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DannyLScott
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I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Fri Nov 20, 2015 5:12 pm

Hi all,

I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner and I'll be here on Sunday (22nd November) with our Marketing Manager, Molly Spiers (CoinCorner_Molly), answering your questions.

Feel free to post your question(s) before then if you want and we'll jump on and answer them on Sunday!

Here's a little background about myself and CoinCorner...

I first became aware of bitcoin in 2011, but it wasn't until 2013 that I started to look in to the technical aspect and began mining. I then co-founded CoinCorner in June 2014 after finding it difficult to buy bitcoin from somewhere I could trust in the UK.

CoinCorner is a bitcoin and blockchain services provider based in the Isle of Man (UK). At our core, we offer a simple way for users to buy and sell bitcoins, but have started to add 'value added services' around bitcoin and blockchain, such as mobile wallets and our API.

Until now, our primary focus has been the UK, however we recently announced our expansion into Europe. Our website is available in English and German and over the next 2 years, we want to make it available in more than 20 languages to cater for our growing number of European customers.

CoinCorner has been up and running for 16 months now and we are currently looking to raise our next round of investment through Seedrs - you can view our campaign here.

Myself and Molly look forward to answering your questions! :)

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rogerver
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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:15 pm

Thanks for participating Danny and Molly!
I understand the company is based in the Isle of Man.
Are you physically based there as well?
If not, where are your team members physically based?
Help spread Bitcoin by linking to everything mentioned here:
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Skin_in_the_game
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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Fri Nov 20, 2015 7:41 pm

hello Danny,

I see that your are still answering question on your topic. Therefore I take the liberty to send you my question:

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

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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Fri Nov 20, 2015 8:57 pm

Hey Danny and Molly, thanks for coming and doing the AMA!

Can you tell us more about the bitcoin ecosystem in Isle of Man? Do the locals there embrace bitcoin or is most of your work done remotely where it's not so much impacting the local ecosystem there? Can you tell us a little bit more about your Seedrs campaign, and what you plan to do with the funds you raise and the future of CoinCorner (what new and exciting things are coming down the road sort of speak)?

Creighton
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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Sat Nov 21, 2015 8:03 am

Hi Danny (sorry if this question has already been asked - if it has, perhaps you could direct me to the reply) What effect do you think the "banning of bitcoin" by the EU will have on its adoption?
Many thanks, Creighton.

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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Sun Nov 22, 2015 4:23 am

Hi Danny, Molly,

Thanks for jumping on board to do an AMA with us here at bitcoin.com!

1. Being located in Western Europe, the question of regulation doesn't come up all that often here; from a regulatory point of view, what have been the biggest legal hurdles that you guys have experienced thus far?

2. Danny: As an active entrepreneur in the Bitcoin space your contribution to Bitcoin's growth and economy is very much appreciated. From your own point of view as an innovator in the space, what would you consider to be the two biggest issues when it comes to wider Bitcoin adoption?

3. Other than what you have contributed already with CoinCorner, how would you go about resolving those issues?

4. Molly: What initially stoked your interest in Bitcoin, and as an employee of a Bitcoin company do you find it easy or somewhat problematic to spend Bitcoin in your daily life? If problematic, what do you think could be done to make spending Bitcoin a little easier for regular folks like you and I?

Cheers!

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DannyLScott
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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Sun Nov 22, 2015 4:47 pm

Thanks for participating Danny and Molly!
I understand the company is based in the Isle of Man.
Are you physically based there as well?
If not, where are your team members physically based?
Hi Roger, first I'd like to say thanks for all your involvement in the bitcoin community!

CoinCorner is based in the Isle of Man and our whole team (7) are based here too.

I'll give you a little overview of the Isle of Man and bitcoins relationship.
As I'm sure you have seen in the news the Isle of Man Government in the past have been very welcoming to bitcoin (and now blockchain). It started off in the correct direction looking quite promising with the opportunity for banking and a government that were pro bitcoin looking to bring in light touch legislation. How ever the banking relationships (UK) unfortunately came to an end before the IoM really got moving, which was a key piece of the puzzle to creating what media have some times sold as 'Bitcoin Island'. When the ball first began to roll, I can tell you there were up towards 75 bitcoin startups and businesses looking to setup here.
Today the Government are still as pro bitcoin as ever, but unfortunately without something as key as banking there are currently no major benefits to relocating here (apart from the usual no corporation tax etc).
There is still a good bitcoin community here, just maybe not as big as we once hoped it may become, but who knows what the future holds!

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DannyLScott
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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:19 pm

hello Danny,

I see that your are still answering question on your topic. Therefore I take the liberty to send you my question:

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
Hi there!

Nice question, I like the way you think.

Short answer: <10

Reason: CoinCorner has been a self funded company, which for a self funded startup unfortunately means sacrifices! AKA selling personal bitcoins to fund the business we believe can become a key player in the industry longer term.

emmessteevee
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Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:27 pm

Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:33 pm

Hi Danny, thanks for doing this AMA,

What happens to the investment thing, if I buy say £10 or £20 of shares, and the investment does not acheive full funding?

On your team, out of the technical experts, what experience and qualifications do they have related to bitcoin?

Kind regards,

Bill

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DannyLScott
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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Sun Nov 22, 2015 6:00 pm

Hey Danny and Molly, thanks for coming and doing the AMA!

Can you tell us more about the bitcoin ecosystem in Isle of Man? Do the locals there embrace bitcoin or is most of your work done remotely where it's not so much impacting the local ecosystem there? Can you tell us a little bit more about your Seedrs campaign, and what you plan to do with the funds you raise and the future of CoinCorner (what new and exciting things are coming down the road sort of speak)?
Hey,

Thank you for the question!

Hopefully I covered a little bit of this in my answer to Roger.
There are a handful of places locally that have embraced bitcoins and accept it, unfortunately not as many as we would like, but this isn't due to the lack of interest. Without wanting to point the fingers at the banks again, they unfortunately do stunt the growth of the industry. What we have experienced is a lot of interest from local businesses but fear of losing their own business bank account should they accept bitcoin.

Our Seedrs campaign is to help us expand in to Europe and to introduce further value added services. We see competitors often raising large amounts of money, but also see the industry not quite ready to support such well funded companies. Our approach is around growing with the industry rather than trying to force something that is potentially not there, we are focusing on the long game.
Everybody at the moment are getting very excited about blockchain, which we obviously see the power of this ourselves, but again we think a more strategic long term view will see actual use cases for blockchain emerge. What I feel we see a lot of is people trying to force the blockchain, I know it's a new exciting and potentially world changing technology, but don't force it! I feel we see people trying to create problems that aren't there and fix them with the blockchain, or even trying to fix a potential problem that can quite easily be fixed using technology that has been around for years like a SQL database!

We do have 2 blockchain idea's that will sit under CoinCorner in the pipeline though, so hopefully we'll have some exciting news in the future.

Thanks!

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DannyLScott
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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Sun Nov 22, 2015 6:07 pm

Hi Danny (sorry if this question has already been asked - if it has, perhaps you could direct me to the reply) What effect do you think the "banning of bitcoin" by the EU will have on its adoption?
Many thanks, Creighton.
Hi Creighton,

Honestly I'm unsure with this question!
I think it would be a bold move of the EU if they were to ban bitcoin, I personally don't see that happening.
We've seen the likes of China and Russia ban it 10 times over and this seemed to have increased its popularity in these areas, but with the EU being a very different place to China and Russia it's hard to say what the reaction would be from the public.

Sorry I can't really give you a more detailed answer on this one!

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DannyLScott
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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Sun Nov 22, 2015 6:19 pm

Hi Danny, thanks for doing this AMA,

What happens to the investment thing, if I buy say £10 or £20 of shares, and the investment does not acheive full funding?

On your team, out of the technical experts, what experience and qualifications do they have related to bitcoin?

Kind regards,

Bill
Hi Bill,

Thanks for the questions!

If we don't hit our target no funds will be taken, crowdfunding for equity is typically all or nothing, so you would just be refunded the amount.

Good question, I have personally been developing with bitcoin for 3 years now, the rest of the team would range from 1-2 years experience each. How ever this is such a new industry if you have 1 years worth of development around bitcoin under your belt that's fairly strong! My tech team have development experience within startups and large scale companies, both being beneficial to a startup such as CoinCorner.

On the qualification side, there is very little out there to gain qualifications for bitcoin and blockchain. I've tried a couple of the online courses myself, but these have usually proved to be more high level of bitcoin rather than technical. Hopefully in the years to come we'll see more verified qualifications for bitcoin and blockchain emerge.

Thanks

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CoinCorner_Molly
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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Sun Nov 22, 2015 7:06 pm

Hi Danny, Molly,

4. Molly: What initially stoked your interest in Bitcoin, and as an employee of a Bitcoin company do you find it easy or somewhat problematic to spend Bitcoin in your daily life? If problematic, what do you think could be done to make spending Bitcoin a little easier for regular folks like you and I?
Hi Fremont,

Thank you for your question! My interest in bitcoin began last year when I attended a talk put on by a local organisation about the opportunity for bitcoin and the Isle of Man. I had read up a little bit about bitcoin and decided to go to the talk as I was really interested in the space and it was there that I got talking to Danny and the rest of the CoinCorner team. Since graduating from university in 2013, I had been working in a marketing role for a local hospitality group, but I was bored and was looking for a more exciting career path. We kept in touch and I was offered a marketing role at CoinCorner earlier this year. The bitcoin space is certainly the exciting career path I was looking for! :lol:

I do find it difficult to spend bitcoin, but at the end of the day the bitcoin industry is still young and realistically, all the businesses in the world are not going to start accepting bitcoin overnight. I do keep an eye out for those businesses accepting bitcoin though and if I'm given the choice, I will always support them :)

I think that that the biggest problem bitcoin faces in terms of making it easier to use is that people are simply not confident when trying new technology, whether that be consumers or merchants. I think that this generation are happy with the current payment methods on offer (credit cards etc.) because it's been around a while now and it works for them, but I think my generation (I'm 23) and the next generation will be using bitcoin a lot more - we're not afraid to try new things!
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CoinCorner - Buy and Sell Bitcoins in the UK and Europe

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DannyLScott
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Re: I'm Danny Scott, Co-Founder and CTO of CoinCorner. Ask me anything!

Sun Nov 22, 2015 7:22 pm

Hi Danny, Molly,

Thanks for jumping on board to do an AMA with us here at bitcoin.com!

1. Being located in Western Europe, the question of regulation doesn't come up all that often here; from a regulatory point of view, what have been the biggest legal hurdles that you guys have experienced thus far?

2. Danny: As an active entrepreneur in the Bitcoin space your contribution to Bitcoin's growth and economy is very much appreciated. From your own point of view as an innovator in the space, what would you consider to be the two biggest issues when it comes to wider Bitcoin adoption?

3. Other than what you have contributed already with CoinCorner, how would you go about resolving those issues?

4. Molly: What initially stoked your interest in Bitcoin, and as an employee of a Bitcoin company do you find it easy or somewhat problematic to spend Bitcoin in your daily life? If problematic, what do you think could be done to make spending Bitcoin a little easier for regular folks like you and I?

Cheers!

Hi Fremont,

1. Regulation hurdles where we are based (Isle of Man/UK), are really not much of an issue. There has been on occasions finer details, that we have had to sit down with the FSC (Isle of Mans Financial Services Commission) and figure out exactly what it is they want or how we are going to solve a problem, but usually just small issues nothing major. The one major regulatory hurdle we have come up against is the US, it's such a big market with great potential, yet you need to apply for licenses in every state and some come at massive costs. I'm sure you've seen talk of it costing any where from $2 million to $5 million just to gain licenses for all the US states and for this very reason we have currently opted out of the US.

2. Firstly thank you for the kind comments, it's great to be a part of the whole ride! This answer will no doubt be getting boring, but banks!! Banks are without a doubt the biggest issue for wider bitcoin adoption, without banks the on ramp to bitcoin is difficult. A second issue I would say is education, I get people all the time asking about what bitcoin is, how it works, what's the point of it and more. I can personally try to explain bitcoin along with it's issues and benefits, but what I have found is the people that go away and read it about it themselves are the ones that really begin to understand it and then want to begin using. I also think we need to introduce better tools and tutorials for not just what bitcoin is, but how do you use bitcoin. I'm amazed at the amount of people we meet that own bitcoin but have never actually used it.

3. Myself and one of my other co-founders often go around the local area doing presentations on bitcoin mainly for companies that may have an interest from a variety of levels, these have been banks, insurance companies and more. This is not us selling CoinCorner, this is purely ourselves educating people on bitcoin. We also find it best to get more hands on with people and show them how it works, rather than just talk about this 'magical internet money', hopefully leaving them with wanting to know more. From a wider point of view we will be looking to help introduce easier methods of how to use bitcoin and how to get started, with online tools and tutorials.

Thanks!

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