In this episode, Sunny Ray sits down with Koleya Karringten, executive director of the Canadian Bitcoin Consortium, to trace her path from an entrepreneurial upbringing in Vancouver to becoming one of Canada's leading Bitcoin policy advocates. Koleya shares how her father, a self-made businessman, groomed her from age three to think like an entrepreneur, leading her into a 17 year career designing combustion heating systems for the oil and gas industry. She recounts how her father's passing, a scam pitch involving Bitcoin, and mentorship from the late Suzanne West pulled her into blockchain around 2017. What began as the Alberta Blockchain Consortium evolved into the Canadian Bitcoin Consortium, now the largest industry association of its kind in Canada. The conversation moves into her recent work orange pilling government officials, including Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, organizing trade missions with Texas, and pushing forward the proposed Alberta Bitcoin Act. It is a candid, personal, and policy focused conversation about building Bitcoin legitimacy from the ground up in Canada.
Koleya Karringten on turning family entrepreneurship and personal loss into a mission to bring Bitcoin policy to Canada.
Can you give us a high level introduction to who you are and what you do?
I'm the executive director of an organization called the Canadian Bitcoin Consortium. We've gone through a few name changes, but I'm excited about this one because it finally reflects who we are and always have been. I have a background in technology, I designed combustion heating systems for oil and gas for about 17 years, then moved into the Bitcoin ecosystem around 2017.
Is it true you were born into a very entrepreneurial family? Tell us about your background before Bitcoin.
Yes, definitely. I never saw either of my parents work for a company, they were always self employed. My dad was a musician for 20 years, then built a concierge limo business driving CEOs around Vancouver. He started teaching me about business when I was three, put me through etiquette training at five, and brought me into weekend seminars with mentors like Jim Rohn by age eleven. I started my first business at thirteen and we went into business together at twenty one, building forced air combustion heating tech for the oil and gas industry for 17 years.
What prompted your shift from clean tech into blockchain and Bitcoin?
A few things happened at once. A company offered to buy 20 percent of my business in Bitcoin and I had no idea what it was. Then I found my mom trying to buy Bitcoin to fund a Ponzi scheme called USA Tech, which made me furious and made me start researching. My mentor Suzanne West also kept talking to me about blockchain helping oil and gas hit net zero. After she passed away, I started the Alberta Blockchain Consortium to honor her legacy, funding it myself for the first five or six years.
How did you go from mining Bitcoin in your basement to becoming an educator in the space?
I got hyperfixated on Bitcoin mining after someone showed me the technology behind it. I built my first miner, a seven card GPU rig, and within a year had about 270 graphics cards running in my basement, overheating my house. Reading white papers taught me most projects weren't legitimate, so I started hosting free lunch and learns to teach people about the history of money, economics, and how to keep themselves safe before investing.
Take us into your recent work, including the event in Calgary with the premier of Alberta.
Over the last three or four years I've focused on orange pilling government, starting under Premier Jason Kenney when I flew in Jeff Booth and Saifedean Ammous for a roundtable on putting Bitcoin on Alberta's balance sheet. When Premier Danielle Smith was elected, someone I'd known since her radio days, I asked her to mandate ministers to work with our organization to attract Bitcoin mining investment to Alberta. We now host inbound and outbound trade missions with Texas, and this year Minister Dale Nally announced the intention to table the Alberta Bitcoin Act.
Why did the organization finally rebrand from a blockchain consortium to the Canadian Bitcoin Consortium?
I always saw our blockchain name as a kind of Trojan horse, a safer entry point for government conversations. But people like Jeff Booth told me the name didn't reflect who I really was, and I started hearing the same from high ranking government officials, who said they would engage more if our name reflected our actual work. So it was time to come out and be authentic about who we've always been as an organization.
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