CryptoSlate recently had the opportunity to chat with Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky. Mashinsky is a serial entrepreneur and founder of seven NYC based startups, having raised over $1 billion and exiting over $3 billion.
Celsius was recently in the news for having surpassed more than $4 billion in crypto loans — a 93 percent increase from the $2.2 billion at the beginning of 2019.
In our interview with Alex, we discussed why he built Celsius, the risks of using crypto lending platforms, the challenges of building an app for crypto users, and why Mashinsky believes Bitcoin will not be the winning blockchain.
For more information:
- Learn more about Celsius Network
- Learn more about Alex Mashinsky
- Calculate how much Bitcoin or Ethereum you could earn from Celsius Network
Disclosure: Celsius is an advertiser on CryptoSlate but this is not a sponsored story.
Alex Mashinsky, former CEO · Celsius Network
What is your professional background and how/when did you get into crypto?
Serial founder of 8 NYC based companies, raised over $1B and had $3B in exists including 2 unicorns.
Tell us about why you decided to start Celsius? What is the mission?
Who is the typical Celsius customer?
Where is your team located and why did you choose that jurisdiction?
What are some of Celsius’ notable achievements or milestones?
What are the benefits of using Celsius as opposed to other crypto lending platforms?
Are there any risks when using crypto lending platforms?
Yes, there are many risks the question is who do you trust to manage all these risks for you, you can do nothing and earn nothing, lend yourself and manage all the risk and keep 100% or outsource to Celsius and have 65 people work for you to manage risk and keep 80% of the income we generate on your coins.
What can you tell us about the Celsius product roadmap? What upcoming features are you most excited about rolling out?
What are the biggest challenges of building a crypto lending platform for crypto users?
The biggest challenge is how you grow the community and how you continue to act in their best interests. Most services start with a good pitch but then add fees and change the mission to make more money. Celsius has never charged a single depositor any fees. We don’t plan to start either. Our other big challenge is making sure we take as little counterparty risk as possible, our job #1 is to return more coins to each depositor than they gave us.
What other projects and/or blockchain developments are you most excited about?
Do you have any blockchain and/or crypto predictions for 2020 and beyond?
What are the biggest obstacles for the mainstream adoption of crypto?
Most of the solutions we provide today are not applicable or relevant to the 7.5B people on this planet. We need the Netscape moment and a killer app that looks and feels like apps we use today but runs on the blockchain rails everyone is working on. I can tell you that Interest Income on deposits is something 7.5B people do need and that is why we are focused on this as a killer DAPP.
How important is the store of value narrative for crypto adoption and do crypto lending platforms help address that?
What is your most controversial opinion relating to blockchain and/or cryptocurrency?
Since you believe Bitcoin will not be the winning blockchain, what will be the characteristics of the winning blockchain?
I believe Bitcoin will be one of the winners and definitely be a long-term store of value but it will not be the Blockchain that will get mass adoption of several billion people because of its legacy and speed issues. The winning blockchain will need to address the financial needs of 7B people on the planet. It will need to be fast and secure and win the trust of most of the world’s population.
