"fred erson" Discussed on Business Wars
"The winklevoss twins tried to put Facebook behind them by going big on Bitcoin. But now, the brothers are worried that their bet on bit instant and its young cofounder Charlie shrem is about to go down in flames and tank their comeback. This is episode three. The great slow motion swindle. Summer, 2013, San Francisco. In a busy diner, the coinbase team slide into a booth to grab dinner before returning to work. The waitress takes their orders and heads for the kitchen. It's been a whirlwind few months for the startup. A year ago, coinbase was just an idea in CEO Brian Armstrong's smooth shaven head. 6 months ago, it had just opened for business. Now, it looks after tens of thousands of people's bitcoins. But its team is still small enough to squeeze into one diner booth. As they wait for their food, one employee butts heads with Armstrong. Bitcoin isn't the only cryptocurrency anymore. There are at least 60 cryptocurrencies out there now. You know, we should add support for them. No, no, no, no. Every one of these cryptocurrencies comes with its own quirks, blockchain, and security issues. Besides, none of them are popular enough to justify the cost of supporting them. Cofounder Fred erson wades in. Ryan's right. Bitcoin, sorry, excuse me here. For some checks his phone. And frowns. It's a security alert. Some customers trying to exceed the Bitcoin withdrawal limit. One of the team grabs his laptop from his bag. I'll check it out. The team waits anxiously as the employee opens his laptop and logs into coinbase's systems. Okay, I'm in. Let's see what's going on here. Ah, there you are. What's happening? This guy's trying to get his Bitcoin out. Wait, um. That's weird. What is? It looks like he's using one of our contractors accounts to add Bitcoin to another account. And now the bastard's trying to withdraw the coins. Well, not anymore. I just need to change the contractor's password and kick him out. Or some leans forward. Did he get anything? Yeah. A couple hundred Bitcoin. Or some winces. That's tens of thousands of dollars gone. Damn, how did he hack us? Armstrong places his hands on the table. And looks at the team. Guys, I doubt it's a hag. He probably tricked our contractor into divulging their account details. Either that or he hacked the contractor's computer. The team stares at the table. Coinbase has just been robbed. Armstrong frowns. It's an expensive loss, but a fraction of what coinbase could have lost if a more sophisticated hacker had breached its defenses. You know, people trust us with their Bitcoin. And that makes us a target. Guys, I think this proves it. If we got hacked for real, it could be the end of us. We need to tighten security. But as the coinbase team scrambles to fortify the defenses, bit
