Bitcoin Sign Guy

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"If I talk like this, am I loud enough to be heard?"

It's an ironic statement from a man who became famous without saying anything at all.

Steps from San Francisco's gleaming City Hall, the internet sensation better known as "Bitcoin Sign Guy" struggles with a microphone as he tries to recall the day when he boldly thrust out a yellow legal pad behind a sitting Federal Reserve chair and became perhaps the crypto world's most famous meme.

But whereas he made the decision to take out a pen on that now-infamous July day (going from idea to action in little more than 30 seconds, he says), he's less natural when talking about the particulars.

What was he doing there? Who did he work for? Those are the things the Connecticut native is "trying to speak around" as his first-ever interview begins. And his caution initially shows, on camera at least, in clipped sentences and careful wording.

"I really was not prepared for this," he says, squinting into a California sun.

Indeed, despite assurances, Bitcoin Sign Guy is still noticeably uneasy about his identity. A recent college graduate (from a university he doesn't name) and staffer at a crypto hedge fund (that we're told we can't disclose), there are specifics about his life he wishes to keep behind the curtain. And he's not without his reasons.

Given his claim to fame is interrupting a meeting between some of the world's most powerful people, it's safe to say it wasn't exactly well received by all. In addition to feeling compelled to apologize to his then-employer (an undisclosed think tank), he admits he was even escorted out by staffers, an incident caught on C-SPAN, too.

"They actually did apologize, but I'm not sure it was sincere," he recalls.

But if Bitcoin Sign Guy is unwilling to step fully into the spotlight, one topic lights a spark in the conversation. A self-described anarcho-capitalist, he's every bit the bitcoin believer the internet could hope for, denouncing monetary policy as an oppressive "instrument of statecraft" and declaring the first and most well-known cryptocurrency destined to resign fiat money to the history books.

Asked directly if there was a larger message to his scribbled sign and its simple statement – "Buy Bitcoin" – Bitcoin Sign Guy is more assured in his answer.

He tells CoinDesk:

"I view cryptocurrencies as a new monetary paradigm that's here to directly challenge the easy money created by the Federal Reserve. I believe this will have full political and social repercussions."

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