Ep 52 - Running a global remittance company and Decentralized Exchange (DEX) that leverages Bitcoin and Bitshares Blockchains

On this episode of LAB Radio we talked global remittances,
markets, market making and how to use the Blockchain to help the
cash-in and cash-out businesses.


We brought on George Harrap, CEO and co-founder of
Bitspark, a bank-less money transfer ecosystem. Bitspark
enables businesses and people to cash in and cash out of
cryptocurrencies and fiat across developing nations (and is
enabling liquidity for 150+ foreign currencies)


George Harrap, CEO and co-founder of Bitspark


"A Cryptocurrency and Blockchain pioneer, one of the early users
of Bitcoin since 2011, I co-founded Bitspark (Hong Kong) in 2014
with the mission of bringing low cost fast cryptocurrency based
settlement to cross border transactions. Often an international
speaker around the world, I am focused on empowering individuals
and businesses with blockchain based payments to further
financial inclusion and bring greater cost efficiencies leading
to better world without the need for the legacy banking system."


Here's a timeline of their company and activity to
date:


Their business began as a cash in cash out remittance
service and still has roots in it:


Now they have added DEX functionality which allows traders,
investors and other users to add liquidity and capture market
opportunities.


All while helping provide fuel to the underlying ecosystem
Bitspark provides.


Learn more as we dive in with George Harrap on this episode of
LAB Radio.


After listening to this episode you will learn:


George's background and how he ended up in Hong Kong as an
Aussie

The regulatory landscape and differences between places like
Singapore and Hong Kong's rules and approach to Crypto businesses

Why and how they chose their current Headquarters location

How George got status in Hong Kong as an Australian citizen

The original intent of Bitspark and why they are Crypto
Agnostic

The nature of the cash remittance business and the problems
and opportunity George saw to be solved

How as little as 5-20% of people have bank accounts in many
developing nations

How the cash in, cash out shop process works and the value
proposition they provide

Why George didn't want to change human behavior but rather
improve the process of what people were already doing

How Bitspark benefits users, shop owners and traders behind
the scenes

An arbitrage opportunity for traders to help create liquidity
for shop owners and cash remittance customers

About Bitshares being the first stable coin that has been
working since 2014

How MakerDAO is a fork of Bitshares built on Ethereum

Why the promise of not having to trust a companies reserves
for a stable coin is a big deal (Hint: Crypto-based parallel FX
market)

How Bitshares experienced a black swan event and what Global
Settlement is (and how to avoid that in the future)

The process for Bitshares to incentivize traders to create
Foreign Currency derivatives on their platform to help add
liquidity to their

How market making works through a can of coke analogy