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Top quotes from Rise and Rise Stars, Where are they now?

After garnering all the hype and attention, the documentary ‘Rise and Rise of Bitcoin’ did make a significant impact. Carefully targeted at average audience, the documentary goes through the journey of Bitcoin from its inception and makes the point about how the currency is here to stay.

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

Daniel and Nicholas Mross share the experience of an early Bitcoin adopter who has stuck with the world’s first major cryptocurrency. Through his journey they portray how the rise of Silk Road, fall of MtGox, and all of the other craziness in the industry couldn’t stop Bitcoin. For many critics the movie seemed to be a quick crash course on Bitcoin, beautifully captured over the limited time frame. It features few prominent personalities from the Bitcoin world sharing their experiences and elaborating select moments. Let’s look into few Top quotes from the movie and what they are doing today:

Gavin Andresen, Bitcoin Developer

“I really couldn’t convince myself that it would not work…Since then, I’ve been sucked down the rabbit hole.”

Gavin Andresen is the lead programmer currently on the Bitcoin Ecosystem. He was one of the few people who ventured out into the ‘Bitcoin Project’ and helped to turn it into a Billion Dollar Project today. When asked about why he chose this path, he says that he couldn’t convince himself that Bitcoin wouldn’t work. Hence he never turned back from the day he started. After several years working on the software, Andresen left the role of lead developer of bitcoin to work on the strategic development of its technology.

Charlie Shrem, CEO BitInstant

“I don’t know how the government will react to Bitcoin. But I spend thousands of dollars on lawyers every day just to make sure that I’m not going to go to jail.”   

Charlie Shrem was the founder and chairman of BitInstant a pioneering start up in the field of purchasing bitcoins. BitInstant is a more user-friendly company that charged a fee for users to purchase and make purchases with bitcoins. The facility was prevalent at over 700,000 locations, providing temporary credit to speed up transactions. Ironically Shrem was sentenced to two years in prison for aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business related to the Silk Road. He was later released in 2016 and currently  is a business development consultant for payments startup Payza.

Brian Armstrong, CEO Coinbase

“I would not be surprised if Google, Paypal and everybody else is planning to add Bitcoin in a couple of years. By that time there should be 50 million wallets.”

Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of Coinbase, has always had his eyes set on a career in Tech. His first job out of college was at Deloitte & Touche as a senior software engineer at CarWoo.com. Armstrong was captivated by the idea of Bitcoin during Christmas 2010. But there weren’t many transaction places for bitcoins yet. Thus, from Bitcoin came the idea for Coinbase, an international digital wallet that allows you to securely buy, use and accept bitcoin currency. Armstrong lives in San Francisco, CA with Coinbase operating healthily.