Video - Oliver Gale CFO & Co-Founder bi.tt Caribbean Bitcoin Exchange

Jay Addison Technical and Media Advisor for Crypto Biz Magazine interviews Oliver Gale CFO & Co-Founder of bi.tt. Bi.tt is the first cryptocurrency forex and commodity trading platform serving the Caribbean region. With a cutting edge software platform and a small team of finance, IT security experts and programmers bi.tt is the regional choice for buying and selling of cryptocurrencies and digital commodities

Transcript

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This is Jay Addison from Crypto Biz Magazine live in Las Vegas at InsideBitcoins. We're here with Oliver Gale, the CFO of Bit. Oliver, how are you doing today? I'm very well, thank you Jay.

Thank you for having me. Oliver, tell us a little bit about Bit. What do you do? I mean, I know you guys have an exchange in the Caribbean.

Give us a little more detail on that and some of the other things that you have on the go. Okay, well Bit is the flagship company underneath the Koblitz Group, which was founded in 2013 by Gabriel and myself. Since then the organization has grown. We now have 12 team members and a number of third-party organizations that we work with to provide a variety of services.

Bit itself is a digital currency exchange. As you mentioned, we're based in the Caribbean. However, we do have a global fiat currency base with 10 major fiat currencies available as trading pairs. Additionally, with Bit, we've created a merchant processing gateway for the Caribbean because that's hugely important for the unbanked population in that region.

So one of our primary focuses is on bringing the access to purchasing that Bitcoin provides online to markets in the Caribbean and Latin American markets. That makes sense. All right, do you guys have any plans on adding any altcoins into the exchange or is it strictly Bitcoin? No, we actually do have Litecoin trading pairs as well.

Oh great. We believe in backing the cryptocurrencies that have strong networks, secure networks and Litecoin has proven itself over the test of time to be a sturdy alternative blockchain and cryptocurrency to Bitcoin itself. So we do have some plans for some of the other major altcoins potentially but we want to keep our focus on the established and most secure and most trusted trading pairs and cryptocurrencies. That makes sense.

So we're going to be able to get some of that information and we're going to be able to get some of that information and we're going to be able to get some of that information and we're going to be able to get some of that information in the future. Do you plan on adding any altcoins into the transaction solution gateway that you guys are working on? Good question. Absolutely.

We see a lot of utility in protocols like the Ripple protocol and potentially the Stellar protocol as well. So that is one of our upcoming future integrations will be to facilitate that. There are large remittance markets to and from the Caribbean, the Latin American markets as well and sometimes Bitcoin is not... Bitcoin is not...

Bitcoin is not... Bitcoin is not... Bitcoin is not... Bitcoin is not...

Bitcoin and Ripple can be used interchangeably and just having access to multiple networks and multiple options to present our users and merchants with is of benefit to everyone. Is there an advantage of someone using your exchange over one in, you know, let's say like a Bitstamp or something like that? Well, I would say that we have a couple of... We have a lovely interface.

Anyone who signs up to Bit, the URL is www.bi.tt or just bi.tt. We'll see right off the bat that we have focused on ease of use. Our security standards, we work with companies like CypherX to provide an independent multi-signature HD wallet management system in which we keep 95% of our coins in offline storage, which is no different to a service provider like Bitstamp. However, we do have 10 fiat currency pairs.

So for users wishing to move between different fiat currencies. Or really wishing to just trade between markets without having to jump between platforms and to do it in a very seamless and integrated way. Bit is going to be an ideal solution for that type of trading. So currently we do have basically market and limit trading orders.

We have some plans to further develop more sophisticated trading mechanisms and get into derivative markets. I wouldn't say that's on the immediate roadmap. But for the simple user, customer, Bit is an absolutely beautiful platform. It's institutional grade, high frequency trading, and capable of scaling.

And it's as secure as one can be in the cryptocurrency space with a broad-based fiat. So the question is why not use it? What about government regulation in the area that you guys are doing business? Was it tough to get regulated or do they have regulations?

No. Currently they do not have regulations. The Caribbean islands themselves, which is where we're domiciled. We have a couple of companies set up throughout the Caribbean.

They don't have a number of the regulations. Don't even mention electronic currency, far less Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. So there's an absence of covering that scope in the first instance. And in the second, there is a large offshore, a large offshore industry.

And major industries. Yeah. And major incentives that the Caribbean islands do provide. Some of them do provide to incentivize offshore businesses into their jurisdictions.

And so we have leveraged our relationships in the Caribbean and found strategic partners who see the benefits in the digital economy in the same way that countries like Isle of Man have seen the benefits that can follow. And they have in the absence of the legislation which speaks to digital currencies, they have the benefits. And they have given us the go ahead to conduct business from our jurisdiction. Fantastic.

So let me ask you one question. We ask everybody this question. January 1st, 2015, what do you think the price of Bitcoin is going to be? You might not like the answer.

I think it could be somewhere around $250. $250. Okay. Oliver Gale, CFO of Bit.

The web address again is? bi.tt. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you very much for having me.

Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Thank you. Thank you. This is Jay Addison from Crypto Biz Magazine live from Meckler Media's InsideBitcoins conference in Las Vegas. Remember to subscribe to Crypto Biz Magazine at CryptoBizMag.com.