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On this episode of the “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast,” Christian Keroles sat down with Bitcoin entrepreneur Ruben Waterman.
Waterman innovated in the Bitcoin exchange space with his company Bittr by being one of the first minimalist dollar-cost average (DCA) Bitcoin apps around. Bittr unfortunately had to shut down in 2020 due to heavy-handed regulation and uncertain enforcement from the EU’s fifth anti-money laundering directive (AMLD5). AMLD5 would have forced Bittr, run by a tiny team, to take on an enormous amount of compliance regulation and overhead work. Due to this, Bittr had to shut down, but Waterman did not lose hope altogether. After a brief break, Waterman returned to find a path and partnerships to resurrect his Bitcoiner-friendly DCA business.
After a year of struggle, Waterman has found a way to bring Bittr back to Europe. The app allows users to DCA straight from their bank accounts to their self-custody Bitcoin wallets. There is never any custody provided by Waterman and very minimal KYC requirements for bitcoiners trying to accumulate slowly over time.
“Bittr indicated that users no longer need to provide a phone number, they can sign messages with their wallets, extended public keys (xPubs) have been removed and PGP-encrypted email support has been added,” as Bitcoin Magazine reported on Bittr’s relaunch in May.
Please enjoy this wide ranging conversation with Ruben Waterman.