‘Just Do It’ might have been the last words that come to the mind of Anthony Watson when he decided to quit his job at Nike, eventually to join a Los Angeles-based Bitcoin startup four months later.
Bolstering the Bitcoin, at BitReserve
The young management veteran, as Fortune reports, recently joined the CNET-man Halsey Minor to help him bolster his new Bitcoin-based money transfer company BitReserve. Watson was previously heading Nike’s information technology department as its Chief Information Officer (CIO). Prior to this, the man also had brief successful tenure at Barclays while chairing a similar position. His reason to leave Nike however was personal, as he told Fortune in one of his first interviews after resigning.
Itching to make an Impact
However, he never turned his eyes away from the unjust financial system, a reason that, he believes, led him to the doors of BitReserve. “I was itching to make an impact,” Watson told media while citing his interests in banking sector. “I wanted to do something that is valuable for people broadly, not just in one industry.”
He went on by praising BitReserve for its capability to democratize the finance sector, especially for the minimal rates at which it provides people the option to transfer money, thanks to Bitcoin.
“It’s going to help people all over the world,” he added. “The financial system is inherently unfair—it’s always the richest who have access, and the poorest don’t have access, or when they do, they have to pay astronomical rates.”
A lionized gay activist, Watson’s charisma of a young, mass-appealing corporate, also suits up to the personality of Bitcoin as a whole. A decentralized digital currency, whose core aim is to demolish unfair banking systems, has always been treated as a liberal torch for economic leftists. These personalities somewhat adds up to an apprehensible color to the whole picture — the Bitcoin picture.
Inclusion is the Ethos
“I think we’re perfect for him and he’s perfect for us,” Minor said. “Our business is money, and he has an extraordinary amount of experience and success in banking. But also, our ethos is inclusion. He’s a leader in social inclusion. So from my standpoint I don’t think we could have found anyone better.”
