This session presented an interview with Fred Ehrsam, the co-founder of Coinbase, which was then a startup in the emerging bitcoin economy, though by early 2021, it was the largest cryptocurrency exchange (by volume) in the United States. He left Coinbase in 2017 to start Paradigm, which invests in cryptocurrency businesses. By SXSW 2014, public awareness of Bitcoin had increased, but technological and infrastructure issues had helped trigger devaluations during the preceding months. Still, Ehrsam remained bullish due to cryptocurrency's transparency, versatility and evasion of financial service company fees.