1 00:00:00.210 --> 00:00:02.550 Kevin Travers: Hi, I'm Kevin Travers with deBanked. We're 2 00:00:02.550 --> 00:00:04.860 visiting the Blockchain Center on the Upper West Side in New 3 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:07.770 York City, formerly known as the Bitcoin Center. It was founded 4 00:00:07.770 --> 00:00:11.010 by Nick Spanos and featured in the Netflix documentary, Banking 5 00:00:11.010 --> 00:00:11.760 on Bitcoin. 6 00:00:19.340 --> 00:00:22.040 So we're here on the Upper West Side of the Blockchain Center 7 00:00:22.040 --> 00:00:24.740 with Anna Ginzburg, the director. Anna what can you tell 8 00:00:24.740 --> 00:00:27.860 us about what you guys do here and what you do for the crypto 9 00:00:27.860 --> 00:00:28.370 community? 10 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:32.060 Anna Ginzburg: Absolutely. Thank you so much for being here. I'm 11 00:00:32.090 --> 00:00:34.310 Ana Ginsburg and I'm the director of the blockchain 12 00:00:34.310 --> 00:00:38.150 center. And my partner Nick Stanos is the founder of the 13 00:00:38.150 --> 00:00:42.590 blockchain center. And as far back as 2013, the Blockchain 14 00:00:42.590 --> 00:00:46.070 Center is a place where people can gather and learn about 15 00:00:46.070 --> 00:00:49.970 cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin, as well as buy Bitcoin and trade 16 00:00:49.970 --> 00:00:53.540 Bitcoin. And as you can see, we have Bitcoin ATMs, and we also 17 00:00:53.540 --> 00:00:57.350 have a bit license, which enables us to do these financial 18 00:00:57.350 --> 00:01:01.640 transactions. So what is Bitcoin? So a Bitcoin is a 19 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:05.210 decentralized cryptocurrency, and basically, it's a reward 20 00:01:05.240 --> 00:01:08.360 that a computer gets for solving a math problem correctly. 21 00:01:08.540 --> 00:01:10.610 Kevin Travers: Awesome. How do you guys support the development 22 00:01:10.610 --> 00:01:13.040 of Bitcoin projects here at the Blockchain Center? 23 00:01:13.520 --> 00:01:15.530 Anna Ginzburg: Yes, that's a great question. We provide 24 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:19.760 exposure for startups. And we also have our own media, 25 00:01:20.420 --> 00:01:24.860 including the Blockchain Center shows, and I'm the producer of 26 00:01:24.860 --> 00:01:29.120 Thursdays on the block, which is a show every Thursday on the 27 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:31.970 Blockchain Center YouTube network, where you could learn 28 00:01:32.360 --> 00:01:35.360 everything about cryptocurrencies. And we have 29 00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:41.210 amazing guests from Celsius Network to Genesis Capital, to 30 00:01:41.210 --> 00:01:44.990 Fire Blocks, which is one of the biggest custodians of crypto, 31 00:01:45.290 --> 00:01:50.510 and OTC desks, as well as regulators and compliance and 32 00:01:50.510 --> 00:01:51.020 legal. 33 00:01:51.500 --> 00:01:53.570 Kevin Travers: Yeah, what can you tell me about the founder? 34 00:01:54.290 --> 00:01:58.400 Anna Ginzburg: Yes, well, Nick Spanos is actually an incredible 35 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:04.070 person. Hugely successful and hugely intelligent. At one 36 00:02:04.070 --> 00:02:10.040 point, Nick Spanos actually had 33% of all blockchain patents. 37 00:02:11.060 --> 00:02:14.600 So when you're talking about blockchain technology, which is 38 00:02:14.600 --> 00:02:18.380 the underlying technology behind Bitcoin and distributed ledger 39 00:02:18.380 --> 00:02:24.980 technology, a lot of blockchain is going to be used to totally 40 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:28.580 overhaul the technologies that we have today. 41 00:02:28.580 --> 00:02:30.940 Kevin Travers: I am someone that decided it was a good idea to 42 00:02:30.940 --> 00:02:35.440 bind to the market January 2018. I didn't make, I didn't make 43 00:02:35.440 --> 00:02:37.510 billions of dollars. So the price went down and it's just 44 00:02:37.510 --> 00:02:41.110 now reaching the point that it was at or around it. What would 45 00:02:41.110 --> 00:02:44.200 you say to people that have lost trust in cryptocurrency or 46 00:02:44.200 --> 00:02:48.580 blockchain technologies because it was back then marketed as a 47 00:02:48.580 --> 00:02:49.390 get rich quick scheme? 48 00:02:50.050 --> 00:02:54.460 Anna Ginzburg: Absolutely. A lot of ICOs, which were initial coin 49 00:02:54.460 --> 00:03:00.040 offerings came about in the year 2017. Most of those ICOs 50 00:03:00.040 --> 00:03:03.760 although they managed to attract a lot of investors didn't really 51 00:03:03.760 --> 00:03:08.590 have real technology behind them. Some of them were outright 52 00:03:08.590 --> 00:03:13.600 scams, some of them were just horrible companies, that without 53 00:03:13.630 --> 00:03:18.760 meaning to defraud investors just happened to do so. So after 54 00:03:18.790 --> 00:03:23.530 2017, it's much harder to raise money. And also you have to 55 00:03:23.530 --> 00:03:28.540 think about all the implications that you take on when you want 56 00:03:28.540 --> 00:03:32.500 to do an initial coin offering. So and I don't we don't give 57 00:03:32.500 --> 00:03:36.550 financial advice here, hashtag not financial advice, but I 58 00:03:36.550 --> 00:03:41.710 always suggest raising capital the traditional way. So you may, 59 00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:44.620 you know, if you want to be in cryptocurrency, you can trade 60 00:03:44.620 --> 00:03:48.850 crypto but I wouldn't suggest doing an ICO. So if you're 61 00:03:48.850 --> 00:03:52.510 looking to do a series a or Series B round, I would go for 62 00:03:52.510 --> 00:03:54.220 the traditional rounds of financing. 63 00:03:54.460 --> 00:03:56.950 Kevin Travers: Now that Bitcoin is somewhat back in the news, 64 00:03:56.950 --> 00:03:58.120 where do you think it's gonna go from here? 65 00:03:59.440 --> 00:04:01.840 Anna Ginzburg: Well, not financial advice, but we really 66 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:07.000 never know. Some people say that uncertainty makes Bitcoin go 67 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:10.810 higher. And we've seen that to be the case. Also other people 68 00:04:10.810 --> 00:04:15.130 look at the analytics. So the correlation with Bitcoin and 69 00:04:15.130 --> 00:04:18.910 gold with Bitcoin and the US dollar and with Bitcoin and 70 00:04:18.910 --> 00:04:23.710 other assets. So if you look at the correlation between Bitcoin 71 00:04:23.740 --> 00:04:27.040 which is the number one cryptocurrency and Ethereum, 72 00:04:27.490 --> 00:04:30.610 which is the number two cryptocurrency, in the last 90 73 00:04:30.610 --> 00:04:36.610 days, the correlation was about 69% between Bitcoin and Ethereum 74 00:04:36.850 --> 00:04:42.340 and it was about 66% between Bitcoin and XRP and the top 75 00:04:42.340 --> 00:04:46.420 cryptocurrencies now by market cap, are Bitcoin number one, 76 00:04:46.870 --> 00:04:53.200 Ethereum is number two, Tether is now number three, and XRP is 77 00:04:53.200 --> 00:04:58.240 number four. So Tether overtook XRP for the number three spot in 78 00:04:58.240 --> 00:04:58.720 crypto. 79 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:01.380 Kevin Travers: Well, thank you so much for having us here and 80 00:05:01.380 --> 00:05:03.450 thank you for supporting deBanked 81 00:05:03.720 --> 00:05:06.094 Anna Ginzburg: Absolutely, deBanked I know is one of the 82 00:05:06.152 --> 00:05:09.860 longest running magazines having to do with lending and the cash 83 00:05:09.918 --> 00:05:13.393 advance industry, and I'm very glad to be here, and happy to 84 00:05:13.451 --> 00:05:14.610 host you at my home.