How Bittr Reopened in Europe with Ruben Waterman

On this episode of the Bitcoin Magazine podcast, Christian Keroles sits down with Bitcoin entrepreneur Ruben Waterman. Ruben innovated in the Bitcoin exchange space with his company Bittr by being one of the first minimalist DCA Bitcoin apps around. Bitter unfortunately had to shut down in 2020 due to heavy handed regulation and uncertain enforcement from AMLD5 in europe. AMLD5 would have forced Bittr, run by a tiny team, to take on an enormous amount of compliance regulation and overhead. Due to this Bittr had to shut down, however Ruben did not lose hope all together. After a brief break, Ruben returned to find a path and partnerships to resurrect his Bitcoiner friendly DCA business.

After a year of struggle, Ruben has found a way to bring Bittr back to Europe. The app allows users to DCA straight from their bank account to their self custody Bitcoin wallet. There is never any custody from Ruben and very minimal KYC requirements for Bitcoiners trying to accumulate slowly over time.

Please enjoy this wide ranging conversation with Ruben Waterman.

Ruben Waterman Twitter: @watermaniak

Timestamps:

0:00 - 3:55 Intro
3:55 - 7:58 An introduction to Ruben and Bittr
7:58 - 10:26 How much traction did Bittr get?
10:26 - 11:59 As bitcoin appreciates, will bitcoin companies have the ability to stand up to regulators?
11:59 - 14:50 What happened after the Dutch regulations?
14:50 - 16:02 Bittr's relaunch
16:02 - 18:06 Bittr's features
18:06 - 19:15 Is Bittr used just for dollar-cost averaging?
19:15 - 20:20 Are there any ambitions for a customer-facing product?
20:20 - 22:23 Ruben's take on current bitcoin adoption
22:23 - 23:05 Money printing in the U.S.
23:05 - 24:31 The difficulty of starting bitcoin businesses in Europe
24:31 - 25:55 The overregulation of business in Europe
25:55 - 29:22 Will Europeans push back against overregulation?
29:22 - 30:13 The digital euro
30:13 - 33:13 What's comercial bank adoption of bitcoin like in Europe?
33:13 - 34:18 Is Ruben optimistic about the future?
34:18 - 35:50 What is it about bitcoin that gives Ruben hope?
35:50 - 36:29 Closing comments

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