I'm Henry Brade, Co-founder and CEO of Denarium and Bittiraha.fi, Ask Me Anything!

[Technomage]

Hello everyone! My name is Henry Brade and I'm Co-founder & CEO of Denarium and Bittiraha.fi. I'm ready to answer your questions!



Here is an introduction to what I'm doing in Bitcoin space.

Our company started in March 2012 so I would say it is a 1st generation Bitcoin startup. I have been a Bitcoin hobbyist since April 2011 so one could say I'm an early adopter. I'm into Bitcoin itself, as a hard currency, not just "blockchain tech" or "cryptocurrencies" in general.

Here is a quick overview of what type of services our company provides. I believe we have possibly the most diverse set of Bitcoin services of all Bitcoin companies to date.

Bittiraha.fi - Our first & still largest service which started in May 2012. It is a complete Bitcoin Portal for all Finnish Bitcoin users and provides a wide variety of commercial & non-commercial services. The Bitcoin Exchange at Bittiraha.fi is a clear market leader in Finland.
Denarium Bitcoin - Our first truly international product, Denarium Physical Bitcoins, started in April 2015. We have been reselling Casascius coins for years but now we decided that it is time to start making our own coins.
Bittimaatti BTM Network - The largest Bitcoin ATM network in the Nordics. We officially have 8 locations at the moment and we are continuing to expand. It is clearly a growing part of our business.
BTC Store - BTC Store is an online store focused on Bitcoin Security Products. Our main product there is paperwallets that are loaded with bitcoin value and we also sell empty paperwallets.

What are we up to now? Well, in addition to improving all of the above-mentioned services, we are currently developing a method of buying bitcoins instantly with no friction. This service is already online for Finnish users and it is called Pikaosto. Pikaosto means "Quick buy" in English. It's the fastest method of buying bitcoins that I know of and we're looking into the possibilities of expanding it abroad.

Additionally we have a very interesting stealth project in the works. We are working on offline Bitcoin transactions. The creator of Kryptoradio, Joel Lehtonen, is the project lead of our dev team and he has quite a bit of tricks up his sleeve. The project we are working on is not about Kryptoradio specifically, but it is closely related. We are right now looking for public & private funding for the offline tx project to accelerate its development.

This is it for the intro. My contact info can be found from the company website and I also have a Twitter profile and a Linkedin profile.

Here is my submission to Reddit by the way, in case you guys want to help my AMA get visibility.

I will list all the questions in this post, by the way! I will put up the question and the link to my answer.

Questions

1. Can you give us any additional hints on your " very interesting stealth project in the works"?
Answer
2. A couple of questions related to Denarium Physical Bitcoins that use Multisig
Answer
3. Do you think it is a good idea to set up a raspberry pi full node to support the network?
Answer
4. Has there been any development in the shipping of the coins and them coming loose from the certificates?
Answer
5. Do you think it is possible to get a paid salary in a Bitcoin job?
Answer
6. How do you store your Bitcoins?
7. What do you think about the blocksize issue?
Answer (to both 6 and 7)
8. Which percentage of your net worth and/or liquid assets do you hold in Bitcoins?
Answer
9. Any thoughts on "EU tightening control on virtual currencies" news/rumor as published by Reuters?
10. Do you think that Bitcoin businesses in the EU and/or Finland have channels in place to educate policy makers about Bitcoin?
Answer (to both 9 and 10)

[rogerver]

HI Henry,

Thanks for being one of the earliest, longest lasting, and most trustworthy businesses in the history of Bitcoin so far.
Can you give us any additional hints on your " very interesting stealth project in the works"?

[notig]

Hey there, I'm the proud owner of two of the auction coins from the second round of auctions

I chose the multi sig version with the A* serial numbers

As far as I know this is the first "trustless coin" . That means I don't have to trust you because you only have one of the private keys, and if I ever want to trade the coin to someone else they don't have to trust me because even though I have a private key, I don't have the one on the coin under the tamper proof covering. Do I have that right so far? I feel these may be collectcible someday.

who's idea was it for the trustless coin? I think it is pretty clever. The only downside is that I have to store two valuable things instead of one (a coin and a private key) but I feel that I could probably replicate the private key several times and store it in different places.

[Hannu]

Hi, do you think it is a good idea to set up a raspberry pi full node to support the network?

[Technomage]

Thanks for being one of the earliest, longest lasting, and most trustworthy businesses in the history of Bitcoin so far.
Can you give us any additional hints on your " very interesting stealth project in the works"?

Thanks for the compliment!

Regarding the stealth project, I knew the question would come up. Unfortunately I can't expand on the technical details yet but I can say that we have a method of applying offline Bitcoin transaction capability for both Bitcoin users & Bitcoin merchants. It has been in very early stage development so far but we are now looking to accelerate its development significantly.

Our roadmap is now such that we want to have a working prototype in Q1/2016 which would already be integrated into some existing Bitcoin wallets and/or services. For Q2/2016 we would like to have the full product ready. There is a lot of work to be done because it is not just about the technology, we also need integrations to many existing key Bitcoin services.

Anyway, the goal is to usher a new era of robustness for digital payments in general. Digital payments need to become as reliable as cash payments, which they are not, at the moment.

[Technomage]

Hey there, I'm the proud owner of two of the auction coins from the second round of auctions

I chose the multi sig version with the A* serial numbers

As far as I know this is the first "trustless coin" . That means I don't have to trust you because you only have one of the private keys, and if I ever want to trade the coin to someone else they don't have to trust me because even though I have a private key, I don't have the one on the coin under the tamper proof covering. Do I have that right so far? I feel these may be collectcible someday.

Yes, you have it right so far.

who's idea was it for the trustless coin? I think it is pretty clever. The only downside is that I have to store two valuable things instead of one (a coin and a private key) but I feel that I could probably replicate the private key several times and store it in different places.

There have been 2-factor coins for a while now, so that idea is not new. But we decided to create a multisig coin because multisig is simply better. It allows us to assemble the coins in advance and create the multisig addresses later, which is easier for logistics. With 2-factor coins you can't do that.

Secondly, it allows anyone to create new multisig solutions based on our coins, at any time, even if the coins bought weren't originally multisig. This is possible because we give the full public key of the coin to the buyer and using that he can actually create any kind of multisig solutions (2 of 3 or 3 of 5, anything).

In fact we have a couple of quite interesting new multisig coin products coming up. Stay tuned!

[Technomage]

Hi, do you think it is a good idea to set up a raspberry pi full node to support the network?

I don't see why not. Setting up full nodes is usually a good idea. But I would recommend using a Raspberry Pi 2 to set up a full node as it can be a bit of a struggle with the basic Rasp. I run a full node myself as well, by the way. I use a desktop PC with a SSD drive to do that, but anyways.

[minerjones]

Hello-
Has there been any development is the shipping of the coins and them coming loose from the certificates?

Thank you.

[Technomage]

Hello-
Has there been any development is the shipping of the coins and them coming loose from the certificates?

Hello!

Took me a while to understand what you meant but I think I now understand it. We used an adhesive to attach the coins (and their capsules) to the certificate paper but it didn't work very well. They have been coming loose in shipping and that can cause damages to the capsules and in worst case, to the coins.

There has been development, yes. We have stopped doing that with any new coins that we package so it shouldn't be a problem any longer. We are making sure the coins don't come loose and get damaged.

[Hannu]

Do you think it is possible to get a paid salary in a Bitcoin job? I currently work without salary.

[Technomage]

Do you think it is possible to get a paid salary in a Bitcoin job? I currently work without salary.

Of course it is possible. The Bitcoin industry employs a growing amount of people. But Bitcoin companies require very special expertise, so unless you have the right qualifications, it can be difficult.

[LiteCoinGuy]

Hi Henry,

how do you store your Bitcoins? I guess you also use some of your coins which are very nice

What do you think about the blocksize issue?




LCG

[Technomage]

how do you store your Bitcoins? I guess you also use some of your coins which are very nice

Thanks for the compliment!

A good question. I use multiple methods of storing bitcoins. I've used offline Armory, paperwallets & encrypted desktop wallets for a long time. Recently I've also started using Ledger Wallet which I like quite a bit. And I really like Copay, which is like the ultimate combination of security & convenience.

And of course I have physical bitcoins. I like collecting them. I own Casascius coins and of course Denarium coins as well.

For spending bitcoins I use mainly Mycelium on Android. Thinking about getting the Ledger NFC card for Mycelium 2-factor payments though.

What do you think about the blocksize issue?

This is another excellent question and difficult to answer quickly. I think the main issue is priorities. Some people think we should prioritize maximizing the decentralization of the Bitcoin network over all other things even if it means the other things degrade significantly. I think that is the kind of "puritanistic" view we should avoid.

My view is that decentralization is important but it is not a feature which should be viewed as something that can never, in any circumstance, degrade. There has to be decentralization but Bitcoin also needs to scale. It needs decentralized usage, not just decentralized network maintenance. More users is vital.

So, to summarize my view: If a compromise solution that passes through the Core consensus method does not emerge from the Hong Kong scaling conference, and push comes to shove, I'm likely backing Gavin. Of all the implementations so far I like BIP101 best but my opinion is not locked in at all, it can change if there are solutions that achieve better consensus.

I think there is a good chance for a compromise implementation, perhaps a modified version of BIP101. But we'll see.

[Skin_in_the_game]

hello Henry,

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"

Having met or read about a few people in the bitcoin community, I have come to think it's a very relevant question and you can better weight their opinions having an idea of how many Bitcoins they hold (or do not hold.)

I wanted to ask every participants to tell us a range of their bitcoins holdings rather than asking them their opinion on Bitcoin and its future. The first person asked told me percentage of his net worth or liquid assets held in Bitcoins instead. He thought it was more relevant and I also think it feels less like an invasion of financial privacy so..

So my question is:

- Which percentage of your net worth and/or liquid assets do you hold in Bitcoins ?

+ If you wish to do so you can also/instead tell us a range of the number of Bitcoins you own:
a/ <10
b/ 10-100
c/ 100-1,000
d/1,000-10,000
e/10,000-100,000
f/more than 100,000

[Technomage]

Which percentage of your net worth and/or liquid assets do you hold in Bitcoins ?

Good question! I also agree that this affects how a person's opinions on Bitcoin should be weighed.

The answer is 90 %.

[ladoga]

1. Any thoughts on "EU tightening control on virtual currencies" news/rumor as published by Reuters?

2. Do you think that Bitcoin businesses in the EU and/or Finland have channels in place to educate policy makers about Bitcoin?


I hope that one day you are able to expand Bittiraha.fi so that all EU citizens can buy bitcoins as easily as Finns do now.

[Technomage]

1. Any thoughts on "EU tightening control on virtual currencies" news/rumor as published by Reuters?

Based on everything I've read so far, it seems that the connection between ISIS and Bitcoin has been greatly overestimated. There seems to be little or no evidence of this even though blockchain allows such transparency that evidence should be forthcoming if this was happening. Also, Ghost Security Group has countered this rumor themselves, although I'm still waiting for them to publish an official tweet about it.

I'm not overly keen on conspiracy theories as I'm a man of science but I have to say that there seems to be a deliberate attempt of smearing Bitcoin by trying to connect cryptocurrencies and terrorism. Here is another good article that proved that the last time a connection was made, it was actually BS.

But now I want to comment on the regulation issue. Regardless of if the terrorism connections are true or not, the word is now out there and it is likely that there will be stronger regulation of Bitcoin. I see this as a clear negative outcome. To this date EU hasn't really touched cryptocurrencies and countries have been free to have their own views about it.

For example in Finland Bitcoin regulation is almost non-existent which is one of the reasons why we have been able to provide easy & convenient friction free Bitcoin services. I hope it stays that way but I fear we may be heading towards much stronger compliance. That provides challenges for our business as we are all about providing services that have a very light or non-existent "onboarding" process but we are prepared for the changes and will do what we must. But our company's policy regarding AML/KYC/Fraud will now and always be such that we will only burden our customers as much as we have to, no more. This is in stark contrast to some other European Bitcoin companies which are literally kissing the bank's and governments asses and by doing so they make the lives of their customers more difficult.

Strong regulation will lead to large, well funded companies having a clear advantage over small Bitcoin startups. It will make it almost impossible for a new Bitcoin startup to do anything. It will lead to banks getting the time they need to figure out how to handle the cryptocurrency phenomenon (which is likely why there is such a push to smear Bitcoin). It will make it more difficult and cumbersome and slower for people to buy & sell bitcoins in Europe. So I really, really hope the regulation remains light. However I'm not very optimistic about this at the moment, unfortunately.

2. Do you think that Bitcoin businesses in the EU and/or Finland have channels in place to educate policy makers about Bitcoin?

I don't really know much about this other than in regard to what is going on in Finland. There have been some talks here with different authorities regarding Bitcoin, almost all relevant authorities in Finland are nowadays well aware of Bitcoin and how it works. But as the policy makers go, there is a clear lack of knowledge on this topic. In fact we've been trying to figure out how to get to talk to the policy makers so that we can hopefully steer Bitcoin regulation in a saner direction.

It is not enough that the different authorities know about Bitcoin, it is the policy makers that make the rules that the authorities must follow. So I think that there is a huge need to educate policy makers in Finland and in the whole EU - and as fast as possible. Because when bad regulation is already in place, it is very difficult to change that afterwards.

I hope that one day you are able to expand Bittiraha.fi so that all EU citizens can buy bitcoins as easily as Finns do now.

Our new Pikaosto-service (quick buy) is something we are planning to expand abroad under an international brand. It is a super fast method of buying bitcoins and it has little or no KYC / Onboarding involved. It is only suitable for small amounts due to fraud concerns and other issues but with that service we can allow small purchases with little or no friction. We hope that we can provide that kind of service in other countries soon as well, at least for small amounts.

[Acidyo]

Hey Henry!

This is amazing, I just remembered that I used bittiraha back in 2013 when I had to sell some coins and there were almost no sites that could do that for me. I didn't want to use localbitcoin back then cause I wasn't so sure about it and almost no one in my town even knew what bitcoins were. It's nice to see the website has updated over the years and that you have continued with what you were doing!

Edit: Oh, and I didn't really have a question but if you ever need any help or work around Turku, I'd be interested to work for bitcoin and it's future in any way I can.

[ladoga]

It is not enough that the different authorities know about Bitcoin, it is the policy makers that make the rules that the authorities must follow. So I think that there is a huge need to educate policy makers in Finland and in the whole EU - and as fast as possible. Because when bad regulation is already in place, it is very difficult to change that afterwards.

Thanks for such a thorough answer and great services you provide.

I hope that Finnish policy makers understand the importance of fostering new business sectors in the current economic situation. In the best case they can give Finnish cryptocurrency companies a head start (and maybe some competitive advantage) in this very important new sector and in the worst case they can stiffle its growth and lose this opportunity (+related jobs and tax revenues) to countries with more forward looking policies.

[Technomage]

I thank Roger Ver for inviting me to the AMA event, it has been a pleasure. I also thank all the people who asked questions - good questions! Hopefully my answers were good as well.

If anyone still has questions now or later I will answer them, at least as long as the AMA event is ongoing.

[nyeko_12]

Hi Henry!

What is your opinion regarding LN-network,BIP 100(increasing the blocksize first to 2mb -> 4mb --> 8 mb--> 32mb) & 101?
Do you think this block-size issue can be resolved by December(thinking of Combining the LN-network with BIP 100)?
Will you release a Bitcoin debit Card (bitcoin to EU card) internationally and domestically?
What do you think of bitcoin future?

Thank you!

[Decoded]

Hey Technomage,

I used to an still am super intrigued with your denarium coins. They are just beautiful. I just have two uestions.

How did you get the idea that made you want to start making coins?

What is your favourite coin that you have made?

[CryptoMedia]

Your work deserves respect

[CryptoCrypto]

Your project saved my crypto life

[eliiosrichmond]

hello , what to you think that is gonna to disrupt the space this year?

[BitcoinTraderForever]

What was your biggest challenge

[CryptoCris]

Your project is amazing. Thank you

[Crypto Master]

Hi,


I don't even know if the board is appropriate to ask a question.
I have registered to one of the websites which use name Ripple and want to know whether the firm is part of Ripple or are these guys just trying to get audience reach?

The website is this: ripplebyte.io


Do suggest your opinion!
Thanks in advance