I'm Meinhard Benn, Founder and CEO of SatoshiPay. Ask me anything!

[meinhard]

Hi everyone,

I founded SatoshiPay in September 2014 as a bitcoin payment processing company and we specialised in nanopayments (amounts down to fractions of a cent) using bitcoin micropayment channels around April this year. And it has been a fun ride ever since! What I've learned from our small pivot is never to be afraid to question everything one has built so far, not to spend too much time on optimising a product before market fit is proven (d'oh! lean start-up calling..) and to listen to my gut feeling more. It feels amazing to create things that haven't been done before.

Before starting SatoshiPay I had brief stints at 37Coins (P2P remittance) and Bitcoin Brothers (ASIC hardware). Before that I co-founded Ecobytes (non-profit web hosting and services for small NGOs) and was technical coordinator at BeWelcome (non-profit hospitality exchange).

During my non-profit time I travelled around Europe and Asia for about 10 years continuously, without ever flying. On my overland trip from Central Europe to almost everywhere in East Asia I took countless trains, buses, ferries, I hitch-hiked, cycled and “hitch-biked”. I had a looot of time to think about connecting the people along my travels, for example by alternative monetary systems, and it was around that time in 2011 when I discovered bitcoin.

I mined and traded bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, built applications on top of them, gave presentations about all things blockchain and went on bitcoin safaris ever since. Every time I use bitcoin I feel as if I'm living in the future, where open source principles have finally reached the very fabric of our society: value exchange. It's a future where no one needs to ask anyone for permission to transfer what belongs to them anywhere on the planet, or to build systems that facilitate this exchange.

Oh, talking about asking – ask me anything!

[LiteCoinGuy]

Hello Meinhard,

and welcome

1) Can you describe your business in short terms?

2) What is the difference between Changetip? I guess that is your biggest competitor?

3) Did you recieve funding in the past or do you want that at all ?

4) Where do you see your company in 5 years?





LCG

[The_Rabbi]

Hello Meinhard

Having worked in the Bitcoin ecosystem since 2011, what do you think is most needed in terms of software and services around Bitcoin, as well as legislative and political decisions for Bitcoin and other crypto currencies to become more useful to (or rather more widely-used by) the common people?

Thank you in advance and rock on!

The Rabbi

[Skin_in_the_game]

Hello Meinhard,

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'm now asking every participants the same question:

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

[meinhard]

Hello LCG,

1) Can you describe your business in short terms?

We offer a payment solution for content providers that allows them to charge tiny amounts for different types of content on their site. Our first implementation is via a WordPress plugin and support for other CMS will follow. What makes us special is that readers can use their balance across different websites, without signup or download.

2) What is the difference between Changetip? I guess that is your biggest competitor?

ChangeTip are about tipping and donations, we are a payment mechanism for digital goods. Prices are fixed by the content merchant and you have to pay before you can retrieve content. ChangeTip requires you to link accounts from social networks, where we work completely without login.

3) Did you recieve funding in the past or do you want that at all ?

Yes, we received about €260K in funding so far and there will be more funding rounds. Coinsilium, one of our investors participated in this AMA a few days ago. They named us as one of their most promising investments, which makes us terribly proud. We are very happy working with them and they helped us a lot.

4) Where do you see your company in 5 years?

Oh, that one had to come.. We will be integrated on many, many websites, we will be a household brand for people spending small amounts online and we will be available all around the world. Our payment technology will be used in the background of many applications that go beyond content, for example in the internet of things or machine to machine payments.

[Windowly]

During my non-profit time I travelled around Europe and Asia for about 10 years continuously, without ever flying. On my overland trip from Central Europe to almost everywhere in East Asia I took countless trains, buses, ferries, I hitch-hiked, cycled and “hitch-biked”. I had a looot of time to think about connecting the people along my travels, for example by alternative monetary systems, and it was around that time in 2011 when I discovered bitcoin.

Very cool about your hitchhiking, traveling experience! What countries did you go to? How did you pass the time when traveling besides lots of thinking? Reading books? Learning languages?

[Windowly]

Another question: when are you planning on launching?

Is there a wordpress plugin already available to play with?

[meinhard]

Having worked in the Bitcoin ecosystem since 2011, what do you think is most needed in terms of software and services around Bitcoin, as well as legislative and political decisions for Bitcoin and other crypto currencies to become more useful to (or rather more widely-used by) the common people?

Software and services: Stable, reliable blockchain APIs! We tried them all, and they all failed us at one point or another. We are aware that this often due to attacks on the network, but as a response we are currently migrating to our own Insight API cluster. Better APIs will result in better apps, meaning more adoption.

I'd also like to see an easy blockchain timestamping app. Take a picture, "timestamp via blockchain", done. Also wallets are not quite there yet for my mum to use.

Regulation: Less is better, at least within the cryptocurrency world. People know that they have to be careful with their money, they shouldn't be forced into it by taking away freedoms. Let bitcoin be a testbed for a new type of freedom. At the same time there needs to be a bit of education on how to keep your coins secure obviously. Maybe regulation should pick up the education topic. Also, as I said before at a conference, regulation should be in favour of blockchain freedoms, for example to prevent mining centralisation or closed forks of open blockchain tech.

[meinhard]

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

Sure!

Bitcoin: 90%
Ether: 5%
Fiat: 5%

I'm serious about the whole crypto thing. BTC BTC

[meinhard]

Very cool about your hitchhiking, traveling experience! What countries did you go to? How did you pass the time when traveling besides lots of thinking? Reading books? Learning languages?

In total it's 50 countries so far, mainly in Eurasia. The most recent overland Asia trip went like this: Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia (for many kilometres!) , Mongolia, China, South Korea, Japan, South Korea again, flight 1, Hongkong & Macao, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, flight 2, Philippines, flight 3, China again, flight 4, South Korea, flight 5 back home. I spent about 2 years on that trip alone I think.

During the trip I did a lot of work for BeWelcome, mostly programming and organising some meetups. I learned some Turkish, Romanian and Serbian/Croatian, and picked up basics in some of the Asian languages I encountered. Learning all of them would be a life's task.

[meinhard]

Another question: when are you planning on launching?

Public Beta is scheduled to go live in December, so pretty soon!

Is there a wordpress plugin already available to play with?

Absolutely. Simply search for "SatoshiPay" in the plugin directory or go to https://wordpress.org/plugins/satoshipay/, install and contact us for API credentials. I'd be happy to hear your feedback!

[RandyLong]

Your work deserves respect

[sqageek]

Does ripple strike back?

[nandibear]

@meinhard

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