Roman Snitko

Tales from the Crypt #51: Max Keidun & Roman Snitko

- HODL HODL's Non-Custodial P2P Exchange: Roman and Max built a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange using 2-of-2 and 2-of-3 multisig contracts where the platform never holds user funds, differentiating it from centralized exchanges like Local Bitcoins. - Founders' Bitcoin Journey: Roman discovered Bitcoin in 2010–2011 via Hacker News and Austrian economics; Max worked as a private banker for 10 years before a client introduced him to Bitcoin in 2013, leading both to leave Mycelium and launch HODL HODL in 2016. - Educational Focus and User Experience: The team invested heavily in tutorial videos, a testnet environment, and intuitive UI to help users understand non-custodial trading, recognizing that peer-to-peer exchanges are more complex than centralized platforms. - Prediction Markets and Future Products: HODL HODL is launching peer-to-peer Bitcoin prediction contracts (bets on any legal event), an OTC desk for large trades, and House HODL for real estate transactions using Bitcoin escrow. - Blocking U.S. Users: The company restricted access to American citizens and residents this week due to regulatory burden and litigation risk, despite all U.S. trades being from licensed traders—a decision supported by most users and aligned with other major exchanges. - Decentralized Reputation System Vision: Roman dreams of a graph-based, decentralized reputation system that uses friend-of-friend connections to calculate trustworthiness without a central authority, solving problems seen in centralized review systems.