Wikipedia Biography / Profile Background
Introduction :
- Vignesh Sundaresan aka ‘MetaKovan’ is a blockchain technology investor, entrepreneur, and coder from Chennai, India.
- Smart and innovative, Vignesh is passionate about getting more people to make better investments with their money and take advantage of the opportunities in the blockchain industry.
Personal Life, Parents and Family Details :
- Vignesh was born in Chennai, India in 1988.
- His father is a mechanical engineer. His family had hoped that Vignesh would follow in his father’s footsteps or find something they believed was a more stable job but, he had other plans.
Education : Qualifications, High School & College Info
- Vignesh developed an interest in coding when he was in high school.
- He used to build local company websites with one of his friends, earning $20 for each job. They would use the money they made to buy parts for building up their personal computers.
- After high school, in 2006, he went on to study Mechanical Engineering in Dubai.
- A few years later, at age 25, Vignesh went to Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where he studied for a Masters in Technology Innovation.
Career, Salary and Net Worth :
- Vignesh discovered Bitcoin in 2012 and was immediately hooked.
- Despite initially working as a newspaper developer, he switched gears to bitcoin and started Coins-E, his own personal online cryptocurrency exchange.
- In 2014, the company was hit with a scandal after 50 people complained that Sundaresan had not deposited thousands of dollars that they had earned.
- Although he promised to fix the issue, several traders reported to Reuters publication that he had failed to deliver on his promise.
- Saif Altimimi, a businessman from Ontario, later purchased Coins-E. It was noted in the contract that Coins-E held 456 bitcoins for customers, worth $260,000 and that Sundaresan had honored all customer transactions.
- Later that year, Sundaresan turned his sights to another venture and founded the 1st ever Bitcoin Teller Machine for Canada. Users could deposit cash and receive crypto using this service. The founder took modest salaries to keep costs low.
Interesting Facts, Height and Trivia :
- In 2021, Vignesh was in the news as he bought a digital piece of art for $70 million.
- Investing in Ethereum at an early stage was the “fountainhead” for Sundaresan’s later ventures. As he told Reuters, he bought around 20,000 ether during the ICO, worth around $6,000 (market value of which later grew to over $30 million)