Ryan McGeehan, Facebook's Director of Security, has announced (via Facebook of course) his plans to leave and join Coinbase to build their security program:
"I found myself within Facebook's mission to make the world more open and connected and this led to my need to protect people through technology. Over the years I've dedicated myself to building a world class program around this purpose with Facebook's support. Now I need to take on new and different risks to continue developing myself personally. I've accepted a role at Coinbase to build their security program starting in April. Joining Facebook was a big risk, and this will be too no doubt. I've decided that crypto currency is worth protecting and I'd regret doing anything else right now."
He joins Todd Edebohls, a director from Amazon, who will also be leaving his post to join Facebook. Last June, Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin joined Coinbase as well. Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam said, "The industry is continuing to evolve. We’re attracting very, very top talent from prior rocketships that were successful.”
A move of such proportions- from one the hottest companies on the planet, which has seen its value surge by 150% in the last 12 months to $175 billion and dominate the social networking world with 1.23 billion active users, to a Bitcoin Startup - takes either guts, extreme faith or something else we're not aware of. Or simply a love and vision for a bright future for Bitcoin, with Coinbase at the forefront. Bitcoiners should be flattered by this overture and society will no doubt raise their sentiment on digital currency by a notch.
Ironically, the move unintentionally solidifies earlier comparisons between Bitcoin and Facebook, which were mostly negatively natured.
Coinbase currently supports over a million consumer wallets and 27,000 merchants.
