Banking on Bitcoin | Solving the Problem of Credit Using Distributed Applications
Hidden Forces
Demetri Kofinas
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2018
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 35 of Hidden Forces, host Demetri Kofinas speaks with Alex Mashinsky. Alex is the founder, and CEO of Celsius, a next generation lending wallet that aims to be the 'Killer App' of the bitcoin and cryptocurrency revolution. Celsius attempts to overcome the limitations of a traditional banking system by leveraging technology and rethinking lending for the 21st century. A serial entrepreneur, Mashinsky is the founder of seven New York City-based startups with over three billion dollars worth of exits to his name. He is a serial inventor with over 35 patents, relating to exchanges, VOIP protocols, messaging & communication. Alex Mashinksy is also one of the inventors of Voice Over Internet Protocol with a foundational patent dating back to 1994.
In their conversation, Demetri attempts to understand the mechanics behind the Celsius Network, as well as how the company intends to manage risk, execute short sales on behalf of institutional clients, and lower borrowing costs for its users. Who are Celsius' main competitors, and how does its lending wallet differ from the competition? How are loans issued on the Celsius network? How does the CEL token work, and how does it incentivize the network to service its customers and not some financial middleman? What is the revenue model for this network? How does Celsius generate income from lending, short sales, and staking? What are some of the unintended consequences that could arise from a securitization market in cryptocurrencies? What are the risks associated with hoarding utility tokens in a proof-of-stake system? Could Celsius and other networks become central points of attack for malicious actors looking to destabilize the Ethereum once it moves from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake? Finally, what is the timeline for Celsius' new wallet and how soon will crypto holders be able to rely on it as a real source of credit and interest-bearing income?
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What's up everybody? |
| 0:09.0 | What's up everybody? |
| 0:10.0 | What's up everybody? |
| 0:11.0 | Welcome to this week's episode of Hidden Forces with me, |
| 0:13.7 | Demetri Kofinas. My guest for this episode is Alex Mashinsky, founder and |
| 0:18.8 | CEO of Celsius, a next generation lending wallet that aims to be the killer app of the |
| 0:24.8 | cryptocurrency revolution. Alex is a serial entrepreneur and founder of seven New York |
| 0:30.0 | City-based startups raising more than $1 billion and exiting over three. He is a serial |
| 0:35.6 | inventor with over 35 patents relating to exchanges, VoIP protocols, messaging and communication. He is one of the inventors of Voice Over Internet |
| 0:44.8 | protocol with a foundational patent dating back to 1994. Alex, welcome to Hidden |
| 0:50.5 | Forces. Thanks for having me. You got a really long bio, man. |
| 0:53.0 | I only took out a small paragraph of that. |
| 0:55.0 | I could have filibustered the first 10 minutes of your bio. |
| 0:57.0 | We could have done the whole interview, just talking about my bio. |
| 1:00.0 | So we're going to have to really get into your company because I was asking you before I started |
| 1:03.6 | what to call it. I had next generation lending and market making platform and you corrected |
| 1:09.4 | me and told me to say lending wallet. I actually think there's a ton of things you're going to end up |
| 1:13.8 | doing out of this. I mean I don't even think, but again this is your company you know better than me but |
| 1:18.3 | we'll get into it. I just see so many avenues and I think it's a really cool. You did also a great job by the way with your white paper it was painless to get |
| 1:25.4 | through it and also whoever that's because I didn't write it my my team wrote it so |
| 1:30.4 | who did your art because they also did a lot of acid? |
| 1:34.0 | Well, we thought the animals represent our community better than people, you know, |
... |
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