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!
related posts
324 sats \ 2 replies \ @ski 11 Jan 2023
Any new River projects coming in 2023?
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23 sats \ 1 reply \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
Lots of improvements coming to the mobile app and River Lightning Services is going to make a few splashes :)
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ski 11 Jan 2023
Can’t wait!
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324 sats \ 1 reply \ @exister 11 Jan 2023 freebie
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?
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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
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.
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205 sats \ 1 reply \ @lunanto 11 Jan 2023
Can River bring a fiat onramp feature that can reach users in African Countries
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22 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
Right now we are focused on the US, but there are some great fiat onramps in Africa like Bitnob!
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205 sats \ 4 replies \ @kr 11 Jan 2023
what’s one bitcoin belief or concept you’ve changed your mind about recently?
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601 sats \ 3 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
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.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 11 Jan 2023
what are the biggest challenges that you see preventing a really good non-custodial UX?
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442 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
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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
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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
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ursuscamp 11 Jan 2023
Sadly, I have to agree with you.
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205 sats \ 1 reply \ @tnblumer 11 Jan 2023 freebie
When will you offer API access to both sides of your business? E.g. submit a BOLT invoice to a business account.
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239 sats \ 0 replies \ @tnblumer 11 Jan 2023 freebie
I.e., not just the RLS side of the business
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205 sats \ 2 replies \ @djmeistro 11 Jan 2023 freebie
Would you whitelist my node so I can open channels to River?
pub key: 035b710d2c8d25993ddcbe031c0fee5434d5e6fb7a6ed5d438404daa99199537b8
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22 sats \ 1 reply \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
We typically only open direct channels with enterprise-tier nodes but we may change that policy. I will ask my team.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @djmeistro 11 Jan 2023
Please, sir... For the plebs!
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22 sats \ 1 reply \ @imreebs 11 Jan 2023 freebie
Since you all hold our USD at Silvergate Bank. Is our USD in our River accounts safe in the event Silvergate Bank goes bankrupt?
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185 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
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.
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175 sats \ 2 replies \ @Derpitor 11 Jan 2023
Why do people keep saying that Chivo wallet isn't a bitcoin wallet and that its a wrapped bitcoin on Algorand?
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66 sats \ 1 reply \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
I have no idea. But I can tell you we move real Bitcoin for Chivo users through River Lightning Services (RLS). No Algorand involved.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinosphere 12 Jan 2023
I guessed from the start that it's an algorand bagholder's rumor. Looks like this confirms it.
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151 sats \ 1 reply \ @BlokchainB 11 Jan 2023
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?
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413 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
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.
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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?
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26 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
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.
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151 sats \ 4 replies \ @dtonon 11 Jan 2023
Hi Alex!
When Europe?
And when the Android app? :)
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
We are focused on the US for now, as international expansion significantly increases our regulatory and fiat operational burden.
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
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173 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon 11 Jan 2023
I guess that :(
If I will know anyone interested I will point it to you.
In the meantime Staker.news a great job board :)
Thanks!
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @03080c13fc 11 Jan 2023
Interesting that "Interest in Bitcoin" is only listed as a "Nice to haves" in the job description.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @tnblumer 11 Jan 2023 freebie
Should have just implemented it with Flutter. ;-)
151 sats \ 1 reply \ @mah 11 Jan 2023 freebie
Getting verified on River takes quite some time. Huge backlog? Submitted everything on Sunday.
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
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.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 11 Jan 2023
What do you wish was being built on bitcoin and lightning today but isn’t?
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183 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
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/
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1 sat \ 1 reply \ @jimmysong 12 Jan 2023
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.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 12 Jan 2023
We get random emails about that sometimes but just ignore them. No idea what they would pay and don't care either!
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @swmtr 11 Jan 2023
Where did the company name "River" come from?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bangbang_u_r_done 12 Jan 2023
¿Cómo se sigue después de la partida de 🐔Gallardo?💔
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinosphere 12 Jan 2023
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.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @BitcoinNewsCom 12 Jan 2023
How do you find clients who are not yet bitcoiners? How fast do they learn and make a decision to get onboard?
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 12 Jan 2023
We grow a lot through organic referrals. It's very common for a Bitcoiner to refer their nocoiner friends to us!
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Trey 11 Jan 2023
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..
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 11 Jan 2023
If you weren’t working in the Bitcoin industry, what would you be working on instead?
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306 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
Likely the Aerospace industry
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 11 Jan 2023
What’s the most surprising thing you learned building River?
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400 sats \ 0 replies \ @Leishman OP 11 Jan 2023
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.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @YB 12 Jan 2023 freebie
Any timeline for allowing NY customers?
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @zuferry 11 Jan 2023 freebie
I want to know more about the lighting network