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Denarium Promotes Bitcoin With Physical Coins

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:43 PM
Justin OConnell
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:43 PM

denarium-physical-bitcoinDenarium’s “low-cost” physical bitcoins could revolutionize not only the industry of physical bitcoins, but perhaps even Bitcoin itself. The Finnish Bitcoin startup’s main goal is to promote Bitcoin adoption by offering coins totalling 1/10th and 1/100th of a bitcoin in value.

Casascius once dominated this Bitcoin niche, having launched in 2011. However, due to the increasing stresses of regulation and compliance, the company ceased selling bitcoin-loaded coins in 2013.

Cryptocoins News discussed the new physical coin with Denarium  co-founder, Henry Brade.

Denarium has an open crowdfunding round at Nordic equity crowdfunding service Invesdor. For more information, click here .

What was the goal in launching a range of “low-cost” physical bitcoins?

What we hope to achieve is to allow everyone to have an easy-to-understand gateway to the world of Bitcoin. Our first product is a simple, low-cost product that anyone can afford. We want the coins in the hands of Bitcoin enthusiasts all over the world so they can use them as gifts to friends & family and while doing that they can explain what Bitcoin is about. It’s also a great gift for company employees if one is a company owner or executive.

Casascius ran into problems with regulators in the US. How is Denarium in a position to avoid such issues?

The regulatory environment here in Finland is clear in regards to manufacturing and selling physical bitcoins, so we are in a good place to start. We foresee a positive regulatory future in Finland, however we are also prepared to move our operations in case there are problems. Many of the other physical coin manufacturers have been hobbyist projects, we are a real business. We already have a warehouse in Singapore for the logistics needs of the Asian market, so we could easily move more of our operations there in case there are issues in Finland.

What are the physical bitcoins composed of?

Denarium coins are composed of three main components. There is the physical coin itself, which is made of brass. Then there is the hologram sticker which is a security seal that protects the coin from counterfeiting. Then there is the private key paper slip which is between the coin and the hologram. The private key is what protects and stores the actual bitcoins and the key printed in both plain text and QR code format.

Where does the name Denarium come from?

The name is based on the ancient Roman currency system Denarius. We simply switched the end because Denarius is commonly used already.

Were you interested in precious metals before you were interested in Bitcoin?

I can’t speak for everyone in our team, but I think most of us were and still are interested in precious metals. My personal view is that one of the best ways to describe Bitcoin is “digital gold.”  It obviously doesn’t yet have the historical reliability as a store of value that gold has but it is technically way more advanced than gold and bitcoins are arguably even more scarce than gold.

After Europe, North America, Australia and Asia, what are your goals for Denarium?

The goal for Denarium in terms of physical coins is to continue to spread them everywhere and release new types of products. We are looking at manufacturing premium coins, collector coins and other specialities. However it is important to note that our company is not only working on physical coins. We currently run the largest Bitcoin exchange in Finland (Bittiraha.fi), the largest Bitcoin ATM network in the Nordics (Bittimaatti) and we have multiple exciting new international projects in development. In the future Denarium could be the home for a wide variety of Bitcoin services, a complete Bitcoin ecosystem. That’s the long term goal.

All very interesting, Henry. We really appreciate your time.

My pleasure, thank you!

You can visit the Denarium website here .