Key takeaways from our Q&A with Bitpanda CEO Paul Klanschek

Since we announced the Bitpanda Global Exchange and the Bitpanda Ecosystem Token (BEST), we received a lot of questions. Recently, we held the first Bitpanda ‘Ask me Anything’ with Bitpanda CEO and co-founder, Paul Klanschek.

If you weren’t able to take part then no worries, you can read over everything that happened in the thread on reddit. For those who want a more condensed version of the AMA, we have picked some of the most recurring questions and will provide the answers in this post.

Questions about Bitpanda

Question: Bitpanda is evolving, the Global Exchange is coming in a month and a half but how do you plan on competing? What are you doing differently to similar services that makes you so special?

Answer: We are already poised in the best position to make this move, we are a European-based exchange that has proven itself to be trustworthy in providing high-quality services to our users for five years now. Our exchange product will be state-of-the-art with fees that are lower than comparable exchanges.

Furthermore, we want to establish ourselves as a leading exchange service provider. This means having a wide array of markets with very high or the highest volume so that we further develop into the one-stop-shop for everything investing.

Finally, we make it possible to onboard institutional customers to our exchange. They won’t run into compliance issues because they have chosen to onboard to an offshore or Asian exchange.

Question: What does Bitpanda plan to do with its PSD2 payments licence you recently received?

Answer: One of our goals is to bridge the gap between the modern and traditional financial world, we want to act as the missing link that makes digital assets spendable anywhere our users wish to spend them. So the first step is to be able to pay invoices and make payments with any asset class. Think about paying your rent with Bitcoin, Ethereum or gold

Questions about Bitpanda Global Exchange

Question: Will Bitpanda Global Exchange replace the Bitpanda platform?

Answer: No! The Bitpanda Global exchange is just another extension to our ever-growing ecosystem. The Bitpanda brokerage that has offered users safe and comfortable access to digital assets will stay users just have the option to trade with other users on the global exchange too.

Question: Why is Tether the primary stablecoin on Bitpanda Global Exchange?

Answer: USDT will be the first stablecoin to be tradeable inside the Bitpanda Global Exchange. This is because it's the biggest stablecoin by trade volume. Once we establish more liquidity inside the exchange, more stablecoin pairs will follow. We are looking into all stablecoins, also for the broker, as well as decentralised ones!

Question: Do you plan to add Bitpanda Global Exchange to CoinMarketCap?

Answer: Yes. We have worked with CoinMarketCap consistently over the past few years when purchasing advertising space there. As soon as we are live, we will organise this with them.

Questions about BEST

There were lots of questions about BEST and specifically about the airdrops. It’s important to remember that all of the important details regarding the airdrop can be found in this post.

Question: ‘How do I claim the BEST airdrops?’

Answer: We will communicate more on exactly how to claim the airdrops in the next couple of weeks but the process will be very simple with just a couple of clicks. If you are following our announcements over the next month - you will not miss the opportunity to claim your airdrop.

Question: ‘What happens with the 500,000,000 unsold BEST?’

Answer: All 1 billion BEST tokens will be released with the unsold BEST laying in the Bitpanda reserve. We will use the tokens to strongly promote the ecosystem and already have lots of ideas for promotions. As we want to reach our goal of burning 50% in the long run, all tokens must be distributed at some point, so we have some leeway for really cool promotions or even more airdrops potentially.

Questions about Pantos

Question: You're launching an IEO so a lot of people are wondering what will happen with your scientific research project Pantos (PAN).

Answer: Firstly, it’s important to understand that Pantos and the Bitpanda Ecosystem Token ultimately serve different purposes. Pantos is a research project where we focus on making groundbreaking research into the problem of cross-blockchain operability. The goal is to release a production-ready version of the token code that can be applied to all new token releases, a code that enables the release on multiple blockchains simultaneously. This means working with the newest innovations (atomic swaps, witnesses, incentive models, etc.) to reach the goal. Pantos tech will be amazing once it's production ready because it really fills a gap that no technology today has yet been able to. The technical university of Vienna is one of the best universities in Europe and we work very closely together on this goal.

With BEST, we are introducing a program to increase the engagement of our customers by offering substantial discounts and perks when using our platform with BEST.

The BEST token will be relaunched using Pantos technology as soon as it's ready!

Question: Do other companies/projects have interest in Pantos?

Answer: We have spread the news to our network and have seen that there is a strong interest in this kind of technology. The problem Pantos aims to solve is one that everyone in this sphere can relate to. When a product launches, there is a decision to be made: which network should be used? As this decision is hard to reverse, projects feel the struggle. Network currencies like ETH, TRX, XLM and EOS all try to influence projects to launch using their tech but those projects would simply be happy to be listed on every chain! Once our product is production ready we will go out and push them to use Pantos.

Stay tuned for future AMAs!

As you can see from this discussion with Paul, we’re well on our way to making good on the promise to bring financial services to 2019. The addition of the Bitpanda Global Exchange and integration of our own native currency BEST is a giant step forward and ties together our vision of being the leading gateway to digital assets. Make sure to follow Bitpanda blog and subscribe to the subreddit so you don’t miss our future AMAs!