Chris Larsen
[10] He has appeared as a speaker at industry events[11][12] such as Sibos, SWIFT's flagship conference, and written articles for publications such as American Banker.
[13] He is also a board-member or advisor for organizations such as Credit Karma, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Qifang, and Betable.
[14] On January 4, 2018, Forbes estimated Larsen's worth at $59 billion, briefly putting him ahead of Mark Zuckerberg and into fifth place in their list of world's richest people.
[2] Both Larsen[3] and Pawlowski had been frustrated with aspects of the mortgage lending industry, and saw the internet as a way to circumvent agent commissions and other fees.
[2] Initially raising $450,000 in funding from friends and family, Larsen and Pawlowski moved from their small Palo Alto office to a larger "low-rent site" in nearby Dublin to work on the project.
[20] In 1998 E-Loan had total annual revenues of $6.8 million,[19] and the following year Larsen offered the role of CEO back to Pawlowski, though she elected to remain President.
[10] Larsen spearheaded the collection of 600,000 signatures in support of Speier's bill, which was almost double the required amount to issue a ballot to state voters.
[10] The signatures, combined with a lobbying campaign by Consumer Watchdog throughout 2002,[10] led to major financial firms and legislators withdrawing their opposition, and the bill passed in August 2003.
[10] Larsen stepped down as CEO in early 2005 to start Prosper Marketplace and remained chairman until E-Loan was sold to Banco Popular[5] in 2005.
Larsen himself had funded 450 loans through the website as of 2008, with borrowers as diverse as homeowners, college students, credit-card users, and entrepreneurs.
"[6] The company soon ran into regulatory opposition from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),[5] as current loan regulations were focused on traditional banks, not technology startups.
[12] In 2008, Prosper filed its first prospectus with the SEC, changing its business model to use pre-set rates based on a formula evaluating each prospective borrower's credit risk.
[23][24] In 2011, Larsen was outwardly supportive of the Occupy Wall Street movement, raising money to help feed protesters at the nearby OWS encampment in San Francisco.
[9] As such the protocol can circumnavigate the fees and wait times of the traditional correspondent banking system,[3][9] and any type of currency can be exchanged including gold, airline miles, and rupees.
[25] To maintain security OpenCoin programmed Ripple to rely on a common ledger that is "managed by a network of independent validating servers that constantly compare their transaction records."
[5] On May 14, 2013, OpenCoin announced that it had closed a second round of angel funding, and among their earliest investors were Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, and IDG Capital Partners.
[30] Larsen has appeared as a speaker or panelist at number of industry events,[11][12][31] including the IIF Annual Memberships Meeting in 2014.
