Recently we had a chance to interview Mr. Ronny Boesing – the CEO of Denmark’s first and only Cryptocurrency exchange. Founded last year, CCEDK is one of the well-known exchanges in the region. CCEDK offers support for trading multiple crypto-fiat pairs. The company is also on its way to launch a new Bitcoin debit card, which acts more like a real debit card than other existing prepaid debit cards issued by other Bitcoin companies.
We asked Ronny a lot of questions about himself and CCEDK. He has a lot of interesting things to share. You can find the interview below.
Ronny: I was into publishing and distribution of music, movie, games and other digital media across the world ad gradually as the challenge wore down from that industry, I came across this exciting sector. I was introduced to it by one of my friends, who also happened to extend the offer to start and lead CCEDK along with him and rest of the team. Now I am loving it.
NewsBTC: How did you get introduced to Bitcoin?
Ronny: The first time I heard about Bitcoin was from some people in one of the classes I was attending. It was few months before I got an offer to head CCEDK. The more I learnt about it, more fascinating it became. I have been studying about various cryptocurrencies ever since.
I enjoy the combination of currencies with adrenalin based rises and falls, multilingual communities, cultures across borders, and the energy I get from getting involved in introducing a new currency on our exchange
NewsBTC: Can you tell us more about CCEDK?
Ronny: Definitely, CCEDK is the first and only cryptocurrency exchange in Denmark. We just celebrated our first anniversary and we have got some new things lined up at CCEDK, which will be introduced soon. CCEDK is a cryptocurrency trading platform where people can buy and sell a long list of cryptocurrencies including bitUSD, bitEUR and bitCNY. CCEDK has entered into a partnership with Bit-x as a forex partner, and through this partnership, we have been able to introduce Bitcoin Debit NanoCard issued by MasterCard.
NewsBTC: Sounds great! Can you tell us a bit about Bitcoin Debit NanoCard?
Ronny: NanoCard is a Bitcoin debit card, which will be linked to your bitcoin account/wallet on CCEDK. Unlike other Bitcoin debit cards available out there, you don’t have to pre-refill the card account with Bitcoin. The balance will be available in EUR or USD and it can be funded by any cryptocurrency in your wallet.
NanoCard can be used to withdraw cash at an ATM, pay for your drinks at a bar or if you are an expatriate, you can send one of these cards back home to family, and they can use it as a regular debit card, fuelled by cryptocurrency balance in your wallet while avoiding forex and transaction charges involved with fiat transfer.
Currently limited to bitcoin, we are looking forward to add other cryptocurrencies as support to the card and it would be great to introduce the first fiat pegged crypto debit NanoCard with cryptos like bitUSD and Nubits which are not pegged to BTC but to USD.
NewsBTC: What will be the transaction charges for NanoCard?
Ronny: We will be keeping the transaction charges to as less as possible. We have to keep in mind that these charges includes MasterCard network’s processing fee and the issuing exchange’s fee. A detailed list of charges applicable to NanoCard is available here
NewsBTC: How is the Bitcoin scenario in Denmark?
Ronny: Denmark is quite open and is one of the friendliest countries in the world. Quite a number of people here are already using Bitcoin, but not in a big scale though. There are few Bitcoin POS as well. Nevertheless, there is an increasing interest in Bitcoin among the Danish population
In terms of Regulations, there are no specific regulations in place yet. The European Banking Authority has issued a warning against the use of virtual currencies, just like many other central banks across the world. Cryptocurrency is still being considered to be more like a commodity than alternative currency.
NewsBTC: Getting banking partners is one of the hardest part when it comes to setting up a cryptocurrency business. Are the banks in Denmark friendly towards Bitcoin businesses?
Ronny: There are not many crypto-friendly banks in Denmark. It takes a long time to find one willing to work with companies involved with cryptocurrencies. It is mainly due to lack of clear regulations and big banks foresee cryptocurrencies as a threat to their business. But, it is usually the small banks which are a bit friendly as they consider less about the risks and more about the importance of local clients.
NewsBTC: Can you tell us a bit more about the team that keeps CCEDK going?
Ronny: We are a team of 12, consisting of 3 partners, 6 people in development and 3 more taking care of the backend.
NewsBTC: How does CCEDK manage its funding?
Ronny: We already have few private investors on board, and as we have lot of big plans we are open for further investments also. As we have been focusing on building CCEDK and incorporating few features, we haven’t been able to reach out to new investors yet, but I am optimistic about closing few deals by the end of this year.
NewsBTC: What can we expect from CCEDK in the coming days?
Ronny: We have an exciting time coming our way, with the platform, we will be adding language support for three more languages soon, driving the number of languages from 17 to 20. We will continue running commission free trading for the following 6 BTC pairs – BTC/EUR, BTC/USD, BTC/CNY, BTC/DKK, NBT/BTC and FIMK/BTC.
Apart from those, I will be speaking at various events as well. One of them is at a conference Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference 2015 being held at Copenhagen on June 16. We are also exploring ways of connecting BitShares to CCEDK, and have in fact this week created a fiat gateway to their BitAsset-based SmartCoins™ from Bitshares, namely BitUSD, BitEUR and BitCNY.
NanoCard is available NOW, and if anyone wants to order it, they can do it by following these instructions or registering here.
Another latest news on exchange is the BTC Instant Order – BTC to Fiat or fiat to BTC. Whether there is liquidity in order book or not, it is now possible to order BTC against USD or EUR and the other way around. It is a great improvement offering all users a quick and easy way to exchange fiat to crypto, or crypto to fiat instantly! Liquidity is provided on the base of a CCEDK bitcoin pool.
NewsBTC: What do you think about the current crypto-industry and how do you think it will be in the future?
Ronny: I believe nothing comes easy, but also that the way the creative and very active communities evolve and develop we will see a constant increase in interest from the rest of the public, and once we have fiat pegged currencies connected to real world enterprises the ball will start rolling very fast. I think only with fiat pegged currencies where you have no volatility risk is where you are able to catch the interest from any normal person worldwide. Rest of us who are already involved are all dreamers, and as we know, dreams do come true especially if we believe strongly enough.
With Ronny at the helm, we expect to come across a lot of updates about the progress of CCEDK and from his plans we feel that it will be coming our way sooner than expected. Being the only player in Danish market, the company aims to match the current leaders in the industry in the coming months, and we at NewsBTC wish them the best.