Crypto Salon Ep4: 2012 Bitcoin to Start-Up Stories with Songyi Lee
Welcome to episode 4 of our trademark series Crypto Salon where discuss all things crypto with prominent voices in the industry. Today we’ve invited a DAO maxi, legend of the town, a true blue Bitcoin OG…drum roll please…🥁
Songyi Lee! 👏
Nonce Classic: (Joon) It’s been a while since we’ve seen you back in Korea, we’re all so happy to see you. Today we’re going to fire away some questions and address some wild rumors, of course, along the way please enlighten us on your journey through the crypto world.
First, you’re known to be a true Bitcoin OG, is it true you noticed Bitcoin from 2009 when it first came out and started mining from 2011?
Songyi: The answer to that is No. The facts are I heard of it in 2011 and first started with a small laptop I had at home, they used to be called “netbooks” back then 😂. I ran a small node, and though it didn’t run well — it did work!
NC: (Youbin — genuinely surprised) How much did you mine?
Songyi: I cant remember accurately but I remember the process was very slow. I wasn’t doing much with my laptop anyway I thought it would be a good idea 😊
NC: (Youbin) When you first started mining, did you have any specific expectations?
Songyi: I was first exposed to it by my ex-boyfriend but to be honest after experiencing it I didn’t want to use it. I didn’t think it was necessary. I also didn’t understand it completely and didn’t have faith it would turn out to be successful. But, it was the only alternative. Even now, my thoughts have not changed. Whether its blockchain, DAOs, or NFTs I always tell people, if there is an alternative and a sustainable, working system set in place we don’t need to use them! But in the case where its the only way, we should turn to it.
NC: (Joon) I definitely agree. Okay then going back, let’s check the facts. You began mining in 2012 with a netbook. 😂
Songyi: I tried, I tried 😅
Second question, is it true that you founded a Bitcoin remittance start-up in 2013, in Silicon Valley?
Songyi: Actually I started in Korea but went to Berlin, Germany. Back then no one in Korea understood it but I heard that Germany was going to acknowledge Bitcoin as a legitimate currency. There were even restaurants and cafes that received Bitcoin as a method of payment. So I headed to Berlin and launched at the end of 2013, and thankfully a lot of people were interested and companies like 500 startups or Plug and Play reached out to us and asked if we would want to receive their acceleration. We chose a place and headed to the States — our company was called 37coins. Funny story, in 2017 when Bitcoin was starting to get popular people came back to ask if I founded Bitcoin. 😆 Since I went around talking about Bitcoin.
NC: (Joon) So not Silicon Valley but travelling from Korea to Germany you founded 37 Coins — a Bitcoin remittance start-up.
Songyi: True
Next question! Is it true you were featured in the The Age of Cryptocurrency? Now this book was published in 2016, right before the Bitcoin hype and to this day is considered a must-read. How did it all happen?
Songyi: I had a friend in Wall Street Journal called Paul and he was researching start-ups, this was also in the beginning of cryptocurrency’s popularity. So we met up in the States and talked. I think we were featured because our company was a little more “human”, for lack of better term, compared to start-ups that were building wallets or into security. We had more of a mission and I think he wanted to share that. In chapter 6 or 7 “Banking the Unbanked” you can see our start-up story in quite some detail. The book contains various use cases of blockchain like a “Introduction to Blockchain” textbook.
NC: Great — we’ve divided this into a two part series so stay tuned!
Speakers: Youbin, Gen (Nonce Classic), Joon (Founder of mvnt.)
Guest: Songyi Lee
Location: @nonce_community
