An interview with Javier Aguilar Saavedra, CEO of RemiBit

To start, could you introduce us to what RemiBit is and what it is trying to achieve?

RemiBit is a non-custodial cryptocurrency payment gateway for merchants and professionals. You can use it for many types of crypto-related activities: request crypto, send crypto, receive crypto, exchange crypto for fiat, store crypto. One of the main characteristics of RemiBit is that the crypto passes from the buyer to the merchant directly, in a peer-to-peer fashion, not through our hands. Our goal is to spread the adoption of cryptocurrencies through the use of a secure, easy and convenient crypto payment platform, available to all types of businesses, large and small.

Javier Aguilar Saavedra, CEO of RemiBit

What’s the story behind the project?

We decided to start a non-custodial crypto payment gateway because we observed that most of the competition followed a custodial business model which is against the very foundation of blockchain technology. You should not have to rely on any third party when you operate with crypto. You should not use exchanges as banks, for example, to store your crypto. Yours is the responsibility of managing your finances. In the same way, you should not have to rely on a payment processor as the middleman in the crypto flow. 

You mentioned that RemiBit is non-custodial. What is the advantage of that kind of approach?

Custodial means that at some point your crypto is not in your hands, you don’t have the private keys to control it. You are supposed to be able to withdraw it at any time to an address you do control, but what happens if the exchange or the service is down, gets hacked or simply one day disappears? We have witnessed prominent cases of all that over the years. The best thing that will happen to you then is that you will have an experience you absolutely will never want to repeat. 

On the contrary, the non-custodial philosophy means that you have to take the responsibility that you’re entitled to. Crypto evangelists such as Andreas Antonopoulos always emphasize the importance of this aspect. He tries to educate people by constantly repeating “Not your keys, not your crypto”. RemiBit’s motto is the same, but turned into a positive stance, “Your keys, your crypto” because that’s what we offer.

What do you think makes RemiBit stand out from the competition?

We have worked very hard on the non-custodial approach, but that’s not the only thing we’re proud of. We identified several key factors hindering the adoption of crypto payments worldwide. One of them is the steep learning curve, the difficulty of a technological advancement that comes with a paradigm change. We have managed to make it very easy to use and very fast to learn for crypto newbies. Another aspect that makes us very competitive is the price. We want any merchant or professional to be able to get into crypto payments, so we have made the basic service free. You can be paid in crypto at no cost. It’s secure, easy, and inexpensive.

What is, from your point of view, the prospect of blockchain technologies in the long term?

Blockchain is one of the technologies of the century. Like Gershwin would have written: “Blockchain is here to stay. Together we’re going a long, long way.” There is obviously a natural resistance to its adoption. On the one hand, the economic powers don’t like their positions challenged. On the other hand, the technology is quite advanced for the layman. We need more education. More financial and technological education in general and blockchain education in particular. But for that, we need a new kind of bold visionaries leading our countries, a kind that won’t simply bend to the interests of those economic powers.

What’s in RemiBit’s roadmap for the future?

We are constantly improving and polishing our platform, adding new features, listening to customer feedback, incorporating new coins that we find demand for, partnering with new exchanges and other external services to offer a wider choice for our customers. We are not going to reveal our business strategy, but there are several new features in the cook that old and new customers will be very pleased with. Stay tuned!

Disclaimer: This is a paid post and should not be treated as news/advice.