After 14 years working with Overstock.com, the e-commerce giant's chairman of the board was asked to leave the room during a board meeting last month.For Jonathan Johnson, who had previously served in leadership roles, including a stint as Overstock's CEO, it was an unusual moment. Johnson had just finished an unsuccessful bid to become the governor of Utah, and his future at the company was now in the board's hands.
But the board would return with good news, ultimately deciding to offer Johnson the chance totake over as president of Overstock subsidiary Medici and formally lead its efforts to reimagine finance using technology inspired by bitcoin.
In Johnson’s first interview since taking the reigns, he explained that his goal for the company and its blockchain projects isn't to change what CEO Patrick Byrne set in motion when he became the first major retailer to accept bitcoin, but to accelerate it.
