{"id":11057,"date":"2015-01-29T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.wework.com\/?p=11057"},"modified":"2020-03-30T18:43:19","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T22:43:19","slug":"just-dive-advises-elliptics-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/just-dive-advises-elliptics-ceo","title":{"rendered":"Just dive in, advises Elliptic\u2019s CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elliptic<\/a>\u2019s James Smith says luck was on his side when he decided to venture into the business of Bitcoin. \u201cI generally don\u2019t try to predict my future too far out and I\u2019m not really risk averse, so when [my co-founders and I] saw what looked like it was going to be a big opportunity, we wanted to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve read the news at all in the past year, you\u2019ll have heard of Bitcoin, a digital payment system that operates on peer-to-peer open-source software. It allows for direct transactions without the use of an intermediary. The advent of Bitcoin has led some to make claims as extreme as calling the death of paper currency, and major players are lauding it as the future of payment networks.<\/p>\n

Naturally, many people are trying to get in early on this new asset. Smith describes it as being comparable to internet in the nineties. \u201cIt\u2019s the time to build infrastructure in Bitcoin because it\u2019s such an early time in its development. There are a lot of things out there that are either in a very raw form or just haven\u2019t been built yet, and we\u2019re one of the companies trying to put that basic infrastructure in place.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s company, Elliptic, stores Bitcoins for companies and firms, including investment funds and trading houses. Most of the companies using Elliptic\u2019s services are speculating on the price of Bitcoin, expecting it to appreciate in value. Elliptic provides a way of storing Bitcoins that\u2019s compliant with regulation and insured against loss. \u201cWe take care of what can be quite a technical thing, and if you\u2019re putting a lot of value into Bitcoins, you don\u2019t want to store it in a way that\u2019s susceptible to theft or loss.\u201d He parallels Elliptic\u2019s services to the work of the traditional custodians of finance.<\/p>\n

\"20141020<\/a><\/p>\n

Smith says that although he had never envisioned himself as an entrepreneur before this venture, his work at Elliptic combines his experience in finance and his academic background in computer science. He studied computer science at Cambridge and received his Ph.D. in computer science from Oxford. After his studies, he tried his hand at options trading, working at various firms in London.<\/p>\n

While working in finance, the idea for Elliptic emerged. But James Smith and his co-founders spent a few months developing the concept before jumping into the business. This, Smith says, was a mistake. \u201cIf you\u2019re confident in your idea, you\u2019ve got to go for it and not worry about the things you don\u2019t know, because you\u2019ll have to learn them as you go. The best thing to do is to get out there and start talking to people. You only really learn by talking to people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elliptic\u2019s James Smith says luck was on his side when he decided to venture into the business of Bitcoin. \u201cI generally don\u2019t try to predict my future too far out and I\u2019m not really risk averse, so when [my co-founders and I] saw what looked like it was going to be a big opportunity, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1399,"featured_media":11062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJust dive in, advises Elliptic\u2019s CEO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Elliptic\u2019s James Smith says luck was on his side when he decided to vent\u2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/01\/20141020-James-Smith-Elliptic-HEADER-OPTIONS-1.jpg?fit=1600%2C829\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"829\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Saffa Khan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Saffa Khan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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