Hi Everyone,
This is Alex Leishman, the CEO of River. We're a Bitcoin only company that offers brokerage, mining, and Lightning related services. We also provide the backend LN infra to El Salvador's Chivo wallet. I have been in Bitcoin since 2013, and started River in 2019.
Excited to be here and I'll be answering questions for the next hour.
Nothing is off limits so ask away!
Any new River projects coming in 2023?
reply
Lots of improvements coming to the mobile app and River Lightning Services is going to make a few splashes :)
reply
Can’t wait!
reply
Do you think we're moving in a direction where more individuals feel empowered or compelled to run their own nodes, or mine (even at a small scale) themselves? Or is it inevitable that we see consolidation of those activities?
Does this question influence how you build products at River?
reply
I think the majority of people will always want to trust institutions in some capacity, but at River we strive to create products that people aren't forced to trust and can always opt out of. Therefore we try to avoid things that trap people in River, we like to keep a big door in and a big door out, as that sets up the incentives for a healthy and trustworthy institution long-term.
reply
Can River bring a fiat onramp feature that can reach users in African Countries
reply
Right now we are focused on the US, but there are some great fiat onramps in Africa like Bitnob!
reply
what’s one bitcoin belief or concept you’ve changed your mind about recently?
reply
I've started to realize that a really good UX around non-custodial mobile LN wallets is further away than many people think. I don't think its impossible, but it's a very challenging technical problem. That said, I'm glad some very smart people are working on it.
reply
what are the biggest challenges that you see preventing a really good non-custodial UX?
reply
  1. Mobile wallets can't sign while app is not in the foreground, although some people are working on this problem: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/2023-January/003810.html
  2. Economics. A routing node will need to lock up some amount of capital to support inbound payments for every client if they don't want to do an on-chain tx for every receive. I'm not really sure if there are any elegant solutions to get around this. Perhaps something with multi-party channels at some point
reply
Sadly, I have to agree with you.
reply
When will you offer API access to both sides of your business? E.g. submit a BOLT invoice to a business account.
reply
I.e., not just the RLS side of the business
reply
Would you whitelist my node so I can open channels to River?
pub key: 035b710d2c8d25993ddcbe031c0fee5434d5e6fb7a6ed5d438404daa99199537b8
reply
We typically only open direct channels with enterprise-tier nodes but we may change that policy. I will ask my team.
reply
Please, sir... For the plebs!
reply
Since you all hold our USD at Silvergate Bank. Is our USD in our River accounts safe in the event Silvergate Bank goes bankrupt?
reply
Yes your USD is safe. We use Silvergate for payment processing but keep the vast majority of cash at other banks and we have a large cash treasury for the company we could draw from if necessary. In the event of cash being frozen at Silvergate we would be able to make clients whole just fine.
reply
Why do people keep saying that Chivo wallet isn't a bitcoin wallet and that its a wrapped bitcoin on Algorand?
reply
I have no idea. But I can tell you we move real Bitcoin for Chivo users through River Lightning Services (RLS). No Algorand involved.
reply
I guessed from the start that it's an algorand bagholder's rumor. Looks like this confirms it.
reply
What is your stance on KYC? Is river an attack on private use of Bitcoin? Does river turn over data on users to any governments?
reply
My stance is that I believe the Bank Secrecy Act requiring KYC is unconstitutional but is unfortunately the law of the land. I actively work to try to get it repealed. However, even without the BSA we would require personal information to sell BTC for ACH payments in order to prevent fraud. That would not be the case for BTC bought with wire transfers. I don't think River is an attack on anyone more than any other financial app in the United States. Long-term I believe we are a net good if we accelerate the adoption of Bitcoin.
reply
151 sats \ 1 reply \ @8 11 Jan 2023
Will you consider doing a DCA-OUT for when it’s time to raise some dirty-filthy-fiat to pay bills?
reply
Likely no. DCA for selling is a very niche product and often bills are variable so people want to sell a different amount each month. I recall years ago Coinbase shut down their sell DCA because only a few dozen people out of millions were using it.
reply
Hi Alex!
When Europe? And when the Android app? :)
reply
When Europe?
We are focused on the US for now, as international expansion significantly increases our regulatory and fiat operational burden.
when the Android app?
When we can find an Android engineer who's the right fit for our team. We're picky :) If you know any, send them our way: https://boards.greenhouse.io/riverfinancial/jobs/4504247004
reply
fiat operational burden
I guess that :(
When we can find an Android engineer
If I will know anyone interested I will point it to you. In the meantime Staker.news a great job board :)
Thanks!
reply
Interesting that "Interest in Bitcoin" is only listed as a "Nice to haves" in the job description.
reply
Should have just implemented it with Flutter. ;-)
Getting verified on River takes quite some time. Huge backlog? Submitted everything on Sunday.
reply
I'm sorry to hear that. Usually these are approved quite quickly. Did you get a follow up email? If not, please email me at alex@river.com with your account info and I will look into it.
reply
What do you wish was being built on bitcoin and lightning today but isn’t?
reply
I would love to see some smart people build on the ZKCP work that Greg Maxwell did years ago: https://bitcoincore.org/en/2016/02/26/zero-knowledge-contingent-payments-announcement/
reply
How many offers have you gotten to list altcoins and what are those offers like? We hear rumors all the time of random altcoins paying $X million for the privilege of being listed on Binance, for example. As CEO of a Bitcoin exchange, I'm curious what, if any such offers you've received that you can talk about.
reply
We get random emails about that sometimes but just ignore them. No idea what they would pay and don't care either!
reply
Where did the company name "River" come from?
reply
¿Cómo se sigue después de la partida de 🐔Gallardo?💔
reply
I don't see anyone else asking it so I guess I'll be that guy: What's holding up the Chivo wallet from working as promised? Youtube's full of videos where people try to pay with it and the payment fails.
reply
How do you find clients who are not yet bitcoiners? How fast do they learn and make a decision to get onboard?
reply
We grow a lot through organic referrals. It's very common for a Bitcoiner to refer their nocoiner friends to us!
reply
What countries are lined up or you are in talks with for deployment of your solutions? I would like to be part of the Nigerian Team if you are considering that option...
I really wish I could just click the follow button @sn we need that update..
reply
If you weren’t working in the Bitcoin industry, what would you be working on instead?
reply
Likely the Aerospace industry
reply
What’s the most surprising thing you learned building River?
reply
One thing that surprised me while building River was how important "touchy feely" skills are as a founder. To build a healthy team and culture you need to have the right people onboard, be very picky with hiring, and you need to have the humility to constantly reflect and identify your own shortcomings. At the end of the day a company culture will reflect the personality of the founder, both the good and bad.
reply
Any timeline for allowing NY customers?
I want to know more about the lighting network