After 3 long years, lots of blood, sweat and tears; it’s our time to say goodbye. We are proud to have been one of the many trailblazers in the lightning space; the very first Canadian based lightning network brokerage, but surely not the last.

With a small team we built our web application from scratch, without white label software or relying on third party API’s. When we first started in January 2018, lightning was just entering mainnet, it was an exciting time and we’ve witnessed a lot of growth in the space since then. Routing was a little bit rough around the edges in the beginning, but as the network started to grow, payments became more seamless and easy-to-use wallets became plentiful.

After about a year and a half of being live, we came to a bit of a crossroads, we wanted to focus our team on building and onboarding users for the Lightning Network, still a niche in the Bitcoin space. At the same time, the regulatory and financial obligations of being a MSB (money service business) in Canada would need to be borne by our small project. In mid 2018, well before our product was even finished, we crafted a comprehensive compliance policy that checked off the boxes of what FINTRAC (Canadian equivalent of FINCEN) listed for MSB’s (even though Cryptocurrency at the time was not explicitly covered). Eventually, FINTRAC did require registration for businesses dealing in cryptocurrency, which we also did.

Long story short, despite us taking appropriate measures to abide by the regulations, sometimes even at the cost of user experience; the bank we had used for 2.5 years had informed us that they were shutting down almost all of their “cryptocurrency business” accounts, due to a change in their direction and compliance policies. We were told there was no specific criteria that was used, or that we could have avoided this and that we “didn’t do anything wrong”,  just a blanket shuttering of accounts, ours being one.

In Canada, Bitcoin MSB banking is not easy, almost all major banks don’t allow it; some will allow you to use an account for payroll or buying bitcoin for your business; but exchanging customer funds for virtual currency is a category they often explicitly prohibit. A few options exist but often involved thousand’s of dollars in banking fees per month (>x10 the $500 we were already paying), or other expensive, tortuous arrangements. For many tiny, bootstrapped or extra-lean startups, bitcoin business banking as a MSB is out of reach.

In essence, without banking the platform we’ve built is non-functional. The project was looking at winding down or being repurposed/integrated/merged prior to this banking news, and now it feels natural to hang up the skates.

We’re proud of what the team built, something small but special, maybe a sign of what’s to come in the lightning space. Thank you to every single one of our users, who at times, may have felt like testers, for bearing with our little bugs and being pioneers of lightning, right alongside with us.

We’d also like to thank Fulgur Ventures, their support was critical to building our project and the work they do in the lightning space is incredible. Not only does Fulgur help fund small lightning projects, but they also spend a lot of time being champions for lightning, networking and bringing traditional VC’s into the fold, linking resources to entrepreneurs, paying for and publicizing research and much more to grow the ecosystem.

If you’re a customer of Graaf’s please check your balance, you can still withdraw by buying Bitcoin until May 1st. If it’s been a while since you logged in and you’re having issues, clear your browser cache as we’ve made a few changes over the months.

If you’re a business and are inquiring about our platform, either to use our tech or repurpose it for your own country, email us at info@graaf.one

The post Saying Goodbye/Au revoir appeared first on GraafOne.

Part of it is the simple need of keeping up with the world and trying to understand what this new form of money is all about. Just a decade since its invention Bitcoin finds itself as a savings tool of many Millennials; much like gold for previous generations. Especially during the uncertain economic times, young people appear to be flocking to Bitcoin. 

In a survey this year; Millennials have shown to prefer $1000 in Bitcoin over government bonds 53% of the time, over gold 32%, real estate 31% and stock 29%. This is a sizable increase from just 3 years ago; and considering how a currency only invented in 2009 is being preferred to long established investments, a remarkable one. 

2. Bitcoin is being included and recommended in more financial portfolios.

Bitcoin is becoming a mainstream technology; its price ticker is now featured on most major financial websites. 

It’s not just conjecture, a study from Yale, is even recommending a minimum 6% portfolio allocation of Bitcoin. 

No longer just a small niche web currency; at a market cap of $250 billion, it’s becoming a mainstay with more and more hedge funds taking notice. Not only are sizable funds starting to pour hundreds of millions (and billions) into the market; there are even large funds made up entirely of cryptocurrency. An increasing number of recognizable companies like Fidelity are vying to enter the Bitcoin market. 

1. Economic uncertainty is making the case for Bitcoin stronger.

The stock market in 2020 has been quite a roller coaster; from the lows of mid march, to the highs of August. While stimulus has appeared to pump the market, what lies beyond is anyone’s guess; though there are a few you should know about. 

Economic stimulus and the rapid increase in the money supply is likely to have some secondary effects; namely inflation. 

As inflation is going to decrease the spending power of each dollar; many onlookers will seek out to preserve value; one potential candidate is Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin’s maximum supply will only ever be 21 million, it’s generally seen as a deflationary currency; one where it becomes more difficult to acquire over time. Bitcoin is a rare case of an asset that has a verifiable fixed supply; something you can’t find even in Gold, where new reserves can be discovered. 

If you would like to get started with Bitcoin please feel free to sign up on our brokerage, you can also check out if we have any ongoing promotions. 

The post 3 quick reasons why you should at least be familiar with Bitcoin in 2020 and beyond  appeared first on GraafOne.