An Interview With Kyle Kemper, Head of Tipping at ChangeTip
A new feature that I am hoping to make regular with Crypto Brief is an interview feature. I am only one voice and I believe that there are plenty of people out there that are doing really great things to make bitcoin and digital currencies successful.
I had the pleasure of talking with Kyle Kemper who is the Head of Tipping at ChangeTip. If you haven’t used ChangeTip, you’re missing out. It’s oddly addictive sending people tips. It’s also oddly annoying that people who don’t use bitcoin who are really awesome are not accepting my tips. So accept my tips.
This was the first interview, but as time goes on, the questions will get even better. The goal is for all of us to learn new things about bitcoin from people who are on the front lines.
If you were having a conversation with your daughter a few years from now, how would you describe bitcoin?
It’s digital money. It’s money, honey. It’s a record of history. It’s the record of money. It’s a record that everyone can see that has every transaction recorded. People are going to be using bitcoin without knowing they are using it. People are going to be using it and trusting it because it works.
How’d you get started in bitcoin?
I was really into gold. And I liked the notion of gold and scarcity. I remember watching Zeitgeist and the third part of it explained the men behind the curtains, and showed information on how money was created. It really got me thinking about central banking and fractional reserve banking and the issuance of currency and the bailouts of ;08 and companies that were doing bad practices were given a parachute by a centralized bank. And that was a grace afforded to only a select few. It represented cronyism at the highest level.
After being in gold for a long time, you realize the gold market is corrupt as well. There is a lot of paper going around. Then bitcoin comes across my desk in 2011 and ignored it. I took a job as a server in a restaurant and one day this guy comes in and talks about how he owns a whole bunch of bitcoin and goes into all the virtues of bitcoin and he really sold me on it. He talked about the scarcity of it. And why it was the future and what it was so great for. He showed me that it was backed by more than just nothing in the way that the ledger worked and there is no such thing of chargebacks.
I launched the bitcoin strategy group and it was to consult government and policy makers about bitcoin, it was to promote education before regulation. It was meant to act as a middleman between the companies and the government. The Senate of Canada got in contact with me and we showed them how an ATM worked.
What does the head of tipping do at Change Tip?
Head of Tipping is essentially a role whereby I’m teaching individuals, businesses, media, and partners about what ChangeTip is, how it works, and how they can best make use of it. ChangeTip is a unique product/service in that it can add meaningful value to pretty much anyone and the types of discussion tend to be forward thinking and fascinating.
I recall reading that Change Tip are all off-blockchain transactions? Where do you stand on Gavin Andresen’s proposal to increase the block size? Would that help Change Tip?
A lot of the microtransactions that happen with change tip just aren’t feasible with blockchain. You can’t send a satoshi to someone on the block. There’s still going to be a fee that makes it inefficient. By being off-chain, we are able to be instant and there are no fees. Whether we go from 1 to 20, it’ll just prepare us for 20x room from where we are now. At least with change tip, we are alleviating some of the stress on the blockchain by bringing some of the small transactions off the blockchain.
At this stage, I used to say that for social payments and small payments, we are an excellent solution. You don’t keep your life savings in your wallet in your pocket. Change Tip is your social wallet.
What is your opinion on Silk Road’s contribution to where bitcoin is today?
I think it is fair to say that Silk Road was definitely one of the earliest adopters of bitcoin. When bitcoin was obscure, it was being used on that platform. Now do we endorse the platform? Of course not. Personally? Philosophically? He created a destructive platform that allowed people to exchange goods.
I believe that adoption would have happened whether Silk Road existed or not. The technology was bound to come around at some point. It just so happened that Silk Road was a site that led to a lot of adoption from people outside the cryptography community.
Where do you predict price will be in the next few years? Why do you suggest that?
I think it will be higher than it is today and if it is not higher than it is today, then I think that there will be another coin that is replacing it.
The thing that I love about bitcoin is that it knows no borders, no politics, no religion, no sex. It is money. Money is money. “Well, doesn’t bitcoin need to worry about these kinds of things?” politicians asked. Bitcoin doesn’t care. The companies do. As the user of exchange, I’d like to know if that exchange boss takes all the funds with him, that he will be facing penalties.
-End of Interview-
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