The Birth of Chainalysis: Building the First Blockchain Analytics Company

Very rarely do you get to listen to top visionaries like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman talk about technological shifts that changed the world, but in today’s episode, Ian Andrews (https://x.com/ianandrewsdc) (CMO, Chainalysis) speaks with Michael Gronager (https://x.com/gronager) (Co-Founder & CEO, Chainalysis (https://www.chainalysis.com/) ) about building the the first blockchain analytics company that forever will change cryptocurrency industry.



Michael takes us on his journey  from chemistry and computational studies to virtual reality and launching one of the first crypto exchanges. 



He shares his innovative approach to cryptography and distributed systems and how this benefited him with his time at building up Kraken and recounts the early days of cryptocurrency before regulations and bank acceptance on his path to creating Chainalysis.



The duo discuss the evolution of crypto compliance, the creation of Chainalysis' flagship solution, Reactor, on a shoestring budget and the challenges faced in bringing transparency to the crypto world. 

Minute-by-minute episode breakdown


2 | Michael’s journey from chemistry to computational studies to virtual reality



8 | What happened when Michael finally hears about Bitcoin in 2010



11 | Challenges and innovation in Bitcoin micro payments



17 | Launching Kraken: Overcoming challenges in early crypto exchange era



24 | The industry tipping point that started the creation of Chainalysis 



32 | The serendipitous journey of the founding team of Chainalysis and first investor / customer convos



39 | Crypto is starting to look more like finance rather than finance looking more like crypto



42 | The evolution of trust and stablecoins in the crypto ecosystem 



Related resources


Check out more resources provided by Chainalysis that perfectly complement this episode of the Public Key.


• Website: Chainalysis: Building Trust in Blockchains (https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/how-...)


• Blog: How the Chainalysis Crypto Investigations Solution Supports Cases From Lead Discovery to Illicit Seizures (https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/how-...)


• Article: Edge Middle East: How an 11-hour flight inspired Michael Gronager’s $8.6B Chainalysis prototype (https://www.edgemiddleeast.com/indust...)


• Podcast: Public Key: Ep. 11 - Chainalysis: The Past, The Present, The Future (https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/chai...)


• Article: World Economic Forum: Why we still need cryptocurrency for an ‘internet of value’ (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/0...)


• Blog: OFAC Sanctions Russian Drone Developer KB Vostok Linked to Ukraine Invasion (https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/ofac...)


• Report: The Chainalysis Malign Interference and Crypto Report (https://go.chainalysis.com/Malign-Int...)


• YouTube: Chainalysis YouTube page (   / chainalysis  )


• Twitter: Chainalysis Twitter: Building trust in blockchain (  / chainalysis  )


• Tik Tok: Building trust in #blockchains among people, businesses, and governments. (  / chainalysis  )


• Telegram: Chainalysis on Telegram  (https://t.me/chainalysisinc)


Speakers on today’s episode

• Ian Andrews (  / ianhandrews  ) * Host * (Chief Marketing Officer, Chainalysis) 


• Michael Gronager (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gronager?...) (Co-Founder & CEO, Chainalysis)




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