YouSaid · the spoken record

Wences Casares

lines on the record: 29
first: 2020-02-27
most recent: 2020-02-27
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Masters of Scale is a weightwater original. The show is recorded on-site in California and produced at the studio inside SY Partners in New York. Our executive producers are June Cohen and Darren Triff. Our producers are Chris McLeod, Adam Skeuse, Jenny Cataldo, Jordan McLeod, Catherine Clark Gray, Halle Bondi, and Ben Manila. Our supervising producer is Jay Punjabi. Music and sound design by Ryan Holliday and Daniel Nissenbaum. Mixing and mastering by Brian Pugh. Special thanks to Chris, Alicia Schreiber, David Sanford, Saida Safieva, Bob Safiet, Christina Gonzalez, and Sarah Sandman. Visit Masters of Scale.com to find the transcript for this episode and be sure to subscribe to our email newsletter.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like any revolution that seeks to make the world a better place whence is his vision is not about change for the sake of change. It's about overcoming the inequities that for many of us go unseen, but for too many others are an ever present cage. However lofty the revolution you're aiming for, if you can reassure your customers that the upsides make it worth them putting their trust in you than you've already won, the critical first half of the battle. I'm Reid Hoffman, thank you for listening.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In August 2019, Zappo sold a portion of its custodial business to Coinbase for fifty five million dollars. Wensus and his team had laid the groundwork for bringing on board the big institutional investors. Now they want to focus on the kinds of customers for whom Bitcoin could have a transformational effect.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One surprise the early adopters of MPESA were not the privileged, educated users we see in developed countries, quite the opposite.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Once you've got your dream soccer team, it's time to start scoring goals. A good example of this is when the entire Zappo team went to Kenya and used a local payment service MPESA. MPESA is in Bitcoin, but it's an interesting case of how Bitcoin could be used by people who lack access to traditional banking.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One powerful way to be there is to hire people who live there and who intrinsically understand how to reach and reassure your new expansive audience. They will be able to show others exactly how your radical new product, technology or service will bring true value to their lives. This is what Wentz is doing with Zappo. The company is fully remote with two hundred seventy five people across sixty two countries.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wensus knows that attracting the first billion Bitcoin users will require a lot of reassurance, but reaching the second and subsequent billions will take a radically different approach. These are the people who constantly face the challenge of having their life savings wiped out, just as Wentz and his family did in Argentina. So how to reach that second billion, or as Wentz refers to it here, that second public?”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just as with the internet, with Bitcoin, you have the super early adopters, the hardcore technologist who revel in the new. Then it gets popularized amongst a wider group that shares a similar outlook, but reaching the second billion, that's something else altogether.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With any product, your first tranche of users will likely be very similar. They'll be the kind of people who are already primed for what you have to offer. I love what Wentz has to say about growing Bitcoin or any product to its second billion users. He says the first billion users of any digital tool have a lot in common with each other, and he likens it to the early days of the Internet.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Unpleasant as the Malcox episode was, it was a vindication of Wentz's strategy. Today, Zappo's grown to one of the most trusted ports of refuge and the often tumultuous Bitcoin waters. Meanwhile, Bitcoin has grown from seeing at most ten thousand confirmed transactions per day in twenty eleven to around four hundred thousand.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ultimately, succeeded in reassuring the FDA of the safety and reliability of the revolutionary new DNA service. And Wensus showed a similar unrelenting commitment to Zappo. This prepared the company for the huge growth in Bitcoin that Wentz predicted. It also made sure Zappo had the reassuring measures that would attract anyone still on the fence to the Bitcoin Revolution. Wentz's big bet on Zappo paid off when an event shook the world of Bitcoin in twenty fourteen. It started with a Japanese bitcoin exchange Mount Gox.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like any revolutionary whence has had to act quickly to make his vision a reality, but he also needed to show people that his Bitcoin vision was as safe as the familiar world of checking accounts, bank statements, and debit cards that many consumers were so familiar with. This paradoxically meant investing enormous time and money in conventional security measures, the kind that would convince consumers to join his revolution. Another founder who made an industry defining bet on the long game is Anne Wajiski of the DNA Testing and Analysis Company. twenty three and Me was a first of its kind company. Government regulators didn't know how to classify it, and Anne had to decide whether to evade them or engage them.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wentis's big bold bet here is very unusual because the normal startup pattern, the one that I suggest and encourage entrepreneurs to do, is the minimal tests to see what works, what would reassure people, what's the smallest, cheapest, easiest thing that you can measure, and then iterate upon is in fact the typical and especially software approach to say we're going to go build the Fort Knox is an extremely expensive, extremely big option, but that shows you just how far you need to go in order to try to reassure people that this is in fact actually safe. In fact, this bold bet, this big move, seems very risky, but may be in fact, as Wentz is about to say, there's more risk in not taking that big bold bet.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wentzes and Federico made their big, bold bet. They backed Zappo with a measure so conservative it seems almost crazy to those of us in Silicon Valley. He literally built underground vaults that were protected by armed guards and elaborate security systems. Within these vaults, Zappo set up secure computer servers that were isolated from the Internet. It was on these servers that Zappo kept its customers digital wallets. Effectively, Zappo had created the Fort Knox of Bitcoin.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Within a year of setting it up, Wentz and Federico knew they would have to make a bold bet if they were going to reassure people that Bitcoin was safe. The market was heating up, and that increased risk.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Before the break, we had heard how Wensus had been gripped by the possibilities of Bitcoin. Now he wanted to help lay the foundations for its wider acceptance. So Wentz founded Zappo with Federico Morone to make using Bitcoin more convenient and more importantly trustworthy.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But Wensus didn't see Bitcoin as a mere alternative to unstable currencies and compromised financial institutions. He sought as a revolution for economies like Argentina. He also knew that for Bitcoin to truly succeed, it would need buy in from people used to stability. Wentzes couldn't hire teams of hackers to reassure each and every person that Bitcoin was unbreakable, and he couldn't dress up his Gondolf and give personal demonstrations in coffee shops. After the break, we'll hear how Wentz founded Zappo, the vehicle he would use to help make Bitcoin more relatable.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I recently produced a video that gives an entertaining overview of Bitcoin in the form of a Hamilton style rap battle. You can see it at Masterscale dot com slash BitcoinRap Wensus knew that if he was going to build a business around this Bitcoin revolution, he'd need to reassure consumers that it was as safe as conventional currency. And first, he had to convince himself. So he hired that group of hackers to see if they could break the system. After three months he asked for a progress report.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A public ledger with millions of copies feels like the exact opposite. Another thing that some people find scary, and others liberating, is the control you have over access to your Bitcoin and how easy it is to lose. Bitcoins are stored in wallets, a unique address on the blockchain that only you can access. But if you lose that private address, then access to the Bitcoins held there is lost forever.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But instead of people's names, the guestbook is filled with unique addresses, each of which records a transaction. This ledger, known as the blockchain, updates constantly and in real time, and that information updates simultaneously to the millions of computers tracking it. So if someone tries to mess with a ledger, it won't work, because the ledger lives everywhere. It's Bitcoin's decentralization that makes so secure. But that's also what can make people nervous. We're trained to think of safety as a deposit box that lives in the bowels of a single bank with a single key.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right, as part of his serious stress test, Wentz has actually paid hackers to let loose on Bitcoin and try to break the system. But before we come to that story, this seems like a good time to pause and explain just for a moment how Bitcoin works and why it makes some people wary. Bitcoin is digital currency, of course, but that's only the beginning. Its transactions are encrypted and decentralized, so no one person or bank or government has control. Every time Bitcoin changes hands, it's recorded on a public ledger. A digital record stretching back back. Its very creation like a very long, very detailed guestbook.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So no more cafe meetups with guys who look like Gondolf. Zappo gives the people the revolutionary benefits of using Bitcoin without making it seem scary, but getting to this point was no easy feat. You remember that Wentz's first encountered Bitcoin when he sent money to repair that bus in twenty eleven? Let's listen again as he describes the effect it had on him.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You can hear Linda's full story on our episode entitled The Nex Silicon Valley is Wensus realized he needed change the way he pitched his business to investors. In Argentina, at that time, it was revolutionary for the child of sheep ranchers to launch a successful startup, to say nothing of the radical ideas in his startup itself. To succeed Wentz needed to speak the language of local finance. He needed to reassure Argentine investors that his operation was actually quite conventional in order to start that revolution, and he did. Wentz's startup Patagon was sold to the Spanish bank Santander for seven hundred fifty million dollars in two thousand. And mobile wallet lemon. And now there's Zappo, spelled with an X. Zappo is a Bitcoin wallet whose user interface is a lot like a regular banks. They have an app that makes it easier.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Linda's nonprofit was still an idea when she met Wentzis, and Linda was looking to start a revolution of her own. She wanted to bring entrepreneurs together with local investors to show ideas could come from anywhere. Wentz was exactly the kind of unlikely entrepreneur she was looking for.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Linda Rotenberg, the co-founder of Endeavor, which helps entrepreneurs worldwide to thrive. She arrived at Wentz's door, certain she could help. Wentz wasn't so sure.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wence returned to Argentina and launched a new financial services venture called Patagon, but he wasn't just launching his own startup, he wanted to revolutionize how startups were launched in Argentina. However, he found once again that Argentina's venture capital deck was stacked against him. It was rejection after rejection until the moment everything changed.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In Argentina at that time, getting money was all about family connections. No doubt this was entwined with the country's repeated financial crises. So when Wensus visited Silicon Valley for a conference in nineteen ninety four, it was like a different world.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The collapse of something as fundamental as the banking system is something that most of us will hopefully never experience. But for hundreds of millions of people worldwide, it's a real threat. And chronic financial insecurity didn't just hurt Wences in the short term. Wentz saw how it cribbled the whole economy and kept startups from starting. Wentz had dropped out of college to launch the country's first internet service provider called Internet Argentina SA. He convinced his sisters to drop out too. For a year and a half he tried to raise capital in and around Argentina, but the meetings thirty three of them all went the same way. He'd launch into his carefully crafted presentation.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With his latest company, Zappo, that spelled XAPO, whence is set out to make using Bitcoin as easy as possible for consumers and institutions, and he did this by taking extraordinary lengths to reassure them. Before we get to Wentz's story, I want to assure you that we'll give a bit of a Bitcoin primer later in the episode. This demystification is part of Wentz's mission. But first we're going to hear Wentz's first hand experience of being excluded from traditional financial systems and the devastating effect it can have.”
2020-02-27 · Masters of Scale · How to start a revolution, w/Bitcoin pioneer Wences Casares (Xapo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT