10 Questions w/ Wallet of Satoshi CEO Daniel Alexiuc

Short Intro Bio: Who is Daniel Alexiuc and what is your role at Wallet of Satoshi? (a little background on you, what you did previously and your current role now w/ Wallet of Satoshi etc)…

I am the CEO of Wallet of Satoshi. I am also the CEO of Living Room of Satoshi - a crypto Payments Gateway that has been operating in Australia since 2014. Prior to that I founded several startups and worked as a contract developer in the Government and Banking industries.

1.  Can you share with our readers the story of what first got you into blockchain, crypto and ultimately building Wallet of Satoshi (ie timelines etc)

I read the Bitcoin whitepaper when it was linked on a discussion forum years ago and was amazed that someone finally cracked digital money, which had never been done before. As a programmer, it seemed like this was something that was impossible - Magic Internet Money. So I founded Living Room of Satoshi and, after the Lightning Network whitepaper was released, saw an opportunity to build a wallet suitable for everyday users.

2.  Needless to say, the team behind Wallet of Satoshi is certainly an accomplished one, can you tell us a little more about the core team at Wallet of Satoshi, ie how you guys met, know each other etc?  

We have a core developer team with a broad skill-set who share an interest in decentralized money. As well as this we have a team of customer service and marketing gurus who share the same vision.

3.  Let's dig a little deeper into Wallet of Satoshi itself...What is Wallet of Satoshi in newbie terms and what helps Wallet of Satoshi standout from the other Bitcoin Lightning Network enabled wallets already out there?

Wallet of Satoshi is the World’s simplest lightning wallet.

Other Lightning enabled wallets have proven to be daunting for new or non-technical users.

With no setup and node management required, Wallet of Satoshi is an ideal way to onboard new users to the world of bitcoin and allow them to participate in sending payments on the Lightning Network instantly.

4. Most people already using the app/wallet like us and many others know from the moment they open the app/wallet, that Wallet of Satoshi really concentrated your efforts on ensuring really great UX/UI and ease of use (in particular for crypto and lightning network newbies), but what would you say are the other top 5 standout features Wallet of Satoshi has nailed and truly makes the overall experience a great one, regardless of being a newbie or experienced crypto enthusiast?

• Simplicity - Bitcoin and the Lightning Network can be complicated. We are trying to make it easy for everyone (and their Mum).
• Find Merchants - Physical and Online stores - easy to find where to spend Lightning.
• App Localization - Practically every world currency available, and an ever-growing list of Language translations.
• Ability to enter Fiat OR Bitcoin amount on Lightning Receive page - Great for splitting bills with friends.
• Auto-paste and Direct Link Lightning Invoice processing - makes payments a no-brainer.

5. Now that Niffler.co users are able to cash out their “play dollar profits” via the Bitcoin Lightning Network so long as they have a Wallet of Satoshi enabled wallet, some of them may still not understand why micro-transactions like this and others through the lightning network are so revolutionary,...in your own words, how would you explain the Bitcoin Lightning Network to newbies, the importance of it, and why having a Bitcoin Lightning Network wallet just makes sense...

The Lightning Network is an open source retail payment system built on top of Bitcoin. Its main purpose is to enable extremely fast and cheap payments, much faster and cheaper than regular Bitcoin transactions, while retaining the same level of security. 

It is used for the kind of payments that you would expect when shopping; fast, cheap and reliable. It also allows for micro-payments: the sending of extremely small amounts of money, in the order of one ten-thousandth of a cent at a time.

6. Can you share a little with our community, what a day in the life as the CEO of Wallet of Satoshi looks like?

I spend my days working closely with the brilliant teams at Wallet of Satoshi and Living Room of Satoshi. I like to keep my head in the game so you will often find me personally coding improvements to our applications.

7. Outside of Wallet of Satoshi, we always like to ask those we feature on Niffler.co whether they have any other crypto or blockchain projects they are particularly bullish on and why?

I am excited about what LedgerX is doing. It seems to be a step forward for Bitcoin in the Finance industry as it’s the first time proper Bitcoin spot and options trading is possible. This should help decrease the volatility of Bitcoin as more corporations come on board.

8. With well over 90,000+ downloads already, what else can we expect to see from Wallet of Satoshi in 2019?

We just passed 100,000 Lightning Payments on Wallet of Satoshi this month, and are experiencing steady growth in the number of users and  payments. We expect user confidence in the Lightning Network to increase and as more nodes and channels come online it will help improve the overall liquidity of the network. We have a few new features in the works including BTC on-chain payments and possibly even NFC integration.

9.  Where do you Daniel, see blockchain, cryptocurrencies and/or the crypto-sphere as a whole in 3 to 5 years and where does Wallet of Satoshi fit into that landscape?

People are starting to understand that the only valid use of Blockchain is to enable decentralized money. The ICOs and Scam-coins will slowly fade away. Lightning will become a more reliable payments system for people who want to transact using the world’s first non-government money. We hope to play a major role in achieving that.

10. Where should Niffler.co users who are interested in learning more about Wallet of Satoshi go for more info and/or to download the wallet/app? ie your website, your twitter handle, Discord, Telegram, etc etc.

Head over to walletofsatoshi.com and follow the links to download on either iOS or Android.
Follow us on Twitter @walletofsatoshi or on Facebook for the latest feature announcements and updates.