Forum rules
The more people that are involved, the more interesting this AMA series will be for everyone.
Please help spread the word of this amazing AMA series on your own social media. (YES, EVEN YOURS!)
Short URL: AMA.Bitcoin.com
Hashtag: #BTCAMA
When the AMAs are finished, all the answers will be compiled into a free E-book!
Daniel.H
AMA
AMA
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 12:14 am

I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Mon Dec 14, 2015 1:44 am

Hello, my name is Daniel Houska and I’m co-founder of CoinMate.io, EUR/BTC Exchange.

I got into Bitcoin in 2010 while I was co-founder and CEO of a licensed payment institution in the Czech Republic. I accidently spotted some article about Bitcoins and immediately fell in love with it. My goal was try to get Bitcoins on board together with payment services and to be the first licensed and regulated Bitcoin service in Europe.
It was in the year 2011. Bitcoin in early stages, not mature enough. It was just a “child game” according to regulators. We spent 2 years having meetings and communication with regulator without significant progress, while the competition ran business freely without limitation. Finally we were told, hey guys forget about it, bitcoin is not money and therefore subject to current payment regulation. You are not allowed to run bitcoin business under your payment company.

This is how our story begins. We created a UK company, decided to quit boring payment services and started to focus on bitcoins only. After securing backing from a large IT company specializing in financial software, CoinMate drew first breath in early 2014. Even though CoinMate is just one year old, everyone involved are early Bitcoin adopters with a varied level of skills especially in payment services and compliance, making us uniquely qualified to enter this burgeoning space.

I'm glad to be a part of this epic AMA session, thank you!.
Please feel free to ask me any question.

Links:
https://Coinmate.io
https://bitcoinpay.com

nyeko_12
Nickel Bitcoiner
Nickel Bitcoiner
Posts: 45
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 4:15 pm

Donate BTC of your choice to 1DBAq46iSNLTsq33dySBpYpaFqH3pTi9sk

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:04 pm

Hi Daniel!

i Have a couple of questions that i want to ask you!

What are your opinions regarding the Blocksize-issue(Especially after the Scaling bitcoin event)? are you for BIP100(increase of up to 17%)/BIP101(8 MB and up to GBs)/BIP248(2-4-8-32MB) with/without Segregated Witness and lightning network?
Do you hold bitcoins BTC yourself(in the trezor,web Wallet,mobile wallet or desktop wallet)? How much bitcoins do you hold(% wise of your savings and how much off your salary to you put into bitcoin)?
What do you think about bitcoins and other altcoins such as (litecoin and ethereum) future(block halvening,openbaazar etc)?
When will you be able to withdraw/deposit though paypal/swish(Nordic payment system which is quick and smooth)!

Carlosbit
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2015 12:05 am

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Tue Dec 15, 2015 12:21 am

Hi Daniel,

If i will be considering to start trading bitcoin on your exchange, what do you think are some advantages against other exchanges on the market?
Would you mind to tell us, what solution are you using to store your customers funds in cold storage? Are you using Trezor or some multisig?

I was reading about recent Bitcoinpay integration with Czech largest payment gateway Gopay, it is a great to hear Bitcoin payments are starting to catch attention of regular payment providers. What is the Bitcoin adoption in Czech. Are there people willing to spend Bitcoins?

Where do you think the price of bitcoin will go in 2016?

User avatar
BitcoinXio
Nickel Bitcoiner
Nickel Bitcoiner
Posts: 167
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2015 4:12 pm
Contact: Website

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Tue Dec 15, 2015 1:04 am

Hi Daniel, thanks for doing this AMA! Can you tell us what your observations and experiences have been running an exchange in the UK? How are banking relationships? There are a lot of UK exchanges, how is competition? Do you feel the exchange market is overly saturated?

Thanks.

Daniel.H
AMA
AMA
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 12:14 am

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Tue Dec 15, 2015 6:17 pm

Hi Daniel!

i Have a couple of questions that i want to ask you!

What are your opinions regarding the Blocksize-issue(Especially after the Scaling bitcoin event)? are you for BIP100(increase of up to 17%)/BIP101(8 MB and up to GBs)/BIP248(2-4-8-32MB) with/without Segregated Witness and lightning network?
Do you hold bitcoins BTC yourself(in the trezor,web Wallet,mobile wallet or desktop wallet)? How much bitcoins do you hold(% wise of your savings and how much off your salary to you put into bitcoin)?
What do you think about bitcoins and other altcoins such as (litecoin and ethereum) future(block halvening,openbaazar etc)?
When will you be able to withdraw/deposit though paypal/swish(Nordic payment system which is quick and smooth)!
Hello Nyeko_12 i I personaly preffer BIP 101 over BIP 100 for couple of reasons.
  • I believe in Moore's law
    We all want to scale bitcoin and we all want see bitcoin as an alternative to VISA MC payments. You can't do it without increasing blocks now.
    BIP 101 gives you much more predictable behavior.
    I am fan of Segregated Witness - great concept.
    I have not studied lightning so far to be hones it is still long way to go.
Holding Bitcoins
Yes I do hold some bitcoins and I am long term investors rather than trader :-).

Altcoins
I do not see any significant advantage over bitcoins. I am focused on Bitcoins. Ethereum is too complex and time will tell.

Withdrawals:
We do not plan to implement PayPal withdrawals nor NPS. We need to stick with payment methods we trust and PayPal is not currently on the list.

Daniel.H
AMA
AMA
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 12:14 am

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Wed Dec 16, 2015 12:07 pm

Hi Daniel, thanks for doing this AMA! Can you tell us what your observations and experiences have been running an exchange in the UK? How are banking relationships? There are a lot of UK exchanges, how is competition? Do you feel the exchange market is overly saturated?

Thanks.
Hi BitcoinXio,
UK regulation has been the most proactive so far, they declared Exchanges are excempt of VAT long before the European Court of Justice decided in October this year. It seems that operation from UK pays off.

Banking relationship:
Because we’ve been in the financial regulation and compliance industry for 8 years, we were able to build good relationship with our banks. Our partners know what Coinmate is doing. We keep all client's money separate from our operation accounts. We never borrow client funds for operations and have a good historical backround and strict Anti Money laundering internal policies. We are currently working with European private bank on direct Bitcoin integration to their internet banking. If this eventuely goes live it is going to have a huge impact for Bitcoin adoption.

Competition
Industry is very competitive. It is almost impossible now to start a brand new exchange without prioror experience in payment industry and compliance. You need to have quite a lot of capital in the backround too in order to be able to keep your financing healty. I think Coinmate will proove its quality and gain more popularity in the feature. I think we are on a good way.

Thank you for your questions.
D.

User avatar
Windowly
Junior Mod
Junior Mod
Posts: 414
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 7:46 am

Donate BTC of your choice to qrd9y7aas8ce7hla5mlcrcjjmhld3v84zghvylyq

Contact: Twitter

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:21 pm

Do you publish your 24 hour volume anywhere? I couldn't find it on your site.
Signing Address: qrd9y7aas8ce7hla5mlcrcjjmhld3v84zghvylyqm4

Daniel.H
AMA
AMA
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 12:14 am

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Fri Dec 18, 2015 12:44 pm

Do you publish your 24 hour volume anywhere? I couldn't find it on your site.
Hello, we do not publish 24 hour volume on website at the moment, but you can get it via our API
https://coinmate.io/api/ticker?currencyPair=BTC_EUR

API documentation (TICKER)
http://docs.coinmate.apiary.io/#referen ... ticker/get

User avatar
Skin_in_the_game
Nickel Bitcoiner
Nickel Bitcoiner
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Nov 19, 2015 6:51 pm

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Fri Dec 18, 2015 2:21 pm

Hello Daniel

I was re-reading Antifragile by iconoclast thinker Nassim Taleb recently. He writes
"Never ask anyone for their opinion [...] Just ask them what they have -or don't have- in their portfolio"
I have come to think it's a very relevant question and you can better weight people's opinions having an idea of how many Bitcoins they hold (or do not hold.) So Instead of asking their opinion on bitcoin, I'm now asking every participants the same question:

- Do you mind to tell us which percentage of your personal net worth and/or liquid assets you hold in Bitcoins ?

Daniel.H
AMA
AMA
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 12:14 am

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Mon Aug 15, 2016 3:08 pm

I personally do not own much just dozens of bitcoins, but our company holds much more. All securely stored in myTrezor vault.

onyeze
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2016 4:40 pm

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Mon Aug 22, 2016 5:00 pm

Am new to bitcoin pls I want to know some of the trusted site one can invest his money with out him doing anything, and his money will be double.


Sent from my X551 using Tapatalk

CIbe
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2016 12:25 am

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Wed Sep 28, 2016 12:37 am

Hello Daniel ,

Was inspired by your write up , my question is how did u drive bitcoin payment system in your country and what's you advice to anyone trying to do the same in his own country.
Thank you


Neoclassical
Banned
Banned
Posts: 314
Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2017 3:40 pm

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Wed Aug 02, 2017 12:49 pm

Will you support BCH trading? Will you credit your users BCH?
We don't need no centralisation. ImageImageImage

CryptoToTrade
Nickel Bitcoiner
Nickel Bitcoiner
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:21 pm

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:32 pm

I am fro China. Can I use your site


Marconi
Nickel Bitcoiner
Nickel Bitcoiner
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2018 5:13 pm

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Thu Feb 08, 2018 5:32 pm

Great, thank you.

Cryptozone
Nickel Bitcoiner
Nickel Bitcoiner
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2018 3:13 pm

Re: I'm Daniel Houška, co-founder and CEO of European Bitcoin exchange CoinMate.io

Sat Mar 03, 2018 3:16 pm

Your project is so awesome.

Return to “AMA - Ask Me Anything”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests