Will BitInstant Founder Charlie Shrem Put the Prison System on the Blockchain?

Rage Comment : Charlie Shrem was first sentenced to prison for founding the blockchain startup BitInstant and engaging in money laundering. He was released last month after serving his sentence, which attracted a lot of attention. He himself had some insights about his time in prison; he believed that the inability to use cash inside the prison caused great trouble to prison life. Therefore, he may use blockchain and digital currency technology to upgrade this outdated prison financial system.

Translation: Annie_Xu

Charlie Shrem is one of the founders of BitInstant and the Bitcoin Foundation. He was once sentenced to prison for money laundering and his road to success was full of ups and downs.

Shrem spent more than a year in prison, came up with some good ideas, and spread them, which proved the importance and vitality of the digital society.

“I used to be a Bitcoinist, thinking of Bitcoin as the only blockchain. Now I believe there are alternative blockchains.”

In January 2014, Shrem was arrested at the airport after returning from a meeting in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He was accused of money laundering on the black market Silk Road, involving nearly $1 million in Bitcoin. He concealed suspicious bank activities and made unauthorized remittances; he was sentenced to two years in prison. Shrem said that his time in prison made him realize new use cases for blockchain, and he hopes to put the entire U.S. prison economy on the blockchain; because the existing prison system is very lame.

Prisoners cannot carry cash, so they can only barter; this system has been in place since 2004, with the mackerel used for exchange being either expired or unexpired. The former is used as currency, and the latter is used as food. Shrem believes that blockchain can usher in a new era of prison financial systems and eliminate rigid thinking.

Shrem has no specific plans for his next move since leaving prison, but if prisons need to change, what better way to upgrade them than with Bitcoin and the blockchain?