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Alex Mashinsky is the CEO and Co-Founder of Celsius Network, a network that lets you earn interest on crypto and instantly borrow against it. “Unbank yourself” is the company’s motto and for good reason. Celsius is disrupting the world of banking and financial management, which has long sought to regulate and limit the market for their own interests.

“We feel that banks have become such monopolistic institutions that they stopped caring for their depositors, they only care for their shareholders. They are basically extracting way too much from all of us, the 99% of Americans who are not part of the 1%, and giving it all to the few people who are the major shareholders of these institutions.”

Celsius is changing that and Alex is leading the charge. His personal experiences have afforded him a unique perspective and understanding of financial systems. According to his website he was, “born into communism, reared under socialism, and is currently thriving under capitalism.” He’s also a prolific inventor, holding over 50 patents as well as over a dozen awards for his work in the technology and finance field.

In this episode, Ian and Alex talk about how Alex and Celsius are working to disrupt the banking industry, what Celsius is looking to build in the long-term and lessons Alex has learned from his previous business ventures that he used while building Celsius.

Quotes:

2:11 – “We feel that banks have become such monopolistic institutions that they stopped caring for their depositors, they only care for their shareholders. They are basically extracting way too much from all of us, the 99% of Americans who are not part of the 1%, and giving it all to the few people who are the major shareholders of these institutions.”

3:09 – “Tenacity and doing the right thing does pay off.”

6:01 – “The blockchain is a new revolution. It’s an even bigger wave than the internet wave because it touches all the money in the world. It’s like a new set of rails. Just like Voice Over IP needed a new set of rails to disrupt phone companies. The blockchain is a new set of rails that is disrupting the banking and the money supply which really has been abused by central banks and governments for the last 50 years.”

10:27 – “All of us should have our money work for us, not just us work for our money.”

21:48 – “You need to kill your existing business and build it on the blockchain.”