To give a short personal impression: let us know what are your top 3 books everyone today needs to read and top 3 tech gadgets one needs to have?
First of all, thanks for taking the time to chat with me!
My top books are;
- Scaling Up (versions in Germany, US, UK, France, Italy, Spain)
- Radical Candor (version in Germany, US, UK, France, Italy, Spain)
- The Everything Store (version in Germany, US, UK, France, Italy, Spain)
There are hundreds of books worth reading but I wanted to underline a few solid books that talk about maturing from a great startup to a global company.
My top gadget are: a solid power bank , any 10h+ battery-life laptop, any recent mid-end+ dual sim phone. I’m very brand agnostic so no names, just highly utilitarian gadgets that extend my brainpower while at the office, at a conference, and on a 10h+ flight.
I believe there is still a lot of confusion concerning cryptocurrencies Maybe you can help: If my 6-year-old nephew would ask me, “what is cryptocurrency and how do they differ” how should I explain it to him?
#Cryptocurrency is just like money, but on the internet. You can use it to buy things online, you can hold it like in a bank account, or you can give it to someone else as a gift.
Asking this question is similar to back when people moved from paying for things with gold to fiat currency (dollars, euros, etc.). Fiat made economy more scalable back then but it’s wholly inadequate for the information age and this is where cryptocurrency comes in.
Can you share short and the basics of buying and selling coins? Why does it take so long to register and start with trading?
The basics are pretty simple – you sign up with a trading platform, fund your account with some money (on Coinsquare, we take Canadian dollars, Euros, and Swiss Francs), and then buy it – just like you would in an online store or stock trading platform.
Registration can actually happen in a matter of minutes. We have to verify identities on our platform (others do this as well) through a process called “Know your customer” (KYC). This is the legal process outlined in many countries so that money moving around is focused on the individual – it’s your money and you’re using it for your purposes.
At Coinsquare, our #KYC process also helps us ensure that your deposits end up in your account, since we can match the funds coming in with names on the platform.
How would you convince a crypto beginner that coin trading platform is not a scam?
When it comes to figuring out which cryptocurrency trading platforms you can trust, inquire about their service and security.
Cryptocurrency markets are volatile, so you’ll have to be prepared to accept market risk – no platform can control that. However, you want to do business with a platform that has a good reputation and can help you if you have questions.
At Coinsquare, for instance, we have a dedicated customer support team available to answer account questions, we’re active on social media so you can always reach out, and we have a “cold storage policy,” which means we keep the vast majority of cryptocurrencies offline and away from hackers.
In the end, I would advise anyone to do their own homework. Look at press releases, see who else works with the company, if any big brands have endorsed it, if the officers have a long, traceable career, and so on.
How do you plan to convince regular people to entrust their hard earned money? Who should not invest in crypto?
We don’t want to convince anyone to buy cryptocurrency if they don’t want to. We don’t give investment advice and would never recommend that anyone put any money into cryptocurrency they aren’t willing to lose (again, markets are volatile and no platform can control that).
If you want to invest in cryptocurrency, we believe Coinsquare is the best place to do it because of our industry-leading security measures, our amazing support team, and our dedication to customer service. We build great relationships with banks, too, so that you know your money is held securely.
Crypto may not end with its function as #blockchain based value exchange between experts. What could #InsurTech, #FinTech and other industries learn from Cryptocurrencies and it’s technologies? Do you see other use cases?
Blockchain technology – and their associated cryptocurrencies – have a lot of use cases beyond just providing an investment or payment vehicle.
Projects all over the world are looking at how blockchain can help track identities, offer new forms of #banking to people in rural parts of the world, and change how we view contracts.
Blockchain is fundamentally about using technology to provide trust instead of requiring central figures to do it. That doesn’t mean central authorities will disappear, but blockchain can offer more transparency and increased trust against corruption.
Some direct examples of blockchain technology holding information in a new way:
- Real estate purchases
- Medical records
- Holding all forms of contracts – insurance contracts, business agreements, etc.
How about security assurance, how confident are you that “you will not lose a coin”? Can you share some of your not confidential measures that can be easily understood and yet can also boost trust among users?
#Security is absolutely a key priority for Coinsquare. To share a few of the things we do to keep our platform safe:
We build our platform in-house using proprietary technology. That means we don’t need to piece together outside technologies, which can lead to loopholes and gaps.
If someone ever were to get into our platform, they wouldn’t be able to get access to cryptocurrencies. We hold the vast majority of our coins in “cold” (offline) storage, meaning they not held in our system for people to hack in and take.
We also take process very seriously and have a dedicated anti-money laundering and compliance team that reduces the risk of fraud on our platform that affects all clients.
On top of crypto-focused security measures, we follow all technology company best practices. We have #DDoS attack protection, we manage our financial ledger constantly so if there’s an issue we know quickly, and we have a dedicated client success team and online help center that’s available to answer any questions our users may have.
What are the latest cases in terms of technology in your region that you think would excite the EU market further?
Crypto is starting to find its way into stores in North America and we’re looking forward to bringing that tech into EU in the next few months.
We’re also one of the few players in the world that license our technology fully to others, which again, many established channel providers are starting to use. We’re excited about this and we think it could be of interest to business owners in the EU.
Finally, we have a very robust OTC (over-the-counter trading) offering that not only provides unlimited funding/withdrawal amounts in crypto but can also address the needs of high-value institutional players.
How do you see yourselves in the next 10 years?
We’re starting to build out a highly efficient and interconnected 21st century financial institution. We believe that in the next decade, we’ll be one of the few organizations that can fully harness the power of this new ecosystem to both do things we do today at a fraction of a cost, and do things we have not yet even conceptualized.
This isn’t just becoming the “next Amazon of finance”, or becoming the best finance-as-a-service (#FAAS) platform. This is about what’s beyond those lofty, but achievable goals.
What would you recommend to young people that start their career today?
Stay versatile (for as long as possible). Learn how to #code. Learn how to problem solve over learning one small skill (besides #coding). Embrace ambiguity as the new normal. Seek education and mentorship in unusual places. Don’t get burdened by debt in life, but don’t be afraid of debt in business. Stay candid, above all.
Aside from learning from the overwhelming information on the internet, what is the most legit and fastest way to learn more about cryptocurrency and trading?
Attend meetups and events! You can learn so much in such a short period of time. Many events will have prominent speakers at well-known projects talking in-depth about their work and the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Smaller meetups are also a great way to meet other traders and crypto-enthusiasts with a lot of knowledge to share.
Of course, you should always do your own research. There’s no easy way out when it comes to education, but talking to people at events can help you take in a lot information in a short period of time.
From all of us here in Digitalscouting, thank you Thomas for taking time for this crypto interview.
Coinsquare launches into the European Union
The cryptocurrency trading platform will allow users to fund accounts using multiple fiat currencies
TORONTO, December 19th, 2018 — In a move that expanded its market opportunity by 1200%, Coinsquare, one of the world’s premier cryptocurrency trading platforms for trading Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies, announced that it has launched across 25 countries simultaneously in the European Union. Coinsquare first announced its intention to launch in Europe earlier this year. European customers now have access to Coinsquare’s full suite of cryptocurrencies and services. This marks the first international expansion for Coinsquare, which to date has only been available to Canadian customers.
“From our earliest days, Coinsquare has been focused on building the most compliant and secure trading business in the cryptocurrency space. After building a great deal of new infrastructure, achieving a successful third party financial audit, and securing top-tier Canadian banking, we felt the time was right to expand our offering to another market. We decided to begin with Europe given the size of the opportunity and our ability to offer something unique to that market,” said Cole Diamond, CEO of Coinsquare. “Europe is a rapidly-growing cryptocurrency market and the cryptocurrency community there is excited to have an option that puts security, compliance, and risk management at the forefront of its offering.”
European customers can now fund their Coinsquare accounts with a variety of funding methods. European users will have access to all major services from Coinsquare including cryptocurrency purchase and trade, Coinsquare Wealth concierge services, Coinsquare APIs for B2B clients, and Coinsquare Capital Markets for institutional and family office investors.
To learn more about Coinsquare, visit coinsquare.com.
Social Links
Website: coinsquare.com
Facebook: facebook.com/coinsquare.io
Twitter: twitter.com/coinsquare
Instagram: instagram.com/coinsquare
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/coinsquare
Crunchbase: crunchbase.com/organization/coinsquare
About Coinsquare
Coinsquare is one of the world’s premier cryptocurrency trading platform for trading Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. Since our founding in 2014, we’ve never lost a coin.
Remaining steadfastly focused on transparency, risk mitigation, and building an open-minded culture, Coinsquare is on a mission to grow into a multi-faceted financial services company anchored in blockchain technology, offering retail trading services for cryptocurrencies and a Coinsquare cryptocurrency trade API for B2B clients.
Press contact:
Stefan Palios
