#627: Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase — The Art of Relentless Focus, Preparing for Full-Contact Entrepreneurship, Critical Forks in the Path, Handling Haters, The Wisdom of Paul Graham, Epigenetic Reprogramming, and Much More

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase — The Art of Relentless
Focus, Preparing for Full-Contact Entrepreneurship, Critical
Forks in the Path, Handling Haters, The Wisdom of Paul Graham,
Epigenetic Reprogramming, and Much More | Brought to you
by ShipStation shipping
software, Athletic
Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement,
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Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) is the
co-founder and chief executive officer of Coinbase. Founded in
2012, Coinbase is building the crypto economy—a more fair,
accessible, efficient, and transparent financial system enabled
by crypto. Coinbase serves over 103 million verified users,
14,500 institutions, and 245,000 ecosystem partners in over 100
countries. In April 2021, Coinbase listed publicly on NASDAQ as
COIN. 


Before founding Coinbase, Brian served as a software engineer at
Airbnb, where he focused on fraud prevention. Before Airbnb,
Brian founded and was CEO of UniversityTutor.com, an online
tutoring directory and a subsidiary of Johnson Educational
Technologies LLC. Brian also previously served as a consultant
for the enterprise risk management division at Deloitte &
Touche LLP. Brian has a BA in computer science and economics and
an MS in computer science from Rice University.


Over the last three years, Coinbase has worked with ten-time
Emmy-winning filmmaker Greg Kohs on a documentary about
cryptocurrency and Coinbase. COIN is now
available on Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Vimeo on Demand, and other
platforms.


Please enjoy!


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[05:46] How Brian’s first book idea became a blog.


[07:21] Brian’s time in Buenos Aires.


[13:39] Present-day economic warning signs.


[16:13] Coinbase beginnings: from genesis to the Buy Bitcoin
button.


[20:35] Influential human beings, books, and documentaries.


[23:15] Core principles learned from early startup days.


[26:39] Favorite Paul Graham essays.


[28:12] Controversy: Coinbase becomes an apolitical,
mission-focused company.


[37:11] Cultivating resilience to resistance as a leader.


[44:57] Competition.


[46:51] What crypto skeptics and crypto bulls each get wrong
often.


[49:30] Main use cases for crypto.


[50:18] Making the case that crypto is still in early days.


[54:55] Novel crypto ideas Brian thinks will prove worthwhile.


[59:57] Lessons learned from the launch of Coinbase’s NFT
marketplace.


[1:03:44] How Coinbase is addressing NFT security.


[1:05:34] “Not your keys, not your crypto.”


[1:10:56] Self-improvement.


[1:14:14] Learning biology basics from a tutor as an adult.


[1:20:03] The goals of NewLimit.


[1:27:32] What is ResearchHub?


[1:31:41] How open bounties work.


[1:33:25] What excites Brian most about science today?


[1:36:52] Brian’s billboard.


[1:38:24] Parting thoughts.


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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss
Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh
Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin
Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew
McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth
Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah
Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine
Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary
Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael
Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria
Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de
Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly
Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard
Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael
Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan
Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit
Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim
Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval
Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth
Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard
Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid
Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick
Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren
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Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah
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