I'm Charlie Shrem, Bitcoin Pioneer currently in Federal Prison. AMA!

[CharlieShrem]

Hi Everyone,

I'm Charlie Shrem, Bitcoin pioneer, founder of Bitinstant, and currently serving time in federal prison for "operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, money laundering conspiracy and willfully failing to file suspicious activity reports with banking authorities."

I'll be conducting this AMA using the federal prison email system.
The system automatically delays incoming and outgoing messages by 90 minutes, so the absolute earliest I can reply to each question would be three hours.
I will be at my computer answering these questions every weekday from 1:30 - 3:30pm EST, and nearly all day on the weekends.

Obviously I'm not writing all of this directly myself, but direct quotes of my own words will be in italics.

The government will be monitoring all of my communications, so it is possible that I won't be allowed to answer some of your questions, but I will do my best!

Please post your questions below and we will keep going as long as it takes.

Thank you all!

[TheCryptoShow]

Hello Charlie
Danny here at The Crypto Show. What limitation if any will you have as far as the use of computers or the Internet upon your release? Or is that even an issue? You often hear that so called cyber crime have this stipulation attached to a person upon release.

[BitcoinXio]

Hi Charlie,

When you are released, will you be able to work for a bitcoin company (exchanges, wallets, etc), or start your own bitcoin company again? Or do you know if as part of your release, you will not be allowed to engage in "bitcoin activities?"

Best wishes,

David

[rogerver]

What is the most important lesson you have learned from your prison experience?

[rkn]

Hi Charlie.

For the lay person right now, what happened that sent you to prison? Did you do something bad, was it bad decisions, low experience, messed up system, too much new ground to break, a few of these or something entirely different?

Cheers

[ThothThought]

Hey Charlie,

Just wondering what you thought about articles posted to The Daily Hash Rate about you:

http://dailyhashrate.com/2014/10/19/int ... f-bitcoin/

http://dailyhashrate.com/2014/12/21/cha ... in-prison/

[elux]

Charlie! This too shall pass!

Thanks for making Bitinstant happen!

You were the foolish genius Bitcoin needed in 2011-2012.

Do you have the ring? Did they take everything?

Any idea what you'll be doing when you get out?

Oh, and... What should be done about the blocksize limit?

Cheers!



PS: Just kidding, Bitcoin is dead.
We all use Dogecoin now. Sorry.

[LiteCoinGuy]

Hi Charlie,

When you are released, will you be able to work for a bitcoin company (exchanges, wallets, etc), or start your own bitcoin company again? Or do you know if as part of your release, you will not be allowed to engage in "bitcoin activities?"

Best wishes,

David

and what kind of company would you start?

[helloworld]

Is it stressful to be in prison?

Do you have actual criminals harassing you?

[BitcoinXio]

Hi Charlie,

When you are released, will you be able to work for a bitcoin company (exchanges, wallets, etc), or start your own bitcoin company again? Or do you know if as part of your release, you will not be allowed to engage in "bitcoin activities?"

Best wishes,

David

and what kind of company would you start?

It would depend on what year Charlie would be released from prison. Maybe in a few years, there won't be a need for a bitcoin exchange. I'll just leave this here.