SV Icons: Mike Belshe, BitGo
Building billion dollar crypto custody
In 2013, Mike Belshe founded BitGo to solve the problem of cryptocurrency custody. BitGo has been relied upon by institutions and crypto-native companies for digital asset custody, lending, borrowing, and security needs.
Mike imagines a world where top secret documents are managed digitally but are nonetheless accessible, where digital access can be revoked within nanoseconds. He holds that blockchain will be the first enabler of this world.
He shared his perspective that new layer-1 blockchains (L1s) will not take away from Ethereum today, as L1s have their unique value propositions, and the whole ecosystem is growing because of these use cases (e.g., gaming, social, etc.).
Mike believes that Web3 enables fairer customer treatment and will benefit the whole tech ecosystem. For instance, you worked hard to build a great app. You registered a trademark. But you are forced to sign up to Apple's demands for 30% of your revenue because it is the only way to reach iOS users. Web3, he contends, levels the playing field.
It's natural to be skeptical of new technology and a new way of thinking about money. But from the small business owner to the CEO of Black Rock, people are beginning to see the value of cryptocurrencies, Mike argued.
Security is core to BitGo's mission, and Mike believes sharing wallet keys is always bad for security. Some people like the portability of a seed phrase and sharing between wallets, but sharing keys brings your security to the least common denominator of every software you ever touched. Single key wallets, he believes, are forever vulnerable.
Eliminating single points of failure protects investors on many levels. As regulators prioritize "investor protection," focusing on basic security principles may be the answer to address crypto skepticism.
We have rules in our capital markets to safeguard market integrity and protect against fraud. And Mikes believes that if BitGo can help build a crypto market that protects investors and meets the standard of our market regulations, people will have greater confidence in the crypto market.
Organizer: Gerogi Koreli
Host: Chyngyz Dzhumanazarov
Editor: Jacky Lin