mong Alexis Ohanian’s earliest memories is his great aunt Vera, sitting him down on his sixth birthday to tell him in graphic detail about how his great-great-aunt and uncle were killed while being marched through the Syrian desert during themore than a century ago; how as a child his great-grandfather, Avedis, saw his parents decapitated by Turkish soldiers, who upon turning their attention to the youngster were barely stopped by another soldier on horseback; how that little boy was then...
Born in 1983 in Brooklyn, Ohanian learned his first business lessons collecting and trading Panini-branded NFL trading cards with his father. “I'd see a card worth $4 and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I just made a ton of money,’” says Ohanian of the occasional future hall of famer or rookie card in packs he bought for $4 each.
Around this time, members of the newly launched bitcoin subreddit introduced him to a new kind of asset, one that was potentially unseizable. Unlike dollars that move through regulated financial institutions that can be compelled by governments to hand over property, bitcoin relies on a public key that anyone can know, and a private key that proves ownership. No bank or other intermediary needed.
In April 2016 Reddit finally launched its app, and by December 2019 it had grown to 430 million users. Six months later, Ohanian abruptly resigned, for the second time, over disputes with how to handle content many found offensive. He requested he be replaced by a Black board member. “The business was a billion-dollar business,” he says. “But none of the monetary value accrued to the users.