Erik Voorhees is the Founder and CEO of ShapeShift. Voorhees, who is also the co-founder of Coinapult, worked as the marketing director at the BitInstant exchange.
The Life of Erik Voorhees
Erik Tristan Voorhees is a Panamanian-American entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Bitcoin startup Coinapult, which sends Bitcoin via SMS and email, worked as the marketing director on the BitInstant exchange, and later became the founder and partial owner of the Bitcoin website Satoshi Dice, which was sold in July. Voorhees lived in Colorado before joining the Free State Project and later also lived in Dubai, Panama, New York City, and New Hampshire.
Voorhees is also the founder and CEO of ShapeShift, an instant Bitcoin and altcoin exchange that he develops and manages under the pseudonym Beorn Gonthier. Some of their attempts have resulted in penalties and legal problems with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Erik Voorhees is an outspoken libertarian who opposes taxes, fiscal regulation, and government in general. ShapeShift, being essentially a free service, reflects its political and economic beliefs.
In an interview in July 2021, Voorhees presented an argument for decentralization in many areas of life and the economy, focusing on the decentralization of work and money. He then applied this theory to money, arguing that in order to create a truly egalitarian society, a small, centralized organization should not have a monopoly on currency. Thus, towards the end of 2021 ShapeShift began its transition to the DAO model.
After the cross-chain decentralized exchange ThorChain suffered two multimillion-dollar attacks and a third, albeit minor, breach in July 2021, Voorhees stated that the exploits show ThorChain has a long way to go.
On October 13, 2020, regarding a G20 report stating that its members will complete the review and selection of design, technology and experimentation for CBDCs as well as regulatory stablecoin frameworks, Voorhees tweeted:
“Already, by the end of 2022, Bitcoin will grow even more.”
What is ShapeShift?
ShapeShift is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in Switzerland in 2014 by Erik Voorhees. A 2018 investigation by the Wall Street Journal revealed that ShapeShift processed $9 million in criminal activity over a two-year period.
In March 2015, the company received a start-up investment of US$525,000 by Roger Ver and Barry Silbert.
A total of US$1.6 million was raised through September 2015 from investors in a second funding round, including Digital Currency Group, Bitfinex, Bitcoin Capital, and Mardal Investments.
ShapeShift was first released on the iOS platform in June 2015, allowing users to trade 25 digital currencies and value coins. As of September 2015, more than 40 different digital currencies were available for trading, providing 940 trading pairs, making it more than just a single exchange in the market.
On June 11, 2015, ShapeShift discontinued service to New York in response to the state’s new regulatory policy for digital currency businesses. BitLicense was launched in June and final regulations were approved in August. The company stated that if it had complied with the New York BitLicense regulations, important personal and private data would also fall into the hands of the hacker.
Between March and April of 2016, Shapeshift suffered a total of 3 attacks that resulted in 469 BTC, 1900 LTC, and 5800 ETH stolen from their hot wallets. As a result, the ShapeShift team has taken ShapeShift.io offline until April 20 to rebuild ShapeShift’s infrastructure with advanced security protocols.
In March 2017, ShapeShift raised $10.4 million in Series A funds from both U.S. and international venture capital firms. Berlin-based Earlybird Venture Capital has become a lead investor with additional funding from Lakestar, Access Venture Partners, Pantera Capital and Blockchain Capital.
In August 2017, ShapeShift announced that it would cease operating in Washington state due to BitLicense-style regulations imposed by the passage of Senate Bill 5031.
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