From Bloomberg
A cheer went up in the San Francisco offices of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Inc. when bitcoin breached $10,000 in November. But the 225-employee startup has a goal beyond price. The company wants to use digital money to reinvent finance.Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-15/coinbase-wants-wall-street-to-resolve-its-bitcoin-trust-issuesIn Coinbase’s version of the future, loans, venture capital, money transfers, accounts receivable and stock trading can all be done with electronic currency, using Coinbase instead of banks.
But first, Coinbase, already popular with individual traders, needs to legitimize itself -- and bring in revenue -- by convincing big money managers to trust it enough to trade on its exchange. That means giving institutions what they want, including a safe place to stash their cryptocurrency. It also has to reassure regulators that bitcoin isn’t a silk road for hackers, money launderers and tax evaders.
“How do we get institutional money to flow into this space?” said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong, 34. “It would help grow the whole industry. It would create more trust, surety, maybe reduce the volatility of it over time.”
Founded in 2012, Coinbase’s offices still buzz with startup charm: a beer fridge, a game room, plenty of company swag. A cowbell calls employees to weekly “code school” on Fridays, and the guest wifi password is “openfinancialsystem!”
I signed up to Coinbase this week to do a little arbitrage. Their overburdened verification system was brutal and I was limited for a week. What I learned though is there is very real demand right now. People are signing up in droves.
