Celsius Network’s CEO Alex Mashinsky has a Goal to bring 100 Million People Onto the Blockchain. Can he Do it? Conston Taylor Follow Apr 27, 2018 · 4 min read

In March of this year the Celsius Network successfully raised $50 million to reach 100% of their fundraising goal. This was very impressive, considering the cryptocurrency market was down over 50% from where it stood at the end of 2017. It was even more impressive considering other ICO’s were either postponing their crowdsale, or cancelling it altogether. So how did they do it? Like I always say, “money finds great projects”. They have a very simple yet powerful value proposition- a wallet app that allows you to take out a loan against your cryptocurrency.

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Leah Jonas, Director of Client Services. It was during this meeting that I learned of Mr. Mashinsky’s goal to bring the next 100 million people into crypto. While I applauded the size and scale of the goal (Go BIG or go home, right??), I was skeptical as to whether or not this was a pie in the sky dream, or if Alex had actual plans to make it happen. In actuality, I have little need to doubt his ability to manifest his ambitions based on his track record of success. This dude.. uh, I mean Mr. Mashinsky has over 50 patents that are embedded in such popular products as Netflix Streaming, Twitter, and Skype just to name a few. Netflix has over 100 million users, and twitter has over 330 million users. Still, Netflix and Twitter are on the Internet and anyone just about everywhere can connect to the internet with very little effort. Hopping onto the blockchain however is a WHOLE DIFFERENT DEAL!!

After asking Leah a few soft ball questions, I went in for the jugular and asked the big question: “Do you have plans to bring 100 million people into crypto, or is this ‘pie in the sky’ thinking right now”? Fully expecting the response to be somewhere in between pie and sky, I was very surprised by the response. Leah cracked her knuckles (all 10 at once) as if she were preparing for a bar brawl, and laid down a high level but detailed strategy as to how Celsius plans to bring 100 million people into crypto. To give you some insight into the mind of Conston, I never ask a question without first thinking about different possible solutions myself. (I can’t help it. It’s the Chess dude in me). Without getting into my solution, let me just say that their solution was wayyyyyyyyyy better than mine. Okay maybe not wayyyyyyyyy better… It was like wayyyyy better… Yeah… I digress…

Anywho, their plan is brilliant. My thinking was to figure out a way to educate and train more people on how to use the blockchain. However Celsius’ plan for mass adoption is to take a community-based approach which includes the community users as well as the major players that have the same vision and goal as Celsius. Leah states that “Celsius plans to partner with those major players that have products that provide a benefit to the community. That makes adoption a ‘no brainer’. She further explains that their goal is not to have to say to people that ‘in order to use our product, you have to understand crypto or you need to understand blockchain”. She continues, “We instead want to say that if you look at your current habits and lifestyle, we can provide financial related products, and other things, that are actually more beneficial to you than what you already use. So why would you not use our product”???

Conston’s Mind Totally Blown…

To provide a real world example of how people can benefit from the blockchain without actually having to be experts in it, let’s use a concept called Factoring. Factoring is a financial transaction which a business sells its accounts receivables to a third party (known as the factor) at a discount. Businesses will typically factor their invoices to meet its present and immediate cash flow needs. So instead of the business receiving traditional fiat currency they would receive cryptocurrency. Now imagine this cryptocurrency is placed on a visa or MasterCard branded debit card and it could immediately be used to make purchases or even take cash advance. (Poof, the sound of my mind being blown). Although the blockchain is involved, the business and the owner, does not need to understand how the blockchain works in order to reap the benefits. I must say their strategy and plan makes perfect sense. I don’t need to know how my engine works to drive my car, I don’t know how to program to use my computer, and soon, very soon my friends, if Celsius gets their way, you will not need to understand how the blockchain and cryptocurrency work in order to reap the benefits of this powerful and growing technology. Stay tuned, my friends… Things are about to get very interesting….