders, and scientists.

Take a little time and stretch out because these talks are unhurry and meant to bring you

to a top percentile understanding of something important.

So whether you're ready to start up your ideas, a techie or a lit major, take your time,

engage your mind, and you'll be glad you did it.

Especially this week when we'll be talking to...

Coinbase co-founder Fred Ursem.

And this conversation feels very well timed. Why?

You'd have to be living in some kind of a news blackout, not to have heard chatter about

cryptocurrencies recently.

The grandaddy of all cryptocurrencies Bitcoin has appreciated roughly 2000 percent over

the past 12 months, and the total value of all the Bitcoin and existence is closing it

on $300 billion.

That makes it more valuable than roughly 490 of the companies in the Fortune 500, and

way more valuable than any of the banks that were deemed too big to fail during the

financial crisis.

So what in the world is going on here?

As with all large markets, nobody fully knows.

But my interviewee Fred Ursem knows this area better than almost anyone.

In 2012, Fred co-founded a company called Coinbase.

He and I will discuss it in detail in a moment, but the cliff notes are that Coinbase is by far

...