#307 – Brian Armstrong: Coinbase, Cryptocurrency, and Government Regulation

**Lex Fridman** (0:00)
The following is a conversation with Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform with 98 million users in 100 countries, listing bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and over 100 popular cryptocurrencies. I recorded this conversation with Brian before this week's SEC probe into whether some of the crypto listings are securities and thus need to be regulated as such. As always, with conversations that involve cryptocurrency, I try to make it timeless so that the price soaring high or crashing down low doesn't distract from the fundamental, technological, economic, social, and philosophical ideas underlying this new form of money, energy, and information. Our world runs on money, the exchange and store of value, and cryptocurrency seeks to build the next chapter of how money works and what it can do. Coinbase and Brian are trying to do this by working together with regulators and governments, which is a long and difficult road. Bureaucracies resist change, for better and for worse. The latest SEC probe is a good representation of this. It is a serious attempt to limit fraud, but one that also runs the risk of limiting innovation and limiting financial freedom of individuals. This is a complicated mess, and I applaud everyone involved for trying to work through it. I hope in the end, the interest of the individual wins. Decentralization, after all, is a hedge against the corrupting nature of centralized power. And now, a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got Audible for audiobooks, Skiff for email, BuyOptimizers for health, Fundrise for investing, and Athletic Greens for performance. Choose wisely, my friends. And now, on to the full ad reads. As always, no ads in the middle, because I hate those. I try to make these interesting, but if you skip them, please still check out our sponsors. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will, too. This episode is brought to you by Audible, an audiobook service that has given me hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of education through listening to audiobooks. I should probably go and measure the amount of hours I've listened to, you know, exactly, or at least approximately, because it probably would help me reflect on how amazing Audible is. I mean, some of the greatest experiences of my life have been through Audible. It's like a companion through different places, different time periods in history. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shire, just the voice actors or the voicings of that book, it just takes you to a place, or Animal Farm by George Orwell. They have thousands of titles to choose from. New members can try it free for 30 days at audible.com/lex or text Lex to 500 500 This show is also brought to you by Skiff, a private end-to-end encrypted email. It has fast search, you can have custom domains if you want. It's easy to migrate from Gmail, ProtonMail or Outlook. One really important thing that I often think about is that there is a hard to put into words difference between an interface that sucks and an interface that's awesome, enjoyable, compelling, efficient, empowering. And outside of security, outside of the end-to-end encryption, which I think is the thing that makes it truly amazing, they got the interface right and that's not easy to do. And that's a big props to them. I really enjoy using skip both for email and collaborative document editing. But of course, the big feature that's really important is the fact that it's end-to-end encrypted. Nobody has access to it except you and the people you directly collaborate with. That's skiff.com/lex, skiff.com/lex. The next sponsor is BiOptimizers. They have a new magnesium supplement. When I fast or when I'm doing keto or carnivore, sodium, potassium and magnesium are essential. Those are the electrolytes. They make the difference between a yes headache or no headache. And of those electrolytes, I think magnesium is the most difficult to get right. And that's why I use magnesium breakthrough from BiOptimizers. Most magnesium supplements contain only one or two forms of magnesium, like glycinate or citrate. When in reality, there are at least seven that your body needs and benefits from. One of the people I trust on this topic, I talk about this topic is Andrew Huberman. And it's fascinating to learn from him. Outside of glycinate and citrate, all the different kinds of magnesium. That said, I do think that magnesium is the thing in my experience that made the difference between sort of a good fasting experience and not. It's much easier, I think, to get the sodium right, or at least for me, the magnesium piece was the tricky one. You can get a special discount at magbreakthrough.com/lex. This episode is also sponsored by Fundrise, spelled F-U-N-D-R-I-S-E. It's a platform that allows you to invest in private real estate. If you're looking to diversify your investment portfolio, this is a good choice. Boy, is 2022 a giant mess from an economics perspective. I have no idea. You definitely don't want to take financial advice from me. But I think diversification is still a really powerful tool to have when you're doing investment. And in this age of cryptocurrency and all the different options that are out there, I think it's nice to have a tool to do easy, accessible investment into private real estate. Over 150,000 investors use it. So go check out Fundrise. It takes just a few minutes to get started at fundrise.com/lex.