Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase — The Art of Relentless Focus, Preparing for Full-Contact Entrepreneurship, Critical Forks in the Path, Handling Haters, The Wisdom of Paul Graham, Epigenetic Reprogramming, and Much More | Brought to you by ShipStation shipping software, Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement, and Helix Sleep premium mattresses. Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Coinbase. Founded in 2012, Coinbase is building the crypto economy—a more fair, accessible, efficient, and transparent financial system enabled by crypto. Coinbase serves over 103 million verified users, 14,500 institutions, and 245,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries. In April 2021, Coinbase listed publicly on NASDAQ as COIN. Before founding Coinbase, Brian served as a software engineer at Airbnb, where he focused on fraud prevention. Before Airbnb, Brian founded and was CEO of UniversityTutor.com, an online tutoring directory and a subsidiary of Johnson Educational Technologies LLC. Brian also previously served as a consultant for the enterprise risk management division at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Brian has a BA in computer science and economics and an MS in computer science from Rice University.Over the last three years, Coinbase has worked with ten-time Emmy®-winning filmmaker Greg Kohs on a documentary about cryptocurrency and Coinbase. COIN is now available on Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Vimeo on Demand, and other platforms.Please enjoy!*This episode is brought to you by ShipStation! ShipStation integrates with every widely used platform—including Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Shopify, etc.—making it easy to manage all your shipping from one simple dashboard. Save time with consolidated order management and automated shipping updates for your customers. Easily compare carriers, rates, and delivery times to get the most out of every send. And get the same discounted shipping rates as Fortune 500 companies, whether you‘re sending a stack or a truckful.98% of companies that use ShipStation for one year become customers for life, so join the 130,000+ companies who have grown their ecommerce businesses with ShipStation. Go to ShipStation.com today and sign up with promo code TIM for a FREE 60-day trial. Get set up before the biggest shipping season of the year, and get 2 months FREE when you visit ShipStation.com. Just click the microphone at the top and type in code TIM.*This episode is also brought to you by Helix Sleep! Helix was selected as the #1 overall mattress of 2020 by GQ magazine, Wired, Apartment Therapy, and many others. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress to meet each and every body’s unique comfort needs. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk-free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, Helix is offering up to 200 dollars off all mattress orders plus two free pillows at HelixSleep.com/Tim.*This episode is also brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1 by Athletic Greens, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. Right now, Athletic Greens is offering you their Vitamin D Liquid Formula free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit AthleticGreens.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive the free Vitamin D Liquid Formula (and five free travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive all-in-one daily greens product.*[05:46] How Brian’s first book idea became a blog.[07:21] Brian’s time in Buenos Aires.[13:39] Present-day economic warning signs.[16:13] Coinbase beginnings: from genesis to the Buy Bitcoin button.[20:35] Influential human beings, books, and documentaries.[23:15] Core principles learned from early startup days.[26:39] Favorite Paul Graham essays.[28:12] Controversy: Coinbase becomes an apolitical, mission-focused company.[37:11] Cultivating resilience to resistance as a leader.[44:57] Competition.[46:51] What crypto skeptics and crypto bulls each get wrong often.[49:30] Main use cases for crypto.[50:18] Making the case that crypto is still in early days.[54:55] Novel crypto ideas Brian thinks will prove worthwhile.[59:57] Lessons learned from the launch of Coinbase’s NFT marketplace.[1:03:44] How Coinbase is addressing NFT security.[1:05:34] “Not your keys, not your crypto.”[1:10:56] Self-improvement.[1:14:14] Learning biology basics from a tutor as an adult.[1:20:03] The goals of NewLimit.[1:27:32] What is ResearchHub?[1:31:41] How open bounties work.[1:33:25] What excites Brian most about science today?[1:36:52] Brian’s billboard.[1:38:24] Parting thoughts.*For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsorsSign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissYouTube: youtube.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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The speaker believes that America is in a slow decline, and while the crypto economy is still being treated as a growth tech stock, he predicts that it will become the main thing in the next 10-20 years.
Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong discusses iterating the product and gathering customer feedback in the early days of building the cryptocurrency exchange, and shares a pivotal moment in which he realized the importance of making the platform easy to use.
The podcast explores the idea of taking life less seriously and always staying curious. The guest speaker shares his views on the global macro environment and different countries, which led him to take action and revisit his ideas regularly.
Coinbase CEO explains the company's mission to be apolitical and avoid social conversations in the workplace, which sparked criticism leading to severance packages for employees who disagreed with this stance. He discusses the decision-making process, possible ramifications, and outcome of the controversy.
David Heinemeier Hansson shares his experience of realizing that the company's goals were not aligned with his own and how a vocal minority was affecting the culture of the company.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, emphasizes the importance of limiting distractions and focusing on accomplishing one or two tasks each day that align with personal goals. He credits his co-founders and colleagues for providing honest feedback and helping him avoid making mistakes.
The CEO emphasizes the importance of having competitors in the cryptocurrency market to prevent in-fighting within the company, but also notes the danger of too much focus on rivals instead of building something useful for the long run.
The scalability and regulatory clarity of blockchains could lead to significant advancements and adoption of the technology. This could lead to an order of magnitude increase in usage and open up new opportunities for institutional investments.
The emergence of crypto-based companies could make it easier for anyone to set up a new business with a tokenized system. However, there is a need for stable or flat coins that are linked to purchasing power.
Coinbase aims to simplify crypto transactions and make them more trusted for the average person. By taking charge of storing a lot of crypto, Coinbase wants to make it easier for customers to transact regardless of where the supply comes from.
Entrepreneur Tim Ferriss reflects on how his motivation and priorities have shifted as he's aged, and how he now focuses on finding joy in what he does with the time he has left.
The speaker discusses his interest in exploring biotechnology tools like PCR and flow cytometry and utilizing them to solve hard science problems. He also mentions the underpayment of grad students and highlights the brilliance of some of these young teachers.
The long-term goal for regenerative medicine is to find a method for mass-market use which could be something like a pill or a shot. This platform facilitates testing with different cell types and tissues to develop therapies for different indications.
Research Hub aims to simplify the process of sorting through millions of published papers and make peer reviews, Q&A, comments, and feedback more collaborative. The platform offers services such as video summaries of papers and literature summaries to help anyone with a scientific question or research task.
Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong discusses the challenges of bridging the gap between scientists and business leaders, who often have different perspectives and priorities. He emphasizes the importance of bringing these groups together to promote innovation and progress.
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