Fred Ehrsam Quotes

Powerful Fred Ehrsam for Daily Growth

About Fred Ehrsam

Frederick Ehrsam, a distinguished American entrepreneur and writer, was born on June 18, 1986, in Boston, Massachusetts. His early interest in technology and finance led him to study Economics at Dartmouth College. However, it was during his time at Dartmouth that he became deeply involved with Bitcoin, one of the key events that would shape his professional life. Post-graduation, Ehrsam co-founded Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange platform, in 2012. As one of the first mainstream Bitcoin companies, Coinbase played a pivotal role in popularizing digital currencies and making them accessible to the general public. In 2015, Ehrsam left Coinbase to pursue other ventures but remains an active advisor to the company. Ehrsam's insights into Bitcoin and blockchain technology have been widely recognized. His writings often delve into the economic implications of cryptocurrencies and the future potential of decentralized technologies. In 2014, he co-authored "Bitcoin Weekly," a popular newsletter that provided updates on the Bitcoin market and ecosystem. Today, Ehrsam continues to be a prominent figure in the tech and finance industries. He is a partner at Paradigm, a cryptocurrency-focused venture capital firm, and serves as an advisor to various startups. His life story serves as an inspiration for many aspiring entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts, demonstrating the potential of innovation and the power of curiosity in shaping one's future.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you into a career."

This quote by Fred Ehrsam emphasizes that entrepreneurship is about finding personal passion or excitement, and transforming it into a professional career. It suggests that true entrepreneurship lies in identifying something you're genuinely passionate about and having the courage to pursue it as a means of employment, rather than viewing it merely as a hobby or pastime. This approach not only allows one to turn their enthusiasm into a viable career but also increases the chances of success since a strong personal connection with the work is crucial for perseverance and resilience in entrepreneurial ventures.


"In crypto, just as in startups, the best founders are the ones who are able to adapt and change."

This quote emphasizes the importance of adaptability and agility, particularly in the dynamic environments of both cryptocurrency and start-up industries. The "best" founders or pioneers in these fields are those who can flexibly respond to changing circumstances, innovate, learn, and adjust their strategies accordingly. This ability to evolve with the times is crucial for success, as both crypto and entrepreneurship demand constant adaptation to stay relevant and competitive.


"The most successful people in life are the ones who ask questions. They're always learning. They're always growing."

This quote emphasizes that continuous learning and growth are essential traits for success in life. By asking questions, one demonstrates curiosity, a willingness to learn, and an openness to new ideas. Asking questions fosters understanding, enables personal development, and encourages adaptability – all critical skills for achieving success. Furthermore, it implies that successful people recognize the value of lifelong learning and are unafraid to challenge their own beliefs or seek guidance from others.


"Crypto is not a get-rich-quick scheme; it's about building a better future for everyone."

This quote by Fred Ehrsam suggests that investing in cryptocurrency is more than just a means to amass wealth quickly. Instead, he emphasizes the importance of crypto as a tool for creating a superior, more progressive future for all. It's about harnessing the potential of blockchain technology and decentralized systems to address existing issues in finance, governance, and various other sectors, ultimately leading to improvements in society at large. In essence, the message is that while profits can be made through crypto, it should primarily serve as a vehicle for innovation and positive change.


"If you're not scared, you're probably not dreaming big enough." (This quote is often associated with Fred Ehrsam but it's originally from Robin S. Sharma.)

This quote suggests that aiming for significant achievements or dreams usually involves some level of risk and uncertainty, which can instill fear. If one isn't experiencing any fear when pursuing their goals, it may be an indication that they aren't striving for ambitions that are truly groundbreaking or challenging. Aspiring to dream big means setting sights on aspirations that require effort, courage, and potentially overcoming apprehension along the way.


Ethereum has taken what was a four-function calculator of a programming language in Bitcoin and turned it into a full-fledged computer.

- Fred Ehrsam

Calculator, Ethereum, Programming Language

OpenAI is doing important work by releasing tools which promote AI to be developed in the open. Compute power is largely produced by NVIDIA and Intel and still relatively expensive but openly purchasable. Blockchains may be the key final ingredient by providing massive pools of open training data.

- Fred Ehrsam

Doing, Data, Providing, Compute

Just like mutations to DNA in biological organisms allow for evolution through natural selection, forking lets us run multiple experiments in parallel where the strongest versions survive.

- Fred Ehrsam

Survive, Through, Allow, Parallel

The Internet had a core innovation that made it valuable: The ability to disseminate data over a distributed network in a way that was significantly cheaper than the prior methods.

- Fred Ehrsam

Innovation, Over, Cheaper, Disseminate

There's been a myth perpetuated where people think, 'I need to go into consulting, banking, finance, law, or medicine to make a consistently reasonable amount of money.' People are now realizing that's not the case.

- Fred Ehrsam

Banking, Been, Reasonable, Realizing

For the foreseeable future, I'm all about building blockchain-based decentralized services.

- Fred Ehrsam

Future, About, Foreseeable, Foreseeable Future

AIs are only as good as the data they are trained on. And while many of the tech giants working on AI, like Google and Facebook, have open-sourced some of their algorithms, they hold back most of their data.

- Fred Ehrsam

Data, Some, Tech, AI

When the actual Bitcoin network launched in 2009, no one knew about it, and many of those who did thought it would surely fail. Just to make sure the thing worked, the scripting language in Bitcoin was intentionally extremely restrictive.

- Fred Ehrsam

Thought, About, Surely, Restrictive

As with early internet startups, some token models don't make sense. For every 1 huge hit, there will be 3 minor successes and 100 failures, so we shouldn't be surprised when some fail.

- Fred Ehrsam

Some, Failures, Models, Startups

If you are going to store your e-wallet on your own server, don't keep your e-wallet on your desktop, and make sure you use encryption. If you lose your computer, your bitcoins are lost forever.

- Fred Ehrsam

Going, Sure, Server, Encryption

Bitcoin is valuable as a currency because of the economic efficiencies the bitcoin network is already creating as transactions flow over it. As with the Internet, more applications will flourish which will make the bitcoin network, and thus bitcoin as a currency, valuable.

- Fred Ehrsam

Over, Over It, Which, Transactions

When the Bitcoin white paper emerged in 2008, it was completely revolutionary. The amount of concepts that had to come together in just the right way - computer science, cryptography, and economic incentives - was astonishing.

- Fred Ehrsam

Cryptography, Had, Amount, Right Way

The ability to easily buy and sell Bitcoin has been a really key factor in accelerating Bitcoin adoption.

- Fred Ehrsam

Been, Buy, Adoption, Factor

Bitcoin is inherently international, and one of its great promises is it enables cross-border payments in a more efficient way.

- Fred Ehrsam

More, Efficient, Payments, Promises

When you drill down, blockchains are really a shared version of reality everyone agrees on. So whether it's a fully immersive VR experience, augmented reality, or even Bitcoin or Ethereum in the physical world as a shared ledger for our 'real world,' we'll increasingly trust blockchains as our basis for reality.

- Fred Ehrsam

Trust, Shared, Increasingly, Augmented

Just as the Internet brought the cost of disseminating information down by an order of magnitude, bitcoin brings the cost of transferring ownership down by an order of magnitude.

- Fred Ehrsam

Down, Cost, Brought, Transferring

Bitcoin's value is the same: It will remain as long as it is the most efficient mechanism for transferring ownership.

- Fred Ehrsam

Ownership, Same, Most, Transferring

The Internet will continue to be valuable so long as it is the most efficient mechanism for transferring data. Bitcoin's value is the same: It will remain as long as it is the most efficient mechanism for transferring ownership.

- Fred Ehrsam

Data, Will, Efficient, Transferring

People far too often associate derivatives markets with mere speculation, but there are very legitimate businesses that need derivatives to protect themselves against risk.

- Fred Ehrsam

Need, Speculation, Very, Businesses

To create an open protocol which helps coordinate resources towards a common goal, the resources need to be known at some level in the same way a lot of of data on the web needs to be public for it to be traversable and useful.

- Fred Ehrsam

Some, Needs, Which, Protocol

Working on a token is similar to working on a startup: higher risk and lower initial impact but higher upside potential. How core protocol work is best funded beyond the initial Ethereum Foundation endowment is an open question, but likely further out.

- Fred Ehrsam

Best, Foundation, Beyond, Protocol

Ethereum may make monetary policy decisions like, 'Let's do 1% inflation to support the ongoing development of the Ethereum protocol.' A token built on Ethereum might want to do the same.

- Fred Ehrsam

Development, May, Monetary, Protocol

Working on Ethereum could be similar to working at a Google: lower risk with broad impact right away. Working on a token is similar to working on a startup: higher risk and lower initial impact but higher upside potential.

- Fred Ehrsam

Away, Similar, Initial, Startup

Ethereum will be a first-class citizen on Coinbase.

- Fred Ehrsam

Citizen, Ethereum, Coinbase, First-Class

When Coinbase was starting, we thought we were seeing the birth of something that was really important - what I would almost describe as the future fabric of society - the system for who we are - our identities, what we own, our assets.

- Fred Ehrsam

Thought, Own, Almost, Coinbase

The fundamentals of the token model are valuable and powerful. They allow communities to govern themselves, their economics, and rally a community in powerful ways that will allow open systems to flourish in a way that was previously impossible.

- Fred Ehrsam

Fundamentals, Govern, Allow, Communities

Blockchains are digital organisms. As organisms evolve through changes in their DNA, blockchain protocols evolve through changes in their code. And like biological organisms, the most adaptive blockchains will be the ones that survive and thrive.

- Fred Ehrsam

Digital, Through, Code, Thrive

Scaling is multidimensional. Different methods address different things.

- Fred Ehrsam

Address, Methods, Scaling, Different Things

At the end of the day, what's going to make bitcoin successful is more people making more interesting things, just like the beginning of the Internet.

- Fred Ehrsam

Making, Interesting Things, Bitcoin

Private funding was one of the first methods used when MIT funded Bitcoin core developers Gavin Andresen, Wladimir van der Laan, and Cory Fields in 2015.

- Fred Ehrsam

Private, Funding, Van, Bitcoin

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