It’s time for I'm a Millionaire! So Now What?and I’m excited to host blockchain consultants and crypto experts Mrugakshee Palwe and Keegan Francis on the show. Mrugakshee and Keegan founded Atlantic Blockchain Company to bring blockchain projects and education into the hands of the public. Seeing the need for individuals and businesses to understand and adopt crypto, they launched podcast and consultation service Go Full Crypto. These two entrepreneurs tell us a bit about their background and how it led to a crypto business.

 

A brief history:

“It started on a 12-hour drive from Montreal where Keegan and I talked about the decentralized technology that powers Bitcoin. And that was the seed to starting Atlantic Blockchain Company, because there weren’t many companies working with or innovating on blockchain in Atlantic Canada. In the two and a half years since we founded this, we realized more people were interested in learning about cryptocurrency than they were in blockchain technology. So, we made the transition to Go Full Crypto,” Mrugakshee shared.

 

What is blockchain and Bitcoin?

According to Mrugakshee, Bitcoin is money.

 

“Blockchain is the underlying system, the software that Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies live on in order to do what they do. A simple analogy that we like to use in a lot of our presentations is what the internet is to Gmail, blockchain is to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.”

 

Keegan provides a useful analogy:

“Imagine a business where there's not just one accountant, but there's 100, or 1000, or 10,000 accountants, and they're all keeping the exactly the same book. So that they can all keep each other accountable. And there's no error within this system, because they're all responsible for checking everyone else's work. And in a nutshell, that’s how blockchain makes Bitcoin work - you've got 10s of 1000s of computers all over the world working on maintaining the integrity of Bitcoin. And that's the beauty of it.”

 

Bitcoin also simplifies international transactions. Instead of doing an international or E-transfer through the bank, which can take a couple of days to process on each side, you can send Bitcoin directly to an address without dealing with any middle party, Keegan explained.

 

The two crypto educators also help debunk some myths around Bitcoin:

 

Myth 1: Bitcoin promotes malicious or criminal activity

Keegan told us about hosting a financial expert on their podcast who can track malicious or criminal financial activity using Bitcoin. And it’s easier than using traditional channels: “It’s a public ledger, all of the transactions on Bitcoin are public. Just like Google Maps, you can browse the entire history of the Bitcoin blockchain. And this is not how the traditional financial system is structured. There's gates and red tape, and all sorts of permissions that you need to find the information.”

 

Myth 2: With Bitcoin, everyone can know my business (aka it’s unsafe)

Bitcoin is pseudo anonymous; Keegan explained. This means that on the network, your identity is not attached to the addresses that you're using. You would need to use secondary data sources to attribute identities to Bitcoin addresses. The cryptography that empowers Bitcoin is also quite sophisticated.

 

“One analogy we use to help people wrap their head around how strong the cryptography is that protects your wallet (and the bitcoin stored within it): if I were to write a program to try to force my way into your wallet, then that program wouldn't finish by the time the universe spins.”

 

Keegan believes that humans can be manipulated. “The most vulnerable point in any system is the human in the system. It's usually some action that they performed due to lack of knowledge. If you have all the knowledge that you need to properly and safely get into Bitcoin, there's virtually no possibility of people taking advantage of you. But if you're lacking that knowledge, then you're vulnerable. We want to reduce the amount of harm in this space, by increasing the knowledge and competency of anyone who wants to dive into this thing.”

 

Myth 3: Bitcoin only allows limited transactions

Keegan and Mrugakshee have a Visa Debit card powered by cryptocurrency, so they can sell bitcoin and then load the card with Canadian dollars.

 

“We can spend this at any terminal and withdraw cash at any ATM. We can line up at the grocery store and, within 30 seconds, sell bitcoin and spend that money. It’s very easy, and this service is provided by a company called crypto.com. So, you can’t spend bitcoin directly, or universally yet, but these very innovative companies are figuring out that you don't need people to spend bitcoin from one person to another necessarily. What they do is build a service around this that lets people instantly turn their bitcoin into whatever is spendable within their country's borders.”

 

Their vision?

To educate the next billion people and empower them with the knowledge to use Bitcoin. “We guide people on how they can use Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, we'll teach you how to do it in the simplest possible way so you can do it yourself,” Mrugakshee shared.

 

Have a listen! 

 

It’s been wonderful to have Keegan and Mrugakshee on the show. While I myself don’t own any bitcoin at this point, this information is certainly part of my due diligence! Hopefully, we’ll see Keegan and Mrugakshee back soon.

 

If you’re at the helm of a thriving business or startup, or looking to exit, do reach out and connect with me. I’d love to hear your story!

 

If you’d like to find out more about cryptocurrencies, email Keegan and Mrugakshee on gofullcrypto.com, sign up for the newsletter or listen to their podcast.