Gambling industry requires a currency that's wild and free. Like Bitcoin

Since its inception in the Spring of 2014, ShapeShift has been an evolving creature. What began as a quick experimental way to swap between Bitcoin and Litecoin grew into an advanced engine for the effortless exchange of all major blockchain assets, each one into the other, with no user friction. No user accounts. No signup process. It is the Google Translate of cryptocurrency.

And we’ve always been playing catch-up. Trying to build at the speed of this industry, not only along the vertical of Bitcoin proper, but along the breadth of all crypto, is a challenge.

Last Fall, we realized the “minimum viable product” server architecture established originally for ShapeShift was insufficient. We needed a professional to join the small team, and craft a scalable, and secure, server apparatus upon which our technology could grow.

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In the first quarter of this year, as the market discovered what we already knew – that our world will be one of many blockchain assets each needing liquidity with the other – exchange volumes surged at ShapeShift. Ethereum was on the rise, specifically. Our infrastructure was not ready for the pace of growth. It was like riding a bicycle upon which jet engines suddenly appear full-thrust.