PORTLAND: Just a few months ago, Jack Mallers was pretty much indistinguishable from the horde of baseball cap and hoodie-wearing young men touting bitcoin. Now venture capitalists are clamouring to offer him money.
The 27-year-old founder of a bitcoin money-transfer startup Zap Solutions Inc burst onto the mainstream in June when El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele embraced bitcoin. Mallers, who was reduced to tears while on stage at a Miami conference when the announcement was made via video, had been working behind the scenes with the government to make it happen.