Blockchain Gang

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2019

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Charlie Shrem went from living in his parents' basement, to bitcoin millionaire, to federal prison in just a few years. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:07.4	This show originally aired in 2017, but the blockchain lives forever.
0:13.0	At first, Charlie Schrem's life was like a dream for a young entrepreneur.
0:17.9	By the time he was 22 years old, the company he had started in his parents' basement in
0:21.8	Brooklyn had hit the big time.
0:23.8	He hired dozens of new employees, his company got a real office in Manhattan, cool high-tech
0:28.3	name, bit instant.
0:30.3	Somebody even wrote them a jingle to using their ads.
0:32.8	Do you remember the bit instant theme song?
0:36.1	It's, yeah, of course.
0:37.1	I could sing it word for word.
0:38.1	I would, would you?
0:39.1	Yeah, it's um, um, it's your money wide weight.
0:43.4	Bit instance got lowest rates.
0:45.3	It's your money wide weight.
0:47.9	Get Bitcoin the fastest way and then he's like, so I hopped online to place my order
0:52.4	quick.
0:53.4	Uh, I don't know, all those, all those words.
0:56.3	As you might have guessed from the lyrics, bit instance mission was to help people buy
0:59.9	Bitcoin.
1:00.9	This is back in 2012 and digital currencies like Bitcoin were just starting to get hot.
1:05.9	It used to be to buy Bitcoin.
	...

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