Graduates Achieve Beyond the Bubble

Following the first article of The Exonian’s alumni feature series about Peter Kalugin ‘11 and Shinri Kamei ‘12, published on December 11, 2014, is the second edition, a story about Jack Zwick ‘10, Head of Mining & Special Projects at the world’s first regulated cryptographic currency hedge fund, and Showly Nicholson ‘12, social activist in Cambridge, MA.

Jack Zwick ‘10

While they have gotten much exposure in the media and internet world in the past few years, bitcoin, paycoin and other forms of cryptographic currency still remain foreign to many people. Jack Zwick ‘10, as the Head of Mining and Special Projects at Crypto Currency Fund (CCF), is an expert in not only how cryptocurrencies work, but in cryptocurrency investment and trading.

Zwick first got involved in cryptocurrency while taking economics classes at The University of Chicago and becoming fascinated by the concept of bitcoin.

“Intellectual curiosity drove my interest at first—a friend and I started mining bitcoins on his laptop, but decided to stop because we could only earn about a bitcoin a day which wasn’t worth a lot at the time and it made his laptop hot and noisy from the fan. In retrospect, that was a small price to pay for the present value of a bitcoin, but hindsight is 20/20,” Zwick said.

"Intellectual curiosity drove my interest at first—a friend and I started mining bitcoins on his laptop, but decided to stop because we could only earn about a bitcoin a day which wasn’t worth a lot at the time."

While his first experiences with bitcoin were seemingly small, after reading more about bitcoin, Zwick took the initiative and sent letters to several cryptocurrency companies, looking for summer internship spots. After a few phone calls and emails, Zwick was on a flight to Seattle to become the bitcoin industry’s first intern as CoinLab’s sixth full-time employee.

Although Zwick had a background in economics, he had to make adjustments, learn new concepts, and think creatively to approach his new work in the cryptocurrency industry.

“While the Chicago school of economics did not include a course on Satoshi Nakamoto’s difficulty adjustment formula, or the effect of application-specific integrated circuits on energy consumption and mining economies of scale, I approached the challenge as the intersection of the two academic passions I had discovered at Exeter and developed at UChicago: physics and economics,” he said.

Soon after, while staying involved with cryptocurrency and even starting his own company in the bitcoin industry, Zwick was hired as CCF’s first trader, and eventually the fund’s Head of Mining and Special Projects.

Zwick’s current work with the fund revolves around working on the fund’s strategy. So far, CCF has established an impressive set of records. According to Zwick, “The fund had built a track record of success with its achievements under its former name, Tera Capital Fund, which ranked in the top 10 for performance among similar funds five years out of its eight-year history. Last year the fund set the all-time annual and monthly performance records for fund of funds, returning 392 percent.”

Zwick said that his time at the Academy impacted his perspective on cryptocurrency in many ways.

“The intellectually innovative Exeter spirit and a non sibi attitude was what launched my philosophic interest in the concept of borderless, decentralized currency. Unlike centralized payment systems, bitcoin and its cryptographic currency descendents enable the free, unrestricted, peer-to-peer transfer of value,” he said.

Zwick continued, “For me, bitcoin ideals are Exeter ideals—inclusion or ‘youth from every quarter,’ and decentralization of our financial system or non sibi, not for oneself. And while bitcoin can be used for nefarious purposes, similar to the internet, in my opinion the social welfare created from the collective empowerment it provides far outweighs the possible dangers and new challenges it presents.”

After spending almost two years away from school in the world of finance and cryptocurrency, Zwick hopes to return to University of Chicago later this year to finish his last year of undergraduate studies and write his B.A. thesis.

Showly Nicholson ‘12

Non sibi, or not for oneself, is one of several values that Exeter embodies, both in its establishment and in its everyday life. Showly Nicholson ‘12, even after graduating from the Academy, continues to practice this ideal through his service work with homeless people in Cambridge, Mass.

Nicholson was first exposed to the realities of homeless people while following around his father, the owner of a cleaning company, as a child.

“He worked in Boston where there are many homeless individuals, and often at night when we’d take out the trash or were headed home, we’d pass homeless people asking for spare change and food,” Nicholson said. “Dad’s a compassionate soul and always gave, and I saw this, so I grew up seeing the homeless not as people to stray from but as people to help.”

When he arrived at Harvard University in the fall of 2012, Nicholson began volunteering as a resource advocate at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter. In charge of duties ranging from looking over resumes and helping guests obtain identification, Nicholson met countless homeless individuals while working.

“I learned through conversation that many of the guests had college degrees, previous careers, and were really interesting, and quite frankly, normal people. That’s when I felt it was in my capacity to do more to save these people than just make their homelessness easier, with a lot of work from them, of course,” Nicholson said.

The project Nicholson has started, Homes for the Homeless, strives to help the homeless to address their most urgent need: having a safe, comfortable place to call home. Often, government assistance can be slow, and homeless people can run into many problems simply trying to find a place to sleep.

“When people are homeless, it is very difficult for them to get a job, and even keep a job, because they do not have a home address, consistent access to a comfortable, warm, and safe place to sleep, transportation, and the like. You can imagine, it takes much more work trying to maintain these things while showing up to work consistently and on time, not to mention while hiding that you’re homeless,” Nicholson said. “My project raises funds to pay for the security deposit and three months rent to sublet an affordable single room for these individuals, with the requirement that they work and save while housed for those three months.”

Nicholson has successfully applied many of the things he learned at Exeter to his work with the homeless. “Surrounded by an incredibly diverse student body at Exeter, I learned early that I couldn’t judge people, or assume things about peers. In the same manner, I was reluctant to judge the homeless people I encountered in the shelter.”

“Additionally,” he continued, “I can remember many instances around the Harkness table where I was told it was my role to stand up for things I think are incorrect or unfair, and also to take action where I feel action is needed.”