The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 14 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Armstrong: Unanimous consensus committees miss breakthrough innovations
“I think there's a real danger in consensus, especially when you're talking about real breakthrough innovation, because yes, Every breakthrough innovation looks like a bad idea, but it's actually a good idea, and so you, I think you really want to avoid, like, …”
Armstrong: Less than 1% of crypto transactions are for illicit purposes
“And so the best data that I have on it today, like over the last couple of years, is that crypto transactions, it's less than one percent are for illicit purposes.”
Armstrong: Only 5% of Coinbase employees took severance after 'no politics' memo
“It turned out it was about five percent of the company. We offered this exit package to people, anybody who was not on the same page and wanted to make it all win-win, about five percent of the company decided to take the exit package”
Armstrong: Crypto could become 20% of global GDP within two decades
“Crypto as a whole industry, I think could become 10, 20% of global GDP, like in maybe 10 or 20 years, something like that.”
Armstrong: Coinbase preferred shutting down over pivoting to enterprise banking software
“If we have to pivot this company to be an enterprise software company, I think we maybe just want to shut it down and return capital to investors. Cause like, I just didn't want to run that company. Like we really were in it for the mission. We were a mission …”
Armstrong: Legacy financial services hold back innovation and human progress
“Financial services is really holding back innovation in the world. And it's holding back human progress because people don't have the freedom to participate in this global economy because of all the barriers to innovation.”
Armstrong: Startup co-founders should ideally be people known for years
“Having a co-founder is like getting married, basically. Like, it should be somebody that you have worked with for years, and you've, at least maybe you've known them for years, ideally.”
Armstrong: Coinbase Would Not Have Succeeded Without Co-Founder Fred Ehrsam
“I don't think Coinbase would have been successful if I hadn't found Fred, so I am eternally grateful to him on that.”
Armstrong: Successful Fundraising Means Nine Out of Ten Investors Reject You
“Success in fundraising looks like Nine out of 10 people saying no, and very smart people who you probably respect telling you why your idea will not work.”
Armstrong: Misjudged crypto adoption by expecting widespread everyday payments within four years
“If I could go back to my mindset at the beginning of Coinbase, I was like thinking, oh, you know, three or four years, There's going to be hundreds of millions of people using this as a payment method, and the whole network is going to scale, and I would have …”
Armstrong: Public company founder CEOs outperform professional CEOs as a cohort
“Founder CEOs, by the way, kind of, if you look at them as a cohort in public companies, they outperform Professional CEOs.”
Armstrong: Uncertainty of finding product-market fit is what demoralizes entrepreneurs
“When you're trying to get product market fit, you know, you're just continually tweaking things, and getting customer feedback, and fixing bugs, and you never know if you're one more fix from turning the corner, and then boom, organic growth just starts
To tak…”