Charlie Shrem
| Charlie Shrem | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Charles Shrem IV November 25, 1989 Brooklyn, NY |
| Residence | New York, NY |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Brooklyn College |
| Occupation | Founder & CEO, BitInstant (2011-13) Vice Chairman, Bitcoin Foundation (2012-14) Founder & CTO, Intellisys Capital (2016-present) |
| Years active | 2009 – present |
| Known for | Entrepreneur |
| Website | charlieshrem |
Charles "Charlie" Shrem IV (born November 25, 1989) is an American entrepreneur and bitcoin advocate. He co-founded the now-defunct startup company BitInstant, and the investment company Intellisys Capital. He is a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation, and formerly served as vice chairman. In December 2014 he was sentenced to two years in prison for aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business related to the Silk Road marketplace. He was released from prison around June 2016.
Shrem was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He is an alum of Yeshivah of Flatbush, and graduated from Brooklyn College in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Finance. He is of Syrian Jewish descent.
As a college senior in 2011, Shrem started investing in bitcoin. Soon after, the bitcoin service Shrem was using crashed, and he lost his bitcoins. Shrem and Gareth Nelson, a friend he met online, had similar frustrations with the length of time it took to buy and sell bitcoin on exchange sites. They started BitInstant, a more user-friendly company that charged a fee for users to purchase and make purchases with bitcoins at over 700,000 locations, providing temporary credit to speed up transactions. Initially a side project, BitInstant soon needed to grow, at which point Shrem received a $10,000 loan from his mother. Shortly thereafter, BitInstant received $125,000 from angel investor Roger Ver, and, in the fall of 2012, $1.5 million from a group of investors led by Winklevoss Capital Management. By 2013, BitInstant was processing approximately 30% of all bitcoin transactions. BitInstant operated from September 2011 until July 2013.
At the Bitcoin 2013 conference in San Jose, California, Shrem spoke about the challenges facing bitcoin companies and the need for them to comply with regulations, as well as the challenges of properly explaining the value and mainstream potential of bitcoin. He has described himself as a bitcoin purist, who believes in bitcoin as a technology that will help the world by allowing citizens to protect their money without banks and other traditional financial institutions.
...
Wikipedia