The entrepreneur Erik Finman is telling me about money. “There’s US dollars, and UK pounds, and euros, and they’re backed by the government,” he says. “But the government can be unreliable. They can print however much they want. I don’t find that backing very serious, or very trustworthy. I like bitcoin.”

Finman, who has recently turned 17, used to be known as the “bitcoin boy”, because he once made $100,000 on a trade using the online currency. Trading bitcoins is one of his income streams. He has several, including Botangle, a start-up he founded, and SmartUp, a start-up that is very smart, and which Finman keeps trying to explain to me.

People are always telling stories about Erik Finman. For instance, he’s the future of