“I am this Cryptohopper, and it allows me to periodically buy the top 10 coins in the market. This is the most conservative strategy you can have.
In the beginning, when the forums were still flooded with Bitcoin skeptics, Satoshi Nakamoto said, “If you don’t believe it or understand it, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry. A lot has changed since 2008 when Nakamoto published a white paper introducing the concepts behind bitcoin and blockchain. A whole industry was created from that year, also a company like Cryptohopper, an AI-based trading robot that hosts over nine million trades per month. The company, founded in 2017 by two Dutch brothers, Ruud Feltkamp and his brother Pim, has quickly evolved into a leader in the automated crypto trading industry, by enabling its users to automate trading strategies.
Ruud, well known in the Netherlands for his acting career, since starring in films such as Lover or loser (2009), little crumb (1999) and a soap called, good times bad times (1990), took valuable time out of his busy day to talk to Blockchain News about the future of his company, Web 3, and crypto regulation.
NCB: “The market capitalization of the crypto industry tripled to $3 trillion in November last year, but despite several growth factors, the market has also experienced turbulence, primarily due to regulatory uncertainty. .
Cryptocurrencies are often thought to operate beyond the reach of national regulation, but in fact their valuations, trading volumes, and user bases react dramatically to news about regulatory actions. Based on the recent large inflows of capital into the market, it looks like cryptocurrencies could be increasingly immune to the frequent regulatory crackdowns. Are you okay with that? What effect do you think regulation will have on the crypto market capitalization in the near and future future, say, 5 years from now? »
Rud: “I think a lot of people who don’t know much about crypto look at it with a negative connotation. I don’t think that’s right. I think regulation is inevitable and good for the industry. I mean, all financial markets are regulated, right? with a reason. I think that’s a good thing, but at the same time, regulators should also understand what entrepreneurs are up against, what challenges they face, and that’s not always the case. I think in the Netherlands, in Europe, they listen quite well, but the only important thing is obviously that each country has its own regulations which are a bit the same but also a bit different. In Europe you need licenses in each country, but I think in general the regulations are good. It’s a.
But your question, are cryptocurrencies increasingly immune to frequent regulatory crackdowns? No, I don’t think cryptocurrencies are becoming more immune, but I do think that the fact that there is now a regulatory framework allows big parties to get into crypto as well. Back in 2015 when you started with Blockchain News, there were mostly crypto consumers and mostly whales, people with lots of money. And lately we have, say over the last couple of years, seen more institutional players come in. I think cryptocurrencies by themselves are not immune to regulatory crackdowns, but I think through regulation the industry is maturing and that’s why cryptocurrencies are doing well. ”
NCB: “Should banks move towards digital currencies, or not?
This quote can be found on the IMF website: “If CBDCs are designed carefully, they can potentially offer more resilience, more security, greater availability, and lower costs than private forms of digital currency. This is clearly the case in relation to unbacked crypto assets which are inherently volatile. And even the best managed and regulated Stablecoins may not quite measure up to a stable, well-designed central bank digital currency.
We know the movement toward CBDCs is gaining momentum, driven by the ingenuity of central banks.
What do you think of this statement? Can CBDDs still be considered cryptocurrencies, with a bank in between? »
Rud: “It depends on how you define cryptography. If you define crypto as absolutely decentralized, then no, but technically, yes, it is crypto. It’s not so bad. In crypto, we have this thing that we look at banks like they’re evil, but they’re not. They’re run by people, they make mistakes, but I think in general the idea of a euro is good and it’s something I’m passionate about. If you compare it with, say something like another stablecoin. What would you rather have, Tether, or something central bank backed, which is essentially the same, Tether or a crypto euro.
NCB: “Don’t you think crypto itself, the whole idea of blockchain, where you don’t have to say insurance companies, banks, etc. I mean, shouldn’t we move away from government-run situations? Doesn’t the movement towards CBDCs defeat this purpose? »
Rud: “I love DeFi, decentralized insurance for example. But people have a problem with inflation and banks and governments printing money, and it should be explained why they do that. But people still don’t like governments doing this, so they turn to an asset like bitcoin. But that still doesn’t mean that a euro is a bad thing. You go to a snack and you say, can you please give me fries with mayonnaise, that’s what we eat here in the Netherlands, so you want to know it’s going to be one euro fifty, and you don’t want to hear, well today it’s as much, and you have to do a calculation every time. Thus, there is a certain convenience in printed money, keeping the price stable, although it is never completely stable. So I think that’s the good thing about euros, you know exactly what that means in terms of value.
NCB: “That’s also what we see in El Salvador, volatility, that’s what ordinary people don’t like.”
Rud: “But does that mean people should keep their money in the bank in euros where it’s worth less, I don’t know, say 5-12% each year? Well, everyone now understands that keeping your money in the bank is a bad idea.
NCB: “Invest it in crypto……”
Rud: “Exactly. So in this case, CBDCs are a good thing, Stablecoins should be concerned, because now they’re backed by someone you can potentially trust more than anyone behind a Stablecoin, well, I say potentially, because there are a lot of good parties in space, but they should both have their place in crypto.
NCB: “How do you see the future of web 3?”
Rud: “In a nutshell, what web 3 is is that before you could play a 2D game over the internet, now suddenly you can have various 3D games over the internet, where you own the data , and potentially even use in-game currency that has value outside of the game. You are the owner of your data, decentralized, so instead of having a social network like Facebook, you have a decentralized social network where you have ownership of the data you post. For example, now when you post a photo on Instagram, you are no longer the owner of that photo, Instagram is. So when you have the Instagram crypto, you will have custody of the account, so if you forget your password you will be in trouble, because there is no one who can help you. But also, if you post a photo, it’s yours and if you want to take it offline, you can do that, and no one can basically block you. this is web 3.”
NCB: “That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?
Rud:“I’m a big fan of what’s to come, I get inspired a lot, there’s so much to talk about, but it’s not all great. It’s probably already there, you can easily create a decentralized messaging service, it’s super easy, but it also means that criminals and terrorists can message each other without any human intervention, because everything is highly encrypted and we cannot block them. They are the owners of their data, so there is no control there. I’m not saying web 3 is a bad thing, I like where we’re going, but we also need to understand that there are risks involved, and we need to understand as a community what kind of risk we’re putting ourselves in . That’s all. And how much we value our own privacy over control and risk.
NCB: “And finally, I wanted to ask you about Cryptohopper and its future, what’s in the works, platform changes, partnerships?”
Rud: “There’s a lot going on right now, but the problem is that I can’t tell you most of it yet, because it’s a little too premature, but there’s big stuff to come, and by the end of May, I can hopefully tell you more about it.
What I can tell you now is that soon, well, we haven’t even announced this product yet, so it’s a shock, there’s a product coming, we’re calling it the Copyhopper, and it’s essentially a zero-touch copy exchange, for traders new to learning about and using Cryptohopper. Hopper is obviously an auto trading platform, where all kinds of traders get automated trading, and this solution is for the real beginners among us. People who want to dip their toes into automated trading, who want something convenient, something easy, something cheap. Currently it is in beta, we don’t have an official launch date yet, but we will launch it soon.
People often ask me, “Hey Ruud, I don’t trade crypto, but I want to use Cryptohopper, what should I do?” My standard answer is to trade crypto first and then see if auto trading is something for you. It’s a bit difficult and you need to know something about crypto. With the Copyhopper you can completely copy someone, but we also offer what is called index investing. So you’re basically saying, okay, I’m this crypto hopper, and it allows me to periodically buy the top 10 coins in the market. This is the most conservative strategy you can have. It’s the easiest way to invest, with the least risk. And this is also possible with the Copyhopper. It’s an entry product for Cryptohopper and ultimately I hope people can experience what else we have to offer like AI trading.
NCB: “Thanks for the interview. We will continue to follow Cryptohopper, good luck with the platform.”
Rud: “You’re welcome.”