In this episode, Sunny Ray talks with Tibs, an early team member at Bitcoin custody company Knox, about his winding path from venture capital to Bitcoin. Tibs recounts working at Real Ventures, where the firm's early exposure to Blockstream sparked an internal crypto investment thesis that stalled over custody challenges, eventually leading him to Knox in 2018. Born and raised in France, he moved to Canada at eighteen and later discovered Bitcoin multiple times, first dismissing it as a Silk Road curiosity in 2012, then studying Argentina's inflation history in 2014 without connecting the dots, before finally embracing it while building that crypto thesis at Real Ventures. He describes being drawn to Ethereum's world computer narrative, then growing disillusioned after researching and losing money on speculative tokens, which inspired his essay on what he calls shitcoinery. Tibs argues that most alternative cryptocurrencies represent misallocated capital driven by greed rather than genuine innovation, while defending the free market's right to let people gamble if risks are disclosed. He also weighs the promise and current shortcomings of decentralized exchanges.
An early Knox team member explains why he ditched shitcoin speculation for Bitcoin custody and honest risk disclosure.
Can you introduce yourself and how you got into Bitcoin and Knox?
I'm an early employee at Knox, not the founder, that's Alex. I got into Bitcoin around 2016 and went full time in the industry in 2018. Before that I worked at Real Ventures, a VC firm that had invested in Blockstream. We tried building an internal crypto investment thesis but got stuck on custody, which is how I found Knox in late 2017 and joined the team the following year.
Are you originally from Canada, and do you come from a technical or business background?
I'm French, born and raised in France. I moved to Canada at eighteen after high school because I wanted an affordable, open campus experience like American colleges but couldn't afford the US. I stayed in Canada for nine years, with stints in the US and Argentina, where I actually had some early encounters with Bitcoin.
Where does your philosophical way of thinking about Bitcoin come from?
In high school I loved writing dissertations and thinking about metaphysical problems, people used to call me Jean-Paul as a joke. I think Bitcoin is fertile ground for that kind of mindset. That interest came back into my life about three years ago, there's a lot to philosophize about once you really try to reason about Bitcoin and its low time preference.
What was your Bitcoin discovery story, was it an aha moment?
It took a while. I first heard about Bitcoin in 2012 through the Silk Road and wrote it off as a dark web drug currency. In 2014 in Argentina I studied the country's inflation history but still didn't connect it to Bitcoin. It only clicked in 2016 to 2017 when we started building a crypto thesis at Real Ventures, though at first I actually thought Bitcoin was outdated compared to Ethereum.
You wrote an article on what you call shitcoinery, what pulled you into that space and what's positive about Ethereum?
Writing that article was cathartic because Ethereum's world computer narrative did bring me into the space, but I wasted time and money researching and gambling on projects while thinking I was being smart. Greed is honestly the best marketing crypto has ever had. I don't have an issue with shitcoins if platforms honestly disclose they're high risk gambling rather than selling fake fundamental value.
Has Ethereum or DeFi brought real innovation, given ideas are being tested and failing fast?
Capital used well provides a positive risk adjusted return, but a lot of DeFi capital is misallocated on projects that may never survive. If that same capital had gone into Bitcoin projects instead, the protocol or ecosystem would likely be more advanced today. So overall I see the space as a net negative use of capital compared to the alternative.
What do you think about decentralized exchanges like Uniswap?
I like the narrative, staying sovereign, peer to peer trading, no vendor lock in, that's a compelling value proposition against centralized exchanges. But current implementations aren't there yet, user experience is rough, liquidity is thin, fees are high, and there are still scams. Smaller Bitcoin focused projects tend to be more conservative and tested with real capital at risk.
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