Most of us know of Michael Hudson, the founder and CEO of Bitstocks, but few of us know of his entrepreneurial journey that led him to Bitcoin. Forbes recently published, “Meet Michael Hudson: Bitcoin Entrepreneur Aiming To Bring Transparency To Financial Services,” a story that explores several slices of Hudson’s life and business ventures before Bitcoin. Unsurprisingly, most of Hudson’s ventures yielded success, and taught him valuable lessons about technology and running a business.
We recommend reading the full article, but in the meantime, here are a few general takeaways from the article.
Introduction to technology
Hudson tended to gravitate toward technology as a teenager. “I remember receiving a TV for Christmas and the first thing I did was dismantle it then figure out how to put it together,” said Hudson. This interest in technology and electronics was the beginning of his first business venture; Hudson would fix other people’s appliances and build people custom computers for money.
Early twenties
During a business class in college, Hudson realized that the professor had never actually run a business himself and he (Hudson) was earning more than the professor via his own business ventures. Not very long after that, he dropped out of college.
Afterward, Hudson went on to launch a new business, importing goods from China into the U.K., and then selling them to retailers in the U.K. Unfortunately, the financial crisis of 2008 had a negative impact on the business as the rates between the pound and the renminbi became unfavorable. Ultimately, Hudson and his business partner had to shut down shop.
Bitstocks
Hudson was still relatively young (23) when he first found Bitcoin. Through his network of peers that he met via his electronic and tech business ventures, he was able to learn more about digital currency. Eventually, he launched Bitstock, originally as an educational resource with information regarding why Bitcoin should be part of an investment portfolio. But since then, Bitstocks has evolved and its main service offering, ’ is one of the easiest ways for U.K. and European residents to buy and sell Bitcoin.
Hudson also told Forbes about what Bitstocks has in the pipeline for 2021, such as cash accounts and debit cards for their U.K. and European users.
You can read Michael Hudson’s full feature article on Forbes.
Personally, one of my favorite parts in the article is when Hudson said he realized the only way to unlock Bitcoin’s true utility was if the people who understand it created products that the general population could understand too. To me, this is extremely important, in particular, the part that says “that the general population can understand too.”
The digital currency ecosystem is largely technology-driven, however, brilliant engineers tend to create things that only other brilliant engineers can understand and want to use. I believe we are beginning to see the world find better product/market fits for the Bitcoin-built applications and services they have created. However, there’s a strong chance adoption would be effortless if teams were creating solutions to problems people already have—which is what Hudson and his team at Bitstocks have done with Gravity—rather than creating solutions to problems people do not have yet, which is something we often see in the blockchain and digital currency industry.
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
