{"id":19240,"date":"2019-10-01T19:57:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T19:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe79c0092697"},"modified":"2025-01-27T21:18:34","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T21:18:34","slug":"video-interview-max-keidun-open-sourcing-hodl-hodl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/video-interview-max-keidun-open-sourcing-hodl-hodl","title":{"rendered":"Video Interview: Max Keidun on Open Sourcing Hodl Hodl"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/video-max-keidun-on-open-sourcing-hodl-hodl.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"xU6BQYM5YjU\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Max Keidun on Open Sourcing Hodl Hodl\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xU6BQYM5YjU?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>September 2019 was a transformative month for Hodl Hodl. During the Baltic Honeybadger conference, the exchange\u2019s co-founders Max Keidun and Roman Snitko announced the open sourcing of their project, alongside a public release of their escrow API. These two major decisions marked a departure from their former business model in order to embrace a whole new world of ingenuity and innovation. Through this 180-degree turn, the entire project becomes more cypherpunk and more open to potentially great innovation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In this exclusive <em>Bitcoin Magazine<\/em> video interview, <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/articles\/hodl-hodl-kicks-off-liquidity-week\">Hodl Hodl<\/a> CEO Max Keidun explains both the pragmatic and the idealistic considerations which led to the decision to take a step back from exchange management in order to focus on writing code and consulting other projects. Furthermore, the co-founder talks about the various use cases for the soon-to-be open-sourced API, and why it\u2019s important to provide useful tools to a greater number of actors \u2014 as opposed to trying to avoid regulators all on your own.<\/p>\n<h2>Why Hodl Hodl Is Going Open Source<\/h2>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@hodlhodl\/opensourcing-the-exchange-8f5632a9a300\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent blog post<\/a> by the Hodl Hodl team, they explain that anyone will be able to run their own peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange \u201cunder their own name and from their own server.\u201d In a world where regulators constantly crack down on everything that doesn\u2019t comply with KYC\/AML requirements, open sourcing appears to be a wise move. While it may dilute and cannibalize the Hodl Hodl brand, it definitely brings more freedom to bitcoiners who want to do privacy-friendly swaps between BTC and altcoins or fiat currencies. Nation states can collaborate to shut down a particular business, but they can\u2019t take down code that anyone can run on their home computer.<\/p>\n<p>As Snitko told <em>Bitcoin Magazine<\/em>, \u201cWith exchange project being open source, we&#8217;ll be earning money by licensing it (open source does not mean free to use) to exchange operators. We will no longer run the exchange, but only write code.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/85_image-placeholder-title.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<h2>The HodlHodl API<\/h2>\n<p>As acknowledged by Keidun in a witty metaphor, the <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@hodlhodl\/hodl-hodl-escrow-api-43e0ba55af8c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">API<\/a> is like a video game engine which allows any enthusiast to build their own digital universe without needing to learn how to write code. It\u2019s a solid foundation that anyone can use to create an OTC desk, a prediction market, a peer-to-peer betting market, a gaming payment solution which facilitates swaps for virtual in-game currencies or even a service market for freelancers (such as Fiverr or Upwork).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>All of these would benefit from a customizable multisig escrow system and full support for Bitcoin and <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/articles\/hodl-hodl-enables-mainnet-trading-via-lightning-network\">Lightning<\/a>. Also, the user interface is already embedded in the package, so businesses should only worry about adapting the Hodl Hodl software to suit their needs.<\/p>\n<p>Co-founders Keidun and Snitko will follow the Eric Hughes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.activism.net\/cypherpunk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mantra<\/a> which states that \u201ccypherpunks write code\u201d and are, therefore, committed to not holding any keys in their clients\u2019 multisig structure. This means that Hodl Hodl will not have any kind of control over the projects that get advised by the company, and the users of the API are free to make any kind of decisions that they desire.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For more information about the considerations which led to this radical yet potentially beneficial shift in Hodl Hodl\u2019s approach, watch the video interview above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this video interview, HodlHodl CEO Max Keidun talks about open sourcing the exchange and its API and how that aligns with a cypherpunk vision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3423,"featured_media":19080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1852,3234],"class_list":{"0":"post-19240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-hodl-hodl","9":"tag-max-keidun"},"author_data":{"id":3423,"name":"Vlad Costea","nicename":"vladcostea","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dcf8df0c5a9b46a72d343c10a23bf0777a27a34001a19284e14f1439f3bfacca?s=96&d=robohash&r=g"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/video-max-keidun-on-open-sourcing-hodl-hodl.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}