“Government regulation should not be based on bans and restrictions, but rather on freedom and openness. In the long term, restrictive regulation harms your own economy, as it will result in companies and wealthy bitcoiners leaving the country and the tax room.”
Roman Reher is a German founder, entrepreneur and Bitcoin educator. His YouTube channel “Blocktrainer” is now one of the world's largest channels that focus on Bitcoin. He manages to describe complex technical and economic issues in words that are easy to understand. He has also participated several times as an expert for various radio formats and as an opening speaker on the “Bitcoin in the Bundestag” initiative. Reher and his team continuously provide up-to-date and high-quality Bitcoin content to German-speaking audiences.
YouTube was just a hobby for me at the start of my journey. In addition to my work as an IT project manager, I had worked a lot with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, particularly on a technical basis. I wanted to share my knowledge and explain the differences between the various blockchain projects. After I had also started to look at the economic side of the respective coins and ask questions to which I had not received any answers, I came to the conclusion relatively quickly that Bitcoin is actually not comparable with all other projects. Network effects, decentralization and the lack of trusted parties make Bitcoin unique and from then on I geared my channel accordingly.
The development of the channel has been steeply uphill since then and “Blocktrainer” with everything that goes with it - YouTube, website, forum, podcast and co. - is now one of the world's largest platforms with a focus on Bitcoin. And this is despite the fact that we produce almost exclusively German-language content.
In my opinion, the most important thing is to approach the matter both critically and openly. You shouldn't close yourself to the fact that there may be an answer to every criticism and that you usually don't even have to search for it for a long time. I recommend that anyone who wants to deal with Bitcoin first approach the matter from within their own professional and wellness area. For example, if I am interested in technology and have a certain basic technical understanding, it may be easier for me to approach the topic accordingly. However, it gets exciting when we start to step outside our own comfort zone and think outside the box.
As a practical tip, I would like to give newcomers to approach the buying process and the issue of self-custody with small amounts and try to understand how everything works and what you're actually dealing with. In addition, in my opinion, it definitely makes sense to focus on Bitcoin first and not be distracted by the thousands of other projects. Once you understand what makes Bitcoin special, you definitely run less risk of falling for lies and fraud in the crypto space.
As our current fiat system creates more and more problems, which are becoming increasingly clear to people in the long run, the role of Bitcoin in the global financial world is also becoming steadily stronger. We are currently experiencing an exciting time, as Bitcoin has already become a political issue, particularly in the USA, but also in several other major economies. Wall Street now has direct access to Bitcoin with Bitcoin ETFs and the first state pension funds have started using Bitcoin for part of their asset allocation over the course of the year. The signs are good that this could significantly drive Bitcoin adoption over the next four to five years.
The two presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, have very different views on the subject based on what we know so far. Although Trump was very skeptical at first, he is strongly positive about Bitcoin and the crypto market as a whole. In the ranks of the Republicans, BTC and Co. have many supporters and topics such as a planned Bitcoin reserve or legal protection for Bitcoin owners and the execution of transactions or self-custody, and have now found their way into their party program.
Kamala Harris had never publicly commented on Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies until recently, but was always considered a skeptic about them. After seeing Trump catch voters with his pro-Bitcoin stance, she tried to do the same, but made several misadventures that prevented her from winning over the “crypto lobby.”
Regardless of their other election and party issues, an election victory by Donald Trump would probably be significantly more positive for Bitcoin than Harris' entry into the White House.
Government regulation should not focus on bans and restrictions, but rather on freedom and openness. In the past, we have repeatedly seen attempts to restrict Bitcoin usage in various countries — almost always without success. In the long term, restrictive regulation harms your own economy, as it will result in companies and wealthy bitcoiners leaving the country and the tax room.
Open and progressive regulation, on the other hand, ensures innovation, even if it means more uncertainty for politicians at first glance.
The “Bitcoin in the Bundestag” initiative is about providing education and relieving politicians and their employees of the fear of Bitcoin. The aim is to raise awareness of the issue. The non-attached politician Joana Cotar has launched “Bitcoin in the Bundestag” and interested people from all parties are invited to attend the regular information events. The initiative itself is still very young and was only launched a few months ago.
The outcome or long-term influence of Bitcoin in the Bundestag is, of course, still uncertain. However, I am pleased that I had the honor to give the opening speech and last week, I was once again a guest speaker for an event in Berlin.
The exchange with the community is very important to me, as my goal is not simply to explain Bitcoin to people how it works. I'm also interested in the effects that Bitcoin has on our social lives or on personal lifestyles. Since the “Bitcoin path” is individual for everyone, I find feedback from the community extremely exciting, for example in the live chat on YouTube.
But even at live events, I always like to exchange ideas with other Bitcoiners. Our own “block trainer events” are therefore deliberately designed as “community events”, which are intended to promote personal interaction within the block trainer community. Such events do not offer us much financial incentive, as they barely pay off in monetary terms after deducting the resources expended. Rather, they are a thank-you gift and intended as a platform for exchange.
Of course, you can't always plan or predict everything, but there are currently considerations to involve the “block trainer team”, which does great work editorially, technically or in general in the background, more closely on YouTube. For example, I could imagine a kind of interview format in which I talk to our editors about details in the articles once or twice a month, as I believe that they can often bring even more depth to the topics and this leads to an exciting exchange.
Apart from that, I love streaming live regularly and for those who don't want to watch a long stream, there will continue to be the most important topics “in bits and pieces” in the edited Nutshell videos.
Download the Coinfinity app now and invest in Bitcoin today - easily and securely!
