In a recent interview with LearnBonds.com Bitwala chief executive Benjamin Jones talked about their business expansion and the whole cryptocurrency market.
He discussed cryptocurrencies, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs,) and how the latter would not replace Bitcoin by any means.
Jones added that the firm is closely following the developments in the decentralised finance (DeFi) sector.
1. How many users does Bitwala have and how many are you hoping to achieve by the end of 2020?
“Bitwala offers a bank account for cryptocurrency users: We enable customers to trade Bitcoin directly out of a current account, regulated by the German authorities. It works just like an online bank account but with an integrated Bitcoin Wallet. As such, it is the easiest and one of the safest ways to buy, sell and store Bitcoin. Another competitive advantage is that Bitcoin trading only costs a low one per cent fee, and our spreads are very tight. The account itself is free of charge and comes with a free debit card, which can be used at 30 million locations worldwide.
A year into the launch of this new product, we have customers in all of the 31 countries forming the European Economic Area. This is all we disclose at this point, and I am asking for your understanding that we do not publicly provide any guidance about the development of our customer base as of now.”
2. A few weeks ago, you informed that you would be integrating the tax tool CryptoTax. Why did you take this decision and how do you think it will affect cryptocurrency users?
“This intuitive tax solution is yet another important step to make trading cryptocurrencies as easy as possible for our customers. Many if not most crypto trading platforms are still failing their customers to provide even simple itemizations. This may cause a bit of a headache once the tax deadline is nearing. For Bitwala customers instead, enclosing statements on their cryptocurrency dealings with their tax report is now as simple as attaching a PDF-file to an email.”
3. Do you have any plans to integrate additional cryptocurrencies such as IOTA into your banking product in the future? If not why?
“We don’t want to be another crypto exchange where users can trade hundreds of cryptocurrencies. Instead we will focus on giving our customers easy and secure access to blockchain-based investment products in the future.”
4. Do you have any plans to offer crypto loans for users in the future?
“We are closely following the developments in the decentralized finance space and lending is certainly part of that.”
5. What else are your plans for the next 1-2 years? Which are services and products clients could see in the future?
“We fully commit to addressing our customers’ needs and will gradually expand by building what they require the most. We are expanding our cryptocurrency offering in the near future. Beyond that, crypto loans, savings plans, or custody wallet solutions are among the requests we received from our customer base.”
6. Do you think digital bitcoin wallets such as Bitwala will make cold storage wallets obsolete, given the amount of people that lose their security keys and passwords?
“Bitwala offers way more than a wallet, so it really doesn’t compare to cold wallets. We are here for those who are actively using and exchanging cryptocurrencies on a regular basis. A cold wallet cannot provide that.”
7. Given that you are offering crypto services linked to the banking industry, do you have other plans to bridge the gap between traditional financial institutions and the cryptocurrency space?
“We are here to bridge that gap for our customers, not for conventional financial institutions.”
8. What do you think about CBDCs? Are they a threat to your business model?
“We welcome all progress on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), but they won’t replace Bitcoin.”
Thank you, Benjamin, for your answers during such a busy period for the entire Bitwala team!
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