Tales from the Crypt #103: Mauricio Di Bartolomeo & Adam Reeds

— Ledn co-founders Mauricio Di Bartolomeo and Adam Reeds discuss their journey from Bitcoin mining in Venezuela and Quebec to launching Bitcoin lending and savings products in Canada and Latin America.

— Ledn's lending model keeps collateral in segregated BitGo addresses under user control, maintains a conservative 50% loan-to-value ratio to avoid margin calls, and has never completed a forced liquidation.

— The platform expanded to six Latin American countries in June 2024, introducing a low-friction savings account with no minimum deposit and a new Buy2X product (Bitcoin-backed financing for purchasing additional Bitcoin).

— Venezuela's economic collapse, capital controls, and government seizure of mining equipment illustrate why Bitcoin's censorship resistance matters; the Venezuelan government now accumulates Bitcoin via front-runners on peer-to-peer markets to circumvent US sanctions.

— Ledn is onboarding DAI stablecoins as a payment rail to serve users in jurisdictions with capital controls who prefer dollar-denominated stability over Bitcoin volatility, using Bitcoin collateral but sending DAI proceeds.

— Bitcoin adoption in Latin America is real but not a panacea; while ATMs at the Venezuela–Colombia border enable wealth transfer without seizure, structural governance failures and socialism's feedback loops persist and require deeper institutional reform.

— Conservative lending practices (50% LTV, real-time proof of reserves, optional savings deposits for margin-call protection) can mitigate counterparty risk in Bitcoin credit markets without recreating traditional banking fragility.

— Users in capital-control jurisdictions benefit from stablecoin rails paired with Bitcoin collateral; this approach preserves asset sovereignty while solving for daily purchasing power volatility and regulatory friction.

— Bitcoin's censorship resistance is most valuable for individual wealth preservation and cross-border transfer; it does not solve macro governance or inflation problems without parallel institutional and political reform.