CZ: First-year profit of Binance reached $1 billion, still preaching Bitcoin in prison

Recently, well-known crypto entrepreneur @APompliano interviewed Binance founder @cz_binance on his podcast. We have transcribed the podcast content.

Here are some interesting excerpts from the interview:

I was born in a remote rural area of China and later moved to an even smaller village. Before I can remember, our family didn't have running water or electricity. When I was in elementary school, I often studied under an oil lamp, the kind with a glass罩. A few years later, our family installed a water pump to draw water. A few years after that, we got electricity. Later, we moved to a small city in China, and then immigrated to Canada.

The city we moved to was Hefei, which has one of China's top universities. On the university campus, I saw paved cement roads for the first time, which were much better than dirt roads. These experiences made me realize that the world was bigger than I thought. This experience also cultivated my mindset of accepting new things. I have always felt that I am not much different from others, so I have never had a sense of superiority or inferiority. I hope I won't be too arrogant, but I won't be too pessimistic either.

I missed the internet wave, but when Bitcoin appeared in 2013, I was already 35 years old. I realized that I couldn't miss this opportunity again, so I quit my job, sold my house, and devoted myself to the crypto space.

We officially launched on July 14, 2017. Just six weeks later, the Chinese government announced that cryptocurrency exchanges would no longer be allowed to operate. At that time, we faced a choice: close the company or move elsewhere? This is where my international experience came into play. I didn't think relocation was complicated because I had lived in many countries. So we decided to move 30 members of the team from China to Tokyo and no longer be based in China.

I remember the first year's profit was about $1 billion. I think we may have been the first company to make $1 billion in profit from a startup.

Some prisoners have shown interest in learning about cryptocurrency and investing. So we managed to get some books about cryptocurrency sent to the prison. I formed a small study group with them and spent 30 minutes each day discussing investment knowledge. I gave them homework and they asked questions. There were 9 TVs in the prison, one of which was converted to a financial channel to follow the Bitcoin price. This study group helped me build supporters and reduce trouble.

Podcast: https://t.co/gisaqoexTV

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