Now that you're a representative I suppose it is less revealing but I don't suppose you could manage to meet them at the Toronto Bitcoin expo?
I would really like to hear an in person report from a fellow user. If anybody else is going to be in the Toronto area, I would love to hear.
Hi I'm a Canadian Rep for bitcoin-trader.biz (first in Canada). My details are outlined under "Local Representatives" on the Bitcoin-Trader.biz home page. I have been in touch with Michael Brandenburg (Head of Marketing and Business Development) via email many times. Got involved back in February. Asked Michael a month ago if he was going to be at the Toronto Expo. He said he and John are double booked that weekend so unable to attend. I was planning on attending anyway so offered to represent them at the Toronto Expo. Michael graciously funded our attendance and bought grey fleeces with company logo for my colleague and I to wear.
I asked Michael some questions I thought would be asked of me while at the Expo and this is what he shared with me.
1) Do you foresee any changes to the way you do business in 6 months and a year from now?
Not really. We are of course observing the crypto market very closely and in particular the so called altcoin market. So there might be new products being offered, but in general we will operate in the same way.
2) How do you see the future of mining? Since November BTC prices have dropped to less than half of what they were. Mining difficulty has more than doubled. Is mining still profitable and for how much longer in your opinion?
Bitcoin Mining is a very sad story to be frank. Oversupply of ASIC miners generated a hashrate beyond the 'natural' growth rate of bitcoin. At the moment, considering the current bitcoin exchange rate, mining is almost unprofitable. Whatever mining equipment is bought now, no profit will be made - on the contrary. We bought our mining equipment early and so far almost all who purchased a mining contract are in profit.. Also most of our equipment that was bought prior to the launch of BT paid off already, so we can increase the hash rate gradually. Since the beginning of February nobody is even buying mining contracts anymore. This might change once the btc price goes back to a level of at least $800.
3) How many clients do you have?
Currently close to 3,000.
4) What is the largest investment by any one person?
We have a handflull of clients who invested 50K in trading shares, as well as 50K in mining shares and another dozen clients who invested 50K either in trading or mining shares.
5) How many staff do you have?
Currently eight, that included two part time staff members.
6) How did the company first get started?
Bitcoin Trader is the brainchild of John Carley and two of his closed friends who are also dormant shareholders. John and his associates realized the potential of Bitcoin in 2011 and started mining the same year. With emerging exchanges they started trading as well. In 2013 after the Cyprus financial crisis, when bitcoin became known to the public, they've developed their pastime activity into a working business model.
7) Are you looking to expand the business? ie. other offices/staff, new investment products.
Yes. John is traveling to South East Asia during the coming weekend to train two more traders during a course of six weeks to take advantage of the strong potential of the Chinese exchanges (unfortunately most of their websites are not available in English). We are of course aware of the current rumors that the Chinese government may shut down exchanges within their territory. Others will open in Hong Kong or Singapore then. The Asian market is a strong one for bitcoin and thus for us, we have excellent results from the Philippines and South Korea for example.
In addition we are evaluating Litecoin Mining and Trading.
We have ordered 5 of the first available ASIC miners and will evaluate their potential for commercial usage after delivery in July. If they deliver what they promise we consider to add a Litecoin Mining Pool to our portfolio. Litecoin ASIC mining is new - it doesn't even exist as we speak. Considering the still very low Litecoin difficulty, we consider Litecoin ASIC mining to be profitable for at least 24 months, even at the current Litecoin price.
Same for Litecoin trading which is still in its infancy, since very few exhanges enabled Litecoin trading, but this might change in the course of the year.
Is Bitcoin Trader.biz a HYIP? There are rumors going around that you are a HYIP but I see from the forum you officially addressed the idea
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=393570.0Yep, this HYIP story is disturbing us badly. Support is answering about 10 tickets a day at least about "is Bitcoin Trader a HYIP". Seems everything on the internet that has a great idea, potential and is paying a residual income must be a HYIP....
If you have any further questions please let me know.
I look forward to meeting you at the expo.
Andrea Ciceri
BT-Bitcoin Trader Rep
https://bitcoin-trader.biz/?ref= [ref removed]
