Hey, I wanted to share my story on starting Bringin.
It's been two years since I started working on Bringin(bringin.xyz) after facing issues with liquidating my Bitcoin, which I used to receive part of my payment.
I left my job, returned back to India, and sold all my Bitcoin in late 2022, probably at the worst price to bootstrap Bringin. Being a solo founder, building in a regulatory environment and the bear market market. It was a serious struggle to enter the EU, even if a tourist Visa was rejected twice. With all the odds stacked against me, it was a rough 2023.
I anyways wanted to get Bringin up and running at any cost. Received some 10k checks here and there. It was mostly in 2023, and it got better in early 2024.
Today, we have onboarded 650 users and processed around 7 Bitcoins. All organically, pushing content that helps the community. Raised funds from users and angels (raised 100k from 8 angels) and still kept the project alive and growing.
While being involved in this process, the founder of Striga, Prashanth, our present partners, a company that I used to work for, decided to write a blog post about my journey so far.
Here is the link for that: https://medium.com/@32bitblast/bringin-x-striga-a-bold-tale-of-an-immigrant-risking-it-all-to-drive-bitcoin-adoption-in-europe-bf4b6e1b445f
Today, Bringin has a dedicated IBAN for safer transfers and Lightning for instant payments. Spending Bitcoin can not get easier than this.
Thanks for sharing! Placed into bookmarks of potential off-ramps for retirement 😎. Will come back to check on you in a few years.
I understand this is an MVP, but here are a few questions/comments to help you improve.
  1. Virtual Asset Trading fee of 3.5% is high. Tooltips at https://bringin-demo.vercel.app don't work.
  2. Terms & Policy link at https://bringin-demo.vercel.app does not work.
  3. Both your and Striga's T&C say they are subject to "Restrictions and Limitations" which "are found on the Striga Website." But I failed to find them.
  4. So I proceeded to KYC blindly, my country was in the phone country code list, but not in the Residing Country list. And what is State field for, when US is not allowed? I don't live in the EU, but I wanted to have a EUR virtual card...
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hey, please check out Spend.bringin.xyz
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how is it different? it starts with KYC again
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One of the testimonials on the page explains it best, I think:
I can attest to this!
@bringinxyz is the best way to exchange bitcoins to euros in larger amounts and get them into your European bank accounts, and it’s founder and CEO @prashanthc123 is a great guy you should follow πŸ™Œ
The great innovation is that the SEPA transfer from Bringin to your bank is from a Malta Bank account in your own name.
So for your receiving bank it looks like you are transferring Euros from a Bank account in your name to a bank account in your name.
This tremendously lowers the threshold for converting bitcoins to euros in Europe with minimal trouble from the antiquated legacy banking system!
#Bitcoin
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All regulated bitcoin exchanges should offer an IBAN account in the user's own name.
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Most exchanges are shitcoin casinos. They don't want you to exit the system.
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I'm surprised that e.g. Relai doesn't give users an IBAN.
If you buy, you're sending fiat to a Relai-named account. If you sell, you're withdrawing Fiat from a Relai-named account.
If your bank thinks that Relai is a naughty Bitcoin exchange, they might consider you being their customer too risky and terminate your bank account.
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I agree.
But not sure a Maltese account, even if IBAN, won't raise similar flags if you have no ties to Malta.
Better than nothing though.
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Replying to myself: I speculate that Relai doesn't do this because otherwise they would have to KYC all customers, not just those who buy larger amounts.
Bringin KYCs everybody, so they are able to offer dedicated IBANs.
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Godspeed
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