Dec. 15, 2024
"I Hosted the Event where Vitalik Introduced Ethereum" 💥 - Interview with Moe Levin
The player is loading ...
Explore the evolution of crypto events with Moe Levin, the mastermind behind Miami’s rise as a global blockchain hub.
🎉 Exclusive Offer for the BEN Community!
As a valued member of the Blockchain Education Network (BEN), you’re invited to attend WAGMI Miami, happening January 22-24, 2025, with free tickets for students and a 30% discount for general attendees.
This is your chance to connect with industry leaders, gain cutting-edge insights, and represent the BEN community at one of the most impactful blockchain events in the world.
🎟️ Free Student Tickets: https://wagmi.miami/ben-tickets
🎟️ General Attendees (30% off with code BENSAVE30): https://wagmi.miami/ben
🐦 Twitter/X: https://x.com/BlockchainEdu
👤 Moe Levin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moelevin/
🎙️ Host on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/cryptoniooo
The ChainStories Podcast - powered by Dropout Capital and the Blockchain Education Network! 🎙️
We bring you conversations with top founders and key figures in the crypto world, sharing the latest news and insights.
-----------------------
What is BEN?
The Blockchain Education Network (BEN) is the largest and longest-running network of blockchain students, professors, and alumni around the world! We are on a journey to spur blockchain adoption by empowering our leaders to bring blockchain to their communities!
https://learn.blockchainedu.org/
-----------------------
Thank you for listening!
Want To Start Your Own Podcast? We Use BuzzSprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/
Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.530 --> 00:00:07.040
Welcome to the Chain Stories podcast, the podcast that celebrates disruptors who defy convention.
00:00:07.490 --> 00:00:14.650
Here we dive into the bold stories of trailblazers who turned audacious ideas into billion dollar ventures.
00:00:18.486 --> 00:00:21.216
Moe, it's a pleasure to have you on our podcast.
00:00:21.567 --> 00:00:23.446
We've been in touch for many years.
00:00:23.486 --> 00:00:32.966
You're one of the persons that actually did something very early on that really impacted my life as a student at University of Florida.
00:00:33.637 --> 00:00:39.597
One of your creations, which we're going to touch upon, but first of all, I would like you to introduce yourself.
00:00:39.667 --> 00:00:40.976
What have you been up to?
00:00:41.317 --> 00:00:42.426
What are you doing?
00:00:42.656 --> 00:00:45.017
And how you started in this space?
00:00:45.226 --> 00:00:46.006
Sure, man.
00:00:46.267 --> 00:00:47.686
Happy to talk to you.
00:00:48.067 --> 00:00:49.906
I know we've been in touch for many years.
00:00:49.957 --> 00:00:50.877
Yeah, it's been fun.
00:00:50.996 --> 00:00:53.237
It's funny to think back on how it all started.
00:00:53.656 --> 00:00:59.256
I was producing events about supply chain management in Austria while I was studying there.
00:00:59.567 --> 00:01:01.286
And that was like 2012, 2013.
00:01:01.286 --> 00:01:12.126
people started talking about at these supply chain procurement conferences, you have the CEO, CFO of Caterpillar, Pepsi, McDonald's, whatever, it was quite an important event.
00:01:12.197 --> 00:01:15.337
And they were talking about the supply chain.
00:01:15.337 --> 00:01:22.621
So the CFO for McDonald's was talking like to procure the plastic liner for the cups.
00:01:22.621 --> 00:01:32.272
You need to go through a big supply chain all over the world to get that plastic, to produce the plastic in factories, each person needs to get paid along the line.
00:01:32.371 --> 00:01:39.621
And it was, I think early 2012, they said, there's nothing really you can do about paying people on the supply chain.
00:01:39.772 --> 00:01:41.441
There's not really an alternative.
00:01:42.242 --> 00:01:48.891
You could have local banking partners, and then there was this thing called Bitcoin, which could be used to pay people faster, but it's really not used.
00:01:48.891 --> 00:01:49.802
It's used by criminals.
00:01:49.852 --> 00:01:53.402
I heard this at an event and I said, I don't know about that.
00:01:53.451 --> 00:01:55.262
That doesn't seems like such a bad idea.
00:01:55.671 --> 00:01:56.441
You're talking 2012.
00:01:56.492 --> 00:02:04.272
it's funny how quickly people forget about how money was used even 10 years ago, 10 years ago, you have a pocket full of metal coins and paper money.
00:02:04.712 --> 00:02:14.551
And you pay everybody with paper, and you get some paper back, and you get some metal back, even thinking about it like 10 years ago, nowadays, in Europe, almost everywhere, you tap to pay.
00:02:14.801 --> 00:02:17.491
That's really the only way to pay with things.
00:02:17.502 --> 00:02:19.002
If you don't have your phone, you're out of luck.
00:02:19.391 --> 00:02:21.942
Most people don't carry a wallet anymore with 20 different cards.
00:02:21.942 --> 00:02:24.211
Apple revolutionized the Google Pay revolution.
00:02:25.021 --> 00:02:27.692
Back then, there wasn't much in terms of fast payments.
00:02:27.692 --> 00:02:29.731
There wasn't like Revolut is a big player.
00:02:29.762 --> 00:02:31.111
TransferWise is a big player.
00:02:31.111 --> 00:02:32.012
Stripe is a big player.
00:02:32.012 --> 00:02:33.842
Back then these companies didn't exist.
00:02:34.322 --> 00:02:36.032
They were talking about Bitcoin at this event.
00:02:36.032 --> 00:02:37.262
I said, oh, this is interesting.
00:02:37.741 --> 00:02:39.092
It doesn't sound like a bad idea.
00:02:39.181 --> 00:02:42.461
So I posted on the Bitcoin talk forum there was only Bitcoin.
00:02:42.461 --> 00:02:48.241
There was no other any coins there were some not really, Bitcoin was the only thing posted on Bitcoin talk forum.
00:02:48.241 --> 00:02:50.391
I said listen guys I know how to make an event.
00:02:50.431 --> 00:02:54.822
There hasn't really been any sort of global event happening in the Bitcoin space yet.
00:02:55.266 --> 00:02:58.387
If anybody wants to help me, that would be great, because I think we should do something.
00:02:59.116 --> 00:03:00.227
And the response was good.
00:03:00.236 --> 00:03:01.417
I got a couple friends.
00:03:01.667 --> 00:03:05.967
One was, Matthew Wright, who was the creator of Bitcoin Magazine.
00:03:06.197 --> 00:03:07.377
And another guy named Rasa.
00:03:07.776 --> 00:03:11.002
They said, yeah, we'll help you produce the event and connect you with some people.
00:03:11.002 --> 00:03:12.622
They were already well known in the industry.
00:03:13.062 --> 00:03:21.111
In early 2013, we produced the first event in Amsterdam, in a comedy club for about 150 people.
00:03:21.562 --> 00:03:27.872
At that event, it was the CEOs of every major exchange Jesse Powell from Kraken, Eric Voorhees was there.
00:03:28.157 --> 00:03:29.616
Tony Gallippi from BitPay.
00:03:29.937 --> 00:03:32.856
Vitalik was there as a writer for Bitcoin Magazine.
00:03:33.657 --> 00:03:37.627
So many people, just in that comedy club, we had the exhibitor booths inside the speaker hall.
00:03:37.877 --> 00:03:41.176
It was messy and raw, but it was cool to see.
00:03:41.842 --> 00:03:47.972
And on stage Vitalik, who I was friends with at the time, was talking about, how you could buy Bitcoin magazine with Bitcoin.
00:03:48.021 --> 00:03:49.651
We have a payment gateway on our website.
00:03:49.651 --> 00:03:51.171
You can buy Bitcoin magazine with Bitcoin.
00:03:51.181 --> 00:03:58.882
He got on a tangent about quantum computing and a guy, Mihai Alisai was also working with him at Bitcoin magazine.
00:03:58.912 --> 00:04:01.372
Anyways, that's kicked off.
00:04:01.852 --> 00:04:09.361
A chain of events which a few months later in Miami in January Vitalik was on stage launching Ethereum.
00:04:09.562 --> 00:04:11.942
We helped him showcase what Ethereum could do.
00:04:11.961 --> 00:04:24.776
There's more to Bitcoin than just Bitcoin and Ethereum was launched many other companies were launched and at that event the price of Bitcoin had gone up from fifty dollars to a thousand dollars and there was hype and it was Mt.
00:04:24.797 --> 00:04:30.367
Gox hype and wild times and then we did it at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
00:04:30.466 --> 00:04:35.107
It was like, that was the big event in Miami, launching Ethereum, launching people.
00:04:35.107 --> 00:04:37.026
And then we had about a thousand people at that event.
00:04:37.026 --> 00:04:40.966
And over the years, since then, so much has come across the stage.
00:04:40.966 --> 00:04:47.497
So many people, like every one of the top hundred cryptocurrencies, anything has, we've seen it on stage.
00:04:47.497 --> 00:04:50.096
We've seen the booms and the busts and the price rise.
00:04:50.466 --> 00:04:58.377
And then we went on producing events all over the world, Dubai, London, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.
00:04:59.177 --> 00:05:01.607
it's been great to have connected so many people.
00:05:02.007 --> 00:05:13.487
And what stuck with me in the first event, when I was launching the first event in Amsterdam in 2013, the feedback I heard from people was, Oh, it's so good to hear, to put a face to the username.
00:05:14.286 --> 00:05:18.536
And I thought wow, there's no replacement for people meeting other people.
00:05:18.536 --> 00:05:28.797
Especially in this industry that have met people only online or in telegram groups or in Discord meeting them in person is a huge move because they get to speak to each other.
00:05:28.867 --> 00:05:33.870
The data transfer rate when you speak to somebody is so much greater than talking to somebody online.
00:05:34.670 --> 00:05:46.170
You meet somebody in person you see who they are you see how they are the amount of people that I've met because of my events, and I've gone on to create the coolest companies in the world, to create funds, to change the industry, it's cool.
00:05:46.430 --> 00:05:55.480
Every event, and other events too, they accelerate the speed in which Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general are adopted globally.
00:05:55.610 --> 00:05:59.689
People meet, people work together, people do hackathons, and the industry evolves.
00:06:00.300 --> 00:06:03.379
There is a direct result from events to the industry getting better.
00:06:04.180 --> 00:06:05.360
Fascinating work.
00:06:05.649 --> 00:06:14.730
And I don't think a lot of people today know that was actually at one of your first events where Vitalik introduced Ethereum.
00:06:15.449 --> 00:06:18.680
And let's dive a little bit more into this story.
00:06:19.250 --> 00:06:21.920
My first question was you're in Austria.
00:06:22.189 --> 00:06:30.170
Why did you pick Miami as the capital for your events to bring everyone together from around the world?
00:06:30.970 --> 00:06:33.740
Yeah, so I had moved to Amsterdam from Austria.
00:06:33.819 --> 00:06:36.060
I met my wife and was living in Amsterdam.
00:06:36.060 --> 00:06:37.250
So the first event was in Amsterdam.
00:06:37.740 --> 00:06:42.370
And then I was planning on doing it in January, like six months after the first event.
00:06:42.370 --> 00:06:43.339
I said, where's warm?
00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:47.620
A place that has a good airport, good hotels, good infrastructure.
00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:49.079
Miami sounds great.
00:06:49.089 --> 00:06:49.759
It's warm.
00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:50.920
People can let their hair down.
00:06:51.350 --> 00:06:55.089
It's fun and Bitcoin was fun and we want to make some, a fun experience.
00:06:55.100 --> 00:06:56.180
Miami was the place.
00:06:56.199 --> 00:06:57.519
Same reason why we chose Dubai.
00:06:57.779 --> 00:06:59.339
Dubai has always been ahead of the curve.
00:06:59.629 --> 00:07:02.839
a place where innovators and businesses can start and set up.
00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:05.769
And also just warm places that you want to be in.
00:07:06.170 --> 00:07:07.420
That makes a lot of sense.
00:07:07.529 --> 00:07:10.180
Miami is definitely vibrant and unique.
00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:13.579
Even later on, I think your events had a great impact on this.
00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:17.120
Was becoming the crypto capital of the U.S.
00:07:17.139 --> 00:07:21.100
100 percent 100 percent making Miami choosing Miami as the place to be.
00:07:21.779 --> 00:07:24.300
Now so many companies are based in Miami.
00:07:24.610 --> 00:07:29.800
The mayor's named the Miami blockchain week and has been instrumental in helping businesses come over.
00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:36.290
It's become a crypto capital of the world because when somebody is coming to Miami or Dubai, they see, wow.
00:07:36.985 --> 00:07:38.235
It's warm in Miami.
00:07:38.264 --> 00:07:39.055
It's beautiful.
00:07:39.064 --> 00:07:39.944
The people are friendly.
00:07:39.944 --> 00:07:44.444
The business environment is good I could see myself creating a company here.
00:07:44.444 --> 00:07:46.264
I can see myself having a family here.
00:07:46.524 --> 00:07:54.665
There's good schools, good infrastructure, good housing, if they're based in the middle of America or somewhere cold or north, it's a better place.
00:07:55.064 --> 00:07:59.254
Now you're seeing Austin, Texas become very popular among crypto people.
00:07:59.915 --> 00:08:09.004
But I think the move has been over the last five years where the developers will go to Texas and the finance pros from New York will come to Miami.
00:08:09.805 --> 00:08:12.535
And I know that now you're doing a new event.
00:08:12.605 --> 00:08:14.204
So you have the elections coming up this January.
00:08:14.204 --> 00:08:15.334
Going to be great.
00:08:15.904 --> 00:08:25.435
You decided again to pick the city of Miami when there's so many events even outside of the US because we're at these exiters due to the regulation.
00:08:25.944 --> 00:08:26.115
Yeah.
00:08:26.134 --> 00:08:28.415
Was it because of the election results?
00:08:28.464 --> 00:08:34.154
Was it because you really love Miami and as this place where you started one of your first events?
00:08:34.215 --> 00:08:36.504
There's certainly a part of my heart that's in Miami.
00:08:37.495 --> 00:08:40.284
It's been very welcoming to me and the company.
00:08:40.965 --> 00:08:51.365
It's also one of the best places in the world to make an event, because I did it for 10 years in Miami, it's still on a lot of people's calendars, Miami, January, we go for an event.
00:08:51.485 --> 00:08:52.325
It's worked out well.
00:08:52.355 --> 00:08:58.345
The cherry on top is being the election results were positive for the crypto industry.
00:08:58.618 --> 00:09:04.567
It seems like more people are not as worried about creating crypto companies in the United States.
00:09:05.067 --> 00:09:05.918
It's a bull market.
00:09:06.398 --> 00:09:12.826
Other cities and other countries have become very saturated with events and a different quality of event.
00:09:12.886 --> 00:09:19.726
New York is now just a finance event place, small events for funds and hedge fund managers.
00:09:19.726 --> 00:09:22.076
And that's not really what we do.
00:09:22.078 --> 00:09:23.269
Dubai has been overrun.
00:09:23.269 --> 00:09:24.565
There's events all over the world.
00:09:24.565 --> 00:09:26.303
Back then there was one event a year.
00:09:26.803 --> 00:09:29.884
When I would make an event, that would be the first event that city has ever seen.
00:09:29.933 --> 00:09:33.274
When we made it in Dubai, that was basically the first event.
00:09:33.543 --> 00:09:42.114
A few months prior to my event in Dubai was Bruce Fenton making an event, which was instrumental in the country realizing blockchain is something they want to be involved in.
00:09:42.114 --> 00:09:43.703
But Dubai was not like that.
00:09:43.703 --> 00:09:50.114
And now, Dubai this year has Token 2049, Bitcoin Mina, Transcon has an event every other week there.
00:09:50.384 --> 00:09:57.043
There's a Future Blockchain Summit, the big technology, Jitex, has a big blockchain component to it.
00:09:57.173 --> 00:10:01.163
A lot of tech conferences will have blockchain fintech components to it now.
00:10:01.964 --> 00:10:03.024
It gets overwhelming.
00:10:03.744 --> 00:10:06.744
Cities are overwhelmed, and people are overwhelmed with events.
00:10:07.543 --> 00:10:11.144
There's only so many events you can go to, and it takes a lot out of you to go to an event.
00:10:11.943 --> 00:10:13.543
It becomes tiring.
00:10:13.614 --> 00:10:22.433
And even myself noticing on the event rodeo throughout the world that some are very high value, others are not as much.
00:10:22.484 --> 00:10:29.004
There's so much supply of these events that became such an industry that everyone now just wants to try them.
00:10:29.504 --> 00:10:31.663
And what do you think makes your event unique?
00:10:32.043 --> 00:10:37.423
Is it for me as a founder to find funding, investors, partnerships or collaborations?
00:10:37.443 --> 00:10:41.053
Where do you see your niche, your competitive advantage?
00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:43.948
Probably the main thing is we are dedicated from day one.
00:10:44.918 --> 00:10:46.798
Give people a return on their investment.
00:10:46.808 --> 00:10:54.158
Somebody's paying a few hundred dollars to buy a ticket, a hotel room, and a flight, and prioritizing the event over other things.
00:10:54.158 --> 00:10:55.068
You've got to give them value.
00:10:55.259 --> 00:10:56.269
So what value is that?
00:10:56.979 --> 00:10:59.879
We try to for investors or people raising money for sure.
00:10:59.889 --> 00:11:00.989
We bring a ton of funds.
00:11:00.989 --> 00:11:41.464
We bring a ton of Investors opinion leaders to the event that you should meet and you can meet if you're new we have a ton of stuff for you to learn one on one courses, classes from experts in the industry, professors to learn from, if you have a company, make business, sign contracts with people, bring in your clients to meet so we try to make it for as many industries as possible segregate them in places where this is the place for exchanges to meet their clients and potential new listings or legal and this is the place for funds this is the fun lounge If you want to meet people in the funds go meet them, this is the area for that if you're a newcomer, this is where you go.
00:11:41.774 --> 00:11:45.484
So many events have a hard time segregating these things.
00:11:45.533 --> 00:11:46.683
I was at Token2049.
00:11:46.703 --> 00:11:50.443
It was a huge event, impossible to navigate and find where you would fit into these things.
00:11:50.443 --> 00:11:56.234
You have a meme coin next to an exchange next to a Web3 developer course very difficult to find your way.
00:11:56.504 --> 00:11:57.724
And so you lose people like that.
00:11:58.524 --> 00:12:00.104
From the speakers we dedicated.
00:12:00.903 --> 00:12:01.683
You're going to learn a lot.
00:12:01.683 --> 00:12:03.403
You're going to find out what's going on in the industry.
00:12:03.413 --> 00:12:05.114
Know what the trends and big themes are.
00:12:05.384 --> 00:12:06.854
That's super important to people.
00:12:07.374 --> 00:12:11.724
We're just high value we turned down a ton of sponsors and speakers.
00:12:11.884 --> 00:12:15.854
You can't imagine the inbox I have of just that we need to go through.
00:12:16.793 --> 00:12:18.538
Everybody wants to speak at an event.
00:12:18.839 --> 00:12:20.548
You've got to say, what have you spoken about before?
00:12:20.548 --> 00:12:21.119
What do you do?
00:12:21.129 --> 00:12:25.899
And then you've got to put them on the waiting list because either they're not high quality enough, it's a big decision.
00:12:25.899 --> 00:12:30.119
You're going to give somebody 15 minutes to speak in front of 5,000 people.
00:12:30.619 --> 00:12:32.139
You better pray they're going to be good.
00:12:32.599 --> 00:12:35.839
You have 5,000 people's attention for 15 minutes.
00:12:35.869 --> 00:12:45.043
That's a big responsibility we don't want to waste anybody's time by listening to either somebody who has a weak project, isn't going to deliver value, or is just going to promote theirs.
00:12:45.354 --> 00:12:47.663
In a lot of other events is, it's an advertisement.
00:12:47.673 --> 00:12:52.543
Every speech is an advertisement or a promotion of their company or selling something.
00:12:52.854 --> 00:12:58.469
And we tell speakers, we don't sell anything on stage, it's not like a teleshopping channel.
00:12:59.269 --> 00:13:01.979
Give people value, tell people something interesting.
00:13:02.219 --> 00:13:07.849
So if you're talking about the Blockchain Education Network or BEN Ventures even, tell me your story.
00:13:07.849 --> 00:13:10.278
Tell me what's going on with how you got here.
00:13:10.558 --> 00:13:11.349
What's been important.
00:13:11.359 --> 00:13:13.639
What's been the struggle and how you resolved it.
00:13:14.198 --> 00:13:15.979
That's giving value to attendees.
00:13:16.678 --> 00:13:21.708
If you start going, listen to how much we raised, and this is how great we are, and this is all the success we have.
00:13:22.068 --> 00:13:26.759
It's interesting, if it's part of a story, and people can take something away from there.
00:13:27.558 --> 00:13:38.629
Do you see a pattern with people coming in, wanting to have those 15 minutes as a sponsor, and then they just go on full pitch modes, and trying to sell snake oil?
00:13:38.678 --> 00:13:47.509
We have backstage about 10 people working and, a three person jury who's like watching out and also happy to cut the mic.
00:13:47.688 --> 00:13:54.032
Seriously, like when we've done it before, we've just cut the mic and help them off stage because it's not fair to people.
00:13:54.831 --> 00:14:00.052
It's not fair to come to an event and listen to snake oil and scams people are investing money into this thing.
00:14:00.052 --> 00:14:02.211
When you talk about dealing with people's money, you got to be careful.
00:14:02.711 --> 00:14:03.792
We have a responsibility.
00:14:03.951 --> 00:14:06.751
You can't share scams with people.
00:14:07.032 --> 00:14:10.481
Over the years, we've had to deal with that, a few times quite famously.
00:14:11.121 --> 00:14:11.761
It's difficult.
00:14:12.001 --> 00:14:16.981
On the one hand, we always think, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
00:14:16.991 --> 00:14:21.662
Sunlight, giving people the stage will expose them, but you never know.
00:14:21.741 --> 00:14:29.282
I understand it can be quite intense and there's a due diligence process in the projects and people that you want to have on stage.
00:14:29.611 --> 00:14:32.182
I did not know you had someone ready to cut the mic.
00:14:32.432 --> 00:14:34.331
That's a very good filtering process.
00:14:34.601 --> 00:14:41.481
We also have huge smoke machines with compressed air that'll just overwhelm anybody fascinating.
00:14:41.772 --> 00:15:00.782
I still wanted to dive into this early story of Vitalik introducing Ethereum in your conference, expand a bit more on that, was 2014 when Vitalik was fundraising back in the day and he came into Miami, how was the sentiment there towards Ethereum?
00:15:01.201 --> 00:15:06.532
Was Vitalik looking to connect with investors or just presenting to the community for the first time at your event?
00:15:07.331 --> 00:15:09.471
It was, firstly, it was super casual.
00:15:09.471 --> 00:15:20.621
There was about 15 people that came to something like an Ethereum house and it was in Miami and they were all meeting together with Charles Hoskinson and Anthony Di Iorio, Gavin Wood.
00:15:21.037 --> 00:15:23.246
All of which have gone on to create their own things.
00:15:23.586 --> 00:15:26.307
Steve Dack, other people were involved in this thing.
00:15:26.307 --> 00:15:28.287
They were trying to create something special.
00:15:28.596 --> 00:15:31.606
Vitalik was young, maybe 19 years old at the time.
00:15:31.606 --> 00:15:38.677
He wanted to get into the after party of one event, and I had to talk to security to let him in, because he was underage, so he had to have his special wristband.
00:15:39.006 --> 00:15:41.876
It was casual, and there was some hype beforehand.
00:15:42.486 --> 00:15:46.697
People were expecting something really big from Vitalik.
00:15:47.256 --> 00:15:52.496
He got on stage in front of a packed, standing room only crowd.
00:15:53.216 --> 00:15:56.876
And gave a speech that changed crypto and changed the world forever.
00:15:57.187 --> 00:15:58.756
His plan was for Ethereum.
00:15:58.986 --> 00:16:09.287
And there was also a lot of, hesitation because the only thing was Bitcoin, hearing somebody talking about virtual machines and something faster than Bitcoin, and it didn't launch, it wasn't created yet.
00:16:09.287 --> 00:16:10.287
It was, we were raising money.
00:16:10.287 --> 00:16:13.096
We're going to have a token sale for the next 90 days.
00:16:13.407 --> 00:16:14.866
25 cents a token.
00:16:15.096 --> 00:16:16.927
We're trying to raise as much as possible.
00:16:17.442 --> 00:16:27.601
People thought, okay, this is vaporware, this is nothing, this is just a scam, but then afterwards he was, ambushed by 50 or 100 people wanting to know more, how to get involved, this sounds like the future, and it really was.
00:16:28.062 --> 00:16:36.611
It changed blockchain technology forever and that must have been quite an amazing process.
00:16:36.652 --> 00:16:41.662
You have been with him in Amsterdam at this event, he was just writing for Bitcoin Magazine.
00:16:42.121 --> 00:16:50.652
And within a short time frame it comes in with a project with this massive vision he was so humble and modest even during the event.
00:16:50.662 --> 00:16:56.201
He was just selling Bitcoin Magazine for five dollars at a booth I have some funny pictures of just Vitalik sitting around selling.
00:16:56.221 --> 00:17:01.402
He has a little bag full of money and he's selling each to people, buy a Bitcoin Magazine for 5 dollars.
00:17:01.932 --> 00:17:04.251
Later that day he went on stage and changed the world.
00:17:05.011 --> 00:17:05.652
It's pretty cool.
00:17:06.301 --> 00:17:12.541
Not sure if you have any videos from that moment, but it would be amazing to rewatch There's videos online about, something I noticed.
00:17:12.592 --> 00:17:22.821
I really enjoyed that part because even for me as a student not knowing anything about crypto, I was able to go and talk with the big edge fund manager or a big tier one VC.
00:17:23.132 --> 00:17:24.382
And I'm like, you do this?
00:17:24.422 --> 00:17:25.442
Does this really exist?
00:17:25.442 --> 00:17:26.442
And he's like, it's cool.
00:00:00.530 --> 00:00:07.040
Welcome to the Chain Stories podcast, the podcast that celebrates disruptors who defy convention.
00:00:07.490 --> 00:00:14.650
Here we dive into the bold stories of trailblazers who turned audacious ideas into billion dollar ventures.
00:00:18.486 --> 00:00:21.216
00:00:21.567 --> 00:00:23.446
00:00:23.486 --> 00:00:32.966
00:00:33.637 --> 00:00:39.597
00:00:39.667 --> 00:00:40.976
00:00:41.317 --> 00:00:42.426
00:00:42.656 --> 00:00:45.017
00:00:45.226 --> 00:00:46.006
00:00:46.267 --> 00:00:47.686
00:00:48.067 --> 00:00:49.906
00:00:49.957 --> 00:00:50.877
00:00:50.996 --> 00:00:53.237
00:00:53.656 --> 00:00:59.256
00:00:59.567 --> 00:01:01.286
00:01:01.286 --> 00:01:12.126
00:01:12.197 --> 00:01:15.337
00:01:15.337 --> 00:01:22.621
00:01:22.621 --> 00:01:32.272
00:01:32.371 --> 00:01:39.621
00:01:39.772 --> 00:01:41.441
00:01:42.242 --> 00:01:48.891
00:01:48.891 --> 00:01:49.802
00:01:49.852 --> 00:01:53.402
00:01:53.451 --> 00:01:55.262
00:01:55.671 --> 00:01:56.441
00:01:56.492 --> 00:02:04.272
00:02:04.712 --> 00:02:14.551
00:02:14.801 --> 00:02:17.491
00:02:17.502 --> 00:02:19.002
00:02:19.391 --> 00:02:21.942
00:02:21.942 --> 00:02:24.211
00:02:25.021 --> 00:02:27.692
00:02:27.692 --> 00:02:29.731
00:02:29.762 --> 00:02:31.111
00:02:31.111 --> 00:02:32.012
00:02:32.012 --> 00:02:33.842
00:02:34.322 --> 00:02:36.032
00:02:36.032 --> 00:02:37.262
00:02:37.741 --> 00:02:39.092
00:02:39.181 --> 00:02:42.461
00:02:42.461 --> 00:02:48.241
00:02:48.241 --> 00:02:50.391
00:02:50.431 --> 00:02:54.822
00:02:55.266 --> 00:02:58.387
00:02:59.116 --> 00:03:00.227
00:03:00.236 --> 00:03:01.417
00:03:01.667 --> 00:03:05.967
00:03:06.197 --> 00:03:07.377
00:03:07.776 --> 00:03:11.002
00:03:11.002 --> 00:03:12.622
00:03:13.062 --> 00:03:21.111
00:03:21.562 --> 00:03:27.872
00:03:28.157 --> 00:03:29.616
00:03:29.937 --> 00:03:32.856
00:03:33.657 --> 00:03:37.627
00:03:37.877 --> 00:03:41.176
00:03:41.842 --> 00:03:47.972
00:03:48.021 --> 00:03:49.651
00:03:49.651 --> 00:03:51.171
00:03:51.181 --> 00:03:58.882
00:03:58.912 --> 00:04:01.372
00:04:01.852 --> 00:04:09.361
00:04:09.562 --> 00:04:11.942
00:04:11.961 --> 00:04:24.776
00:04:24.797 --> 00:04:30.367
00:04:30.466 --> 00:04:35.107
00:04:35.107 --> 00:04:37.026
00:04:37.026 --> 00:04:40.966
00:04:40.966 --> 00:04:47.497
00:04:47.497 --> 00:04:50.096
00:04:50.466 --> 00:04:58.377
00:04:59.177 --> 00:05:01.607
00:05:02.007 --> 00:05:13.487
00:05:14.286 --> 00:05:18.536
00:05:18.536 --> 00:05:28.797
00:05:28.867 --> 00:05:33.870
00:05:34.670 --> 00:05:46.170
00:05:46.430 --> 00:05:55.480
00:05:55.610 --> 00:05:59.689
00:06:00.300 --> 00:06:03.379
00:06:04.180 --> 00:06:05.360
00:06:05.649 --> 00:06:14.730
00:06:15.449 --> 00:06:18.680
00:06:19.250 --> 00:06:21.920
00:06:22.189 --> 00:06:30.170
00:06:30.970 --> 00:06:33.740
00:06:33.819 --> 00:06:36.060
00:06:36.060 --> 00:06:37.250
00:06:37.740 --> 00:06:42.370
00:06:42.370 --> 00:06:43.339
00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:47.620
00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:49.079
00:06:49.089 --> 00:06:49.759
00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:50.920
00:06:51.350 --> 00:06:55.089
00:06:55.100 --> 00:06:56.180
00:06:56.199 --> 00:06:57.519
00:06:57.779 --> 00:06:59.339
00:06:59.629 --> 00:07:02.839
00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:05.769
00:07:06.170 --> 00:07:07.420
00:07:07.529 --> 00:07:10.180
00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:13.579
00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:17.120
00:07:17.139 --> 00:07:21.100
00:07:21.779 --> 00:07:24.300
00:07:24.610 --> 00:07:29.800
00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:36.290
00:07:36.985 --> 00:07:38.235
00:07:38.264 --> 00:07:39.055
00:07:39.064 --> 00:07:39.944
00:07:39.944 --> 00:07:44.444
00:07:44.444 --> 00:07:46.264
00:07:46.524 --> 00:07:54.665
00:07:55.064 --> 00:07:59.254
00:07:59.915 --> 00:08:09.004
00:08:09.805 --> 00:08:12.535
00:08:12.605 --> 00:08:14.204
00:08:14.204 --> 00:08:15.334
00:08:15.904 --> 00:08:25.435
00:08:25.944 --> 00:08:26.115
00:08:26.134 --> 00:08:28.415
00:08:28.464 --> 00:08:34.154
00:08:34.215 --> 00:08:36.504
00:08:37.495 --> 00:08:40.284
00:08:40.965 --> 00:08:51.365
00:08:51.485 --> 00:08:52.325
00:08:52.355 --> 00:08:58.345
00:08:58.618 --> 00:09:04.567
00:09:05.067 --> 00:09:05.918
00:09:06.398 --> 00:09:12.826
00:09:12.886 --> 00:09:19.726
00:09:19.726 --> 00:09:22.076
00:09:22.078 --> 00:09:23.269
00:09:23.269 --> 00:09:24.565
00:09:24.565 --> 00:09:26.303
00:09:26.803 --> 00:09:29.884
00:09:29.933 --> 00:09:33.274
00:09:33.543 --> 00:09:42.114
00:09:42.114 --> 00:09:43.703
00:09:43.703 --> 00:09:50.114
00:09:50.384 --> 00:09:57.043
00:09:57.173 --> 00:10:01.163
00:10:01.964 --> 00:10:03.024
00:10:03.744 --> 00:10:06.744
00:10:07.543 --> 00:10:11.144
00:10:11.943 --> 00:10:13.543
00:10:13.614 --> 00:10:22.433
00:10:22.484 --> 00:10:29.004
00:10:29.504 --> 00:10:31.663
00:10:32.043 --> 00:10:37.423
00:10:37.443 --> 00:10:41.053
00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:43.948
00:10:44.918 --> 00:10:46.798
00:10:46.808 --> 00:10:54.158
00:10:54.158 --> 00:10:55.068
00:10:55.259 --> 00:10:56.269
00:10:56.979 --> 00:10:59.879
00:10:59.889 --> 00:11:00.989
00:11:00.989 --> 00:11:41.464
00:11:41.774 --> 00:11:45.484
00:11:45.533 --> 00:11:46.683
00:11:46.703 --> 00:11:50.443
00:11:50.443 --> 00:11:56.234
00:11:56.504 --> 00:11:57.724
00:11:58.524 --> 00:12:00.104
00:12:00.903 --> 00:12:01.683
00:12:01.683 --> 00:12:03.403
00:12:03.413 --> 00:12:05.114
00:12:05.384 --> 00:12:06.854
00:12:07.374 --> 00:12:11.724
00:12:11.884 --> 00:12:15.854
00:12:16.793 --> 00:12:18.538
00:12:18.839 --> 00:12:20.548
00:12:20.548 --> 00:12:21.119
00:12:21.129 --> 00:12:25.899
00:12:25.899 --> 00:12:30.119
00:12:30.619 --> 00:12:32.139
00:12:32.599 --> 00:12:35.839
00:12:35.869 --> 00:12:45.043
00:12:45.354 --> 00:12:47.663
00:12:47.673 --> 00:12:52.543
00:12:52.854 --> 00:12:58.469
00:12:59.269 --> 00:13:01.979
00:13:02.219 --> 00:13:07.849
00:13:07.849 --> 00:13:10.278
00:13:10.558 --> 00:13:11.349
00:13:11.359 --> 00:13:13.639
00:13:14.198 --> 00:13:15.979
00:13:16.678 --> 00:13:21.708
00:13:22.068 --> 00:13:26.759
00:13:27.558 --> 00:13:38.629
00:13:38.678 --> 00:13:47.509
00:13:47.688 --> 00:13:54.032
00:13:54.831 --> 00:14:00.052
00:14:00.052 --> 00:14:02.211
00:14:02.711 --> 00:14:03.792
00:14:03.951 --> 00:14:06.751
00:14:07.032 --> 00:14:10.481
00:14:11.121 --> 00:14:11.761
00:14:12.001 --> 00:14:16.981
00:14:16.991 --> 00:14:21.662
00:14:21.741 --> 00:14:29.282
00:14:29.611 --> 00:14:32.182
00:14:32.432 --> 00:14:34.331
00:14:34.601 --> 00:14:41.481
00:14:41.772 --> 00:15:00.782
00:15:01.201 --> 00:15:06.532
00:15:07.331 --> 00:15:09.471
00:15:09.471 --> 00:15:20.621
00:15:21.037 --> 00:15:23.246
00:15:23.586 --> 00:15:26.307
00:15:26.307 --> 00:15:28.287
00:15:28.596 --> 00:15:31.606
00:15:31.606 --> 00:15:38.677
00:15:39.006 --> 00:15:41.876
00:15:42.486 --> 00:15:46.697
00:15:47.256 --> 00:15:52.496
00:15:53.216 --> 00:15:56.876
00:15:57.187 --> 00:15:58.756
00:15:58.986 --> 00:16:09.287
00:16:09.287 --> 00:16:10.287
00:16:10.287 --> 00:16:13.096
00:16:13.407 --> 00:16:14.866
00:16:15.096 --> 00:16:16.927
00:16:17.442 --> 00:16:27.601
00:16:28.062 --> 00:16:36.611
00:16:36.652 --> 00:16:41.662
00:16:42.121 --> 00:16:50.652
00:16:50.662 --> 00:16:56.201
00:16:56.221 --> 00:17:01.402
00:17:01.932 --> 00:17:04.251
00:17:05.011 --> 00:17:05.652
00:17:06.301 --> 00:17:12.541
00:17:12.592 --> 00:17:22.821
00:17:23.132 --> 00:17:24.382
00:17:24.422 --> 00:17:25.442
00:17:25.442 --> 00:17:26.442