For having founded one of the biggest cryptocurrency companies in the world,

Changping Zhao was a bit of a late comer to crypto.

Four years after Bitcoin was invented,

Zhao still wasn't really paying attention until one day in 2013,

when he says he was at a poker game.

The poker group was a bunch of entrepreneurs and a bunch of DCs,

so he's not a bunch of gambling guys.

It's a very friendly game.

We play for very low stakes.

Usually as somebody's place that day was in my place.

Zhao, who goes by his initials, CZ,

was living in Shanghai at the time.

He has a background in finance and computer programming,

who says the other poker players were guys like him,

tech-saving entrepreneurs.

And at some point in the game,

one of them turned to him and said,

CZ, you should look into this thing about Bitcoin.

You should think about converting 10% of the networks into Bitcoin.

You might go to zero, which means you lose 10%.

You might 10x, which means you double your networks.

And he said it was very seriously.

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