I am Wences Casares, co-founder & CEO of Xapo, Ask Me Anything

[chriswilmer]

Hi Wences,

Thanks for doing this AMA!

It seems to me that a lot of the venture capital dollars are being invested prematurely... I think that money would have been better spent just buying bitcoins, and then once the price is $10,000 (ish), a lot more money is then needed to try and keep it somewhat stable... and THEN money should go into creating consumer products. Those are *my* thoughts... what do you feel is the right sequence of investments for Bitcoin to succeed? (imagine you could mind control all of the VCs and institutional investors out there...)

[wences]

Hi,

1. If you have a vault service, does that mean that the funds at my wallet are insecure? If the security level is the same, why not just have delayed withdrawals for large amounts?

2. Is there something in Xapo like Coinbase "multisig" wallet?

3. Will you freeze my funds if the gov. ask you to?

1. Xapo keeps 97% of all our customers funds in our own vault, so the funds in your wallet have the same level of security of its private keys as the vault does. One of the main features of the Xapo Wallet is that your balance is private (no one can figure out your balance by looking at the blockchain) and your transactions are private (no one can figure out what payments you have made or received by looking at the blockchain). We offer the vault as a separate product for people and institutions who want or need to see the balance of that account in the blockchain. They loose the privacy of balance and transactions but they get the security of being able to self audit their balance. Your Xapo Vault balance and transactions are visible in the blockchain, which is why we recommend your vault address to yourself and why the vault can only transact against your wallet, to keep all those transactions private and secure).

2. Xapo only uses muti-sig technology. When you are using our wallet or our vault you are using multiple signatures that are kept in different locations, etc. If you want to spread the risk in multiple people you can add users to your wallet or vault with different permissions for each, but the private keys are never at risk and are never exposed to a customer's device.

3. If you are a US customer and the US government or a US judge issues a valid order to freeze an account we would have to obey it. If you are a non-US customer we can only freeze your account if a Swiss judge issues a firm order to do so.

[ucontroltv]

Hello Wences,

Love everything you have done and are doing for bitcoin community. This question has been asked in the past but I wanted to get your current thoughts:

Which country in the world do you think would be the first to adopt bitcoin as a national currency (would it be Argentina)?
And do you have any suggestions on how to best convince a government to adopt bitcoin as a national currency? Have you tried with Argentina?

Usually in times of extreme turmoil people are willing to try almost anything.... I personally think that is what will happen when a country becomes desperate enough due to the failures of their own currency to adopt bitcoin.

Thanks for your thoughts on this subject.

Sincerely,

Dale Malone.

[wences]

Thank you for doing this AMA Wences. I've enjoyed reading your thoughts about Bitcoin and your view of Xapo.

What do you find entertaining about Bitcoin?

That it feels more like a crusade than an economic phenomenon

[bitvote]

I'm starting to plan a halving party - where people around the world get together to celebrate the halving event. Some people in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, some in Central Park in NYC, some in London, etc...

It'd be a bit like the World Cup or Olympics - a way for bitcoiners to get together every ~4yrs to celebrate bitcoin.

Would you be interested in coming to the party?

[wences]

Hello Wences,

Love everything you have done and are doing for bitcoin community. This question has been asked in the past but I wanted to get your current thoughts:

Which country in the world do you think would be the first to adopt bitcoin as a national currency (would it be Argentina)?
And do you have any suggestions on how to best convince a government to adopt bitcoin as a national currency? Have you tried with Argentina?

Usually in times of extreme turmoil people are willing to try almost anything.... I personally think that is what will happen when a country becomes desperate enough due to the failures of their own currency to adopt bitcoin.

Thanks for your thoughts on this subject.

Sincerely,

Dale Malone.

I have suffered governments being irresponsible with their currency more than most people, but even then I think it would be a bad idea for a country to adopt Bitcoin as its only currency. It would make sense for a country to allow Bitcoin as a parallel currency to their own, though.

Imagine that Argentina adopted Bitcoin when it was at USD 10, and that your salary was then set at 100 bitcoins a month or USD 1,000. Your salary today would be USD 40,000 a month: how can an economy operate like that? And, if you say: "OK, let's pay in bitcoins but determine the salary in USD your currency is USD, not bitcoin".

I explained it here: https://blog.xapo.com/why-greece-should ... o-bitcoin/

I think Bitcoin is a private currency and it will become the native digital global currency of the Internet, by the people and for the people, not governments,

[karibou]

hello and thanks for doing an AMA

Why did you chose the name xapo? what does it mean?

What country sees the most trafic on your site?

Do you have any future plan we aren't aware of?


Thank u

[LiteCoinGuy]

Did you recommend bitcoin to your family members too ?

How did they react the first time you explained it to them?

[wences]

hello and thanks for doing an AMA

Why did you chose the name xapo? what does it mean?

It was just a four letter .com domain that I was able to buy for $6,500

What country sees the most trafic on your site?

It changes every week. It is often India, China, Russia, Indonesia, Philippines, Turkey, Brazil & Thailand.

Do you have any future plan we aren't aware of?

I hope so!


Thank u

[wences]

Did you recommend bitcoin to your family members too ?

Yes, absolutely! I always tell them that the second most stupid thing they could do right now is to own an amount of bitcoins they cannot afford to loose and the most stupid thing they could do would be to not own any.

How did they react the first time you explained it to them?

Not very well. I find that bitcoin is like a pregnancy: it does not matter how powerful and/or rich you are it takes 9 months to have a baby. Similarly, it does not matter how intelligent you are, how much you know about technology or finance, it takes about 6 months to fully understand and embrace Bitcoin.

[omarabid]

2. Xapo only uses muti-sig technology. When you are using our wallet or our vault you are using multiple signatures that are kept in different locations, etc. If you want to spread the risk in multiple people you can add users to your wallet or vault with different permissions for each, but the private keys are never at risk and are never exposed to a customer's device.

That wasn't my question really. Coinbase allow you to generate your own private key and use it to retrieve the funds if coinbase went under. Do you offer a similar service?

3. If you are a US customer and the US government or a US judge issues a valid order to freeze an account we would have to obey it. If you are a non-US customer we can only freeze your account if a Swiss judge issues a firm order to do so.

Quite interesting. So only the U.S has got power over you (and the Swiss since you are there). It means if Tunisia issue an order to freeze my account, you'd not oblige?

[bryan.burns]

How important was knowing your business from the WACC to the NPV? Did you raise equity capital? What investment banks were most helpful?

[Smartie]

Hello Wences!

Thanks for doing this AMA.

Can you tell us, How much faucets have contributed to your success? I have found that most faucet users prefer Xapo due to the low fees on micro payments.

This is the part I like the most of the services you offer to the people who are struggling financially.

Great Work

[jan.beeck]

Hi There!

Do you see the Bitcoin protocol as a tool to help the 2 billions of adults that are unbanked?

Thanks.

Jan
www.crowbe.com

[Joe]

Hi Wences, thanks for doing this AMA.

Whats your opinion of the US regulatory approach to Bitcoin?

Besides Switzerland, what other countries did you consider?

[kristovatlas]

How important is user privacy to Xapo?

What privacy protections have you put in place to protect users' transaction info on the blockchain?

[knight22]

Hi Wences,

What you do think of sidechains and Lightning network? Do you think they can be used as a mean to scale bitcoin?

Do you think bitcoin XT is a viable proposition to achieve larger blocks?

Also, do you plan to expand your debit card to other domestic currencies like CAD?

[bitesports]

Hi Wences! no questions, just wanted to say thank you, you introduced me to bitcoins a couple years back, (and it's been a crazy startup roller coaster ever since)

[AlfredJordan]

Bitcoin has lost one fourth of its outstanding Bitcoins to theft and negligence. That number exceeds $1 billion US. Your firm was one of the first to insure for employee theft and fraud. Recently you replaced your captive insurance with an insured product. Will you be releasing for public review pro forma insurance contracts so that we can see what you have insured?

[ronnieb]

In the book Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money the story is told of the "Old Argentinian Man" (implicitly acquainted with you) who lost his entire life savings in MtGox. Can you tell me this persons name. I have talked about him in my bitcoin talks and it would be nice to verify the story. It's a heart breaking story, but there is a lesson to be learned as well.

[LiteCoinGuy]

Did you recommend bitcoin to your family members too ?

Yes, absolutely! I always tell them that the second most stupid thing they could do right now is to own an amount of bitcoins they cannot afford to loose and the most stupid thing they could do would be to not own any.

How did they react the first time you explained it to them?

Not very well. I find that bitcoin is like a pregnancy: it does not matter how powerful and/or rich you are it takes 9 months to have a baby. Similarly, it does not matter how intelligent you are, how much you know about technology or finance, it takes about 6 months to fully understand and embrace Bitcoin.

hrhr, love that answer

[kallosum]

[quote="wences"]I am a fintech entrepreneur. I learned about Bitcoin in 2011

Dear CEO xapo
please help with my xapo account it has has been blocked without my knowing
please unblock it

[Westernory]

I am a fintech entrepreneur. I learned about Bitcoin in 2011

Dear CEO xapo
please help with my xapo account it has has been blocked without my knowing
please unblock it

I think that this AMA has ended long ago because of lack of user interest.

Don't think that he is currently active on this forum, however if you are i have a few questions too:

1.Do you guarantee that user funds can be sent without Identification, even in the case of his account being suspended for say, gambling connections?

2.Do you do tracking on your users and their coins?

[gadamhw]

hi

Added some money to Xapo and they haven't credited my account - saying it was cancelled but my bank have said the payment went through fine - this was 30 days ago - foreign payments don't take that long - what's going on please?

[Neoclassical]

I am a fintech entrepreneur. I learned about Bitcoin in 2011

Dear CEO xapo
please help with my xapo account it has has been blocked without my knowing
please unblock it

I think that this AMA has ended long ago because of lack of user interest.

Don't think that he is currently active on this forum, however if you are i have a few questions too:

1.Do you guarantee that user funds can be sent without Identification, even in the case of his account being suspended for say, gambling connections?

2.Do you do tracking on your users and their coins?

I think this will be important for many to know in this field.

[gogandmog]

Owning such an big and influcial website in the Bitcoin market, one that people will look at from all different prespectives (trust, etc.).

How does it feel to have theses resposibilities?

[Caboodles]

Hi, not really a bitcoin related question, but one about your presence in Gibraltar. Did you find it difficult to set up in Gibraltar? Was the license application difficult to obtain. I would really appreciate any advice you can give me via email. tracy@propertynetworkandalusia.com Thank you in advance

[Stshi_Lotto]

Hi Wences - I'm actually busy reading Digital Gold & it's so awesome to be able to interact with you! You are truly an inspiration

Reading this has completely convinced me on the need for BTC and motivated me to do something to help get it to mainstream adoption. As someone without large amounts of capital available, I've started up Satoshis Lotto - with the aim to have small lotteries (for a start) & use a potion of the funds to drive marketing campaigns

Although it is still very early days, it is understandably very difficult to get traction. There's a huge amount of scams and "get rich overnight" spam running around, so my question to you is, how do I get peoples attention and differentiate this from the hordes of junk out there?

Thanks so much

www.satoshislotto.com

[vwager]

Wence,

New to the BTC world. Set up an account on Xapo and went to purchase BTC I could afford to lose as you recommend. But that amount is $10,000 ... that I can not afford to lose. Why can't i make a $500 purchase of BTC?

Vic

[ratulc]

Hello,

None of my transactions are getting confirmed. Its been more than 5 days my transactions are stuck. Today I tried to deposit some into the wallet, even that transaction is unconfirmed. Can you please help me to get my bitcoins back.. The hash for three transactions are as below:

1c5caaae734e383074c2b1e97e63d658634903b3

70860f02f9502901d1c177e856c011ba041053aa

8903fff006979154f00bde66d8bc2582ad6c5535

Thanks,
Ratul