Faces of Web3: Blake Cassidy, Bamboo
March 17, 2025
Blake’s journey into the Web3 space began in 2015 during his studies at KTH University in Stockholm, Sweden. A chance encounter with Bitcoin-savvy Australians sparked his curiosity, leading him to dive deep into the world of decentralised technology. What started as a personal exploration—using Bitcoin to send money abroad more efficiently than traditional banking—turned into a lifelong passion. Blake realised the transformative potential of Web3: its ability to democratise access to financial systems and empower individuals through digital ownership.
Today, Blake is a key figure in the Web3 space, having co-founded Bamboo, a platform dedicated to helping everyday people achieve their financial goals through digital assets. With a career marked by milestones like launching Australia’s #1 crypto podcast and successfully raising a Series A for Bamboo, Blake continues to drive innovation in the ever-evolving Web3 landscape. Blake’s story is one of curiosity, resilience, and a relentless drive to make Web3 accessible to all.
How did you get started in the Web3 space?
In 2015, I was studying at KTH University in Stockholm, Sweden. While there, I met some Australians living in Stockholm. They had been investing in Bitcoin and participating in the ecosystem in different ways and they told me about the attributes of Bitcoin and why decentralisation is important.
I became quite interested in the topic and started following different pages on Reddit and social media to track the progress of the ecosystem. There was not much educational material like there is now, but I spent 1,000’s of hours researching and understanding it.
Meanwhile, I didn’t have a bank account in Sweden and as a non-resident, it was a challenge to set one up. I needed to send money to a friend in Europe at the time and I found it much easier to purchase Bitcoin on a mobile app like Coinbase, and then send them the Bitcoin. It was a lot cheaper, easier and quicker than using traditional payment rails. Once the first transaction was complete, the penny dropped: I realised that the permissionless nature of the digital assets and Web3 made it easy for anyone to participate in the financial system. From that point on, I realised this was something I wanted to be involved in.
What was your motivator to found Bamboo?
In 2017, I worked at a small investment fund, Australia’s second crypto-focused investment fund: Digital Capital Management, which mainly allocated funds to large protocols like Bitcoin, Ethereum ect. However, we also invested a portion of the portfolio into Web3 startups and Bamboo was one of the startups we led the seed round for. After raising their money, the founding team deployed that capital to build an amazing product. However, unfortunately, in the 2020 bear market, it was very hard for them to raise additional capital, so we took the opportunity to acquire the business. Over the past four years, the management has changed, and we have been focused on growing the platform.
The definition of ‘Web3’ is quite broad and varies depending on the industry backgrounds of the people you speak to. How do you define the term?
Web3 is a really broad idea, and I think what the term encapsulates is the transition of the internet from being just read and write to the ownership of online data. Whether that’s ownership of a digital token on a ledger, ownership of data or ownership of an image such as an NFT it’s a major shift to now allow for digital ownership.
What do you determine to be the biggest societal opportunities that Web3 brings?
A major sector that hasn’t been cracked by Web3 is SocialFi. There are incredible projects like Lens Protocol, which is being driven by Stani, the founder of Aave that essentially allows people to own their data when they’re on social media. The idea is that your digital token or their NFT holds your Public and Private social media data like personal information, display picture, and potentially the history of their posts and interactions on the social media platforms. This new technology will allow people to move from one social media platform to another using your personal NFT as a log-in tool.
This is exciting because there have been so many instances of personal data being abused on social media and people not owning the web of data that they have online. It will bring back a lot of control for people and create a better environment to play social games on the Internet.
And what do you see as the biggest challenge that the Web3 community faces?
The biggest challenge at the moment that the Web3 community faces is regulation. There are many different ways that the digital asset and crypto ecosystem can be regulated and we’ve seen from the U.S. that there’s been regulation via enforcement. What this means is that the SEC or the financial regulator in the U.S. has been using the court systems to create rules and regulations based on precedent.
A similar situation is unfolding here in Australia, but the major issue is that we have two different federal government departments that are proposing different ways of regulating the crypto industry. This is causing a lot of confusion and challenges for crypto businesses to operate, as well as uncertainty. So, over the coming year, hopefully, we see this clear up to have a robust framework for regulating the Web3 sector here in Australia.
What are some career highlights in your Web3 journey?
Some career highlights of working in web3 are:
- Building an incredible remote team at Bamboo
- Speaking at various global conferences
- Launching Australia’s largest #1 Crypto Podcast
- Successfully Raising a Series A for Bamboo in 2021
What’s coming up for you and Bamboo in 2025?
Bamboo spent the last two years building a brand new mobile app with over 120 new screens and we’re proud to have that in the market now. Therefore, 2025 is going to be focused on promoting this new mobile application and distributing it to get it into as many people’s hands as possible so that everyday people can reach their financial goals with digital assets. This is really exciting for us because it encapsulates the vision and mission of Bamboo.
What inspires you to stay motivated professionally?
What inspires me to stay motivated professionally is the exciting and ever-changing landscape of Web3. Innovation happens so rapidly in our sector, and new sub-industries can be created overnight. Watching it evolve and change on a daily basis makes Web3 such an exciting space to participate in.
As well as that, we do a weekly podcast called The Crypto Curious, which is Australia’s largest crypto-focused podcast. The process of preparing and recording the podcast keeps us abreast of what’s happening in the crypto industry. We aim to unpack the narratives between the stories to find out what’s really going on and potentially figure out where we’re going.
When you’re not working, where would we most likely find you?
You will often find me down at the beach, going camping / hiking down in the Southwest Western Australia, doing yoga, socialising and playing music. You can connect with Blake on LinkedIn and discover more about Bamboo here. Inspired by Blake’s journey and looking for more? Discover more in our exciting “Faces of Web3” series via our blog.
