Gulden is hot. The Dutch cryptocurrency has a large number of enthousiastic users and given the price-development of the past few years this is not surprising. With a marketcap of over $31,000,000 the coin has acquired a respectable position in the cryprocurrency market. We talked with Dorin Bouwman about the difference between Gulden and Bitcoin, the future of Gulden and even about Model Doutzen Kroes……

B: What exactly is Gulden and can you tell us something about the history of the project, why did it start and with whom?
G: Gulden was founded in 2014 by Rijk Plasman. The project was created to set up a decentralised means of payment, focused on the user. The goal of Gulden has been the same from the beginning; making crypto available and understandable for everyone.

B: Many Dutch people have a “weakness” for Gulden because of it’s history, but are only Dutch people interested in the project?
G: Certainly not! There are Gulden owners all over the world. For foreign users, the name makes little difference, it’s about the system and what you can do with it. We thought of Gulden being a nice strong name for a payment instrument, which is why we have chosen it.

B: With how many stores in the Netherlands (and elsewhere) can I pay with Gulden and does this happen?
G: We estimate that there are currently around 150 to 200 acceptors. In order to accept Gulden, you don’t have to make a complicated application or get permission from the team. As a result, we do not know exactly at how many places you can pay with Gulden. The nice thing about this is that we are occasionally surprised by unexpected acceptors through the community.

B: Nowadays you can see more and more ICOs marketing their project with the help of celebrities like Paris Hilton. What is Gulden’s view on this and will we soon be able to see Doutzen Kroes with Gulden?
G: ICOs are often created to raise a lot of money without first producing concrete results. The promises are often unrealistic and have nothing to do with blockchain technology. We do not take part in it and are only concerned with real development. By constantly improving our product (Gulden) we have seen a steady increase in the number of users in recent years. It wouldn’t come as a surprise to see Doutzen Kroes soon with a Gulden wallet on her phone.

B: Where does Gulden differ from other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin?
G: Bitcoin is mainly used as an investment. The system is slower and more cumbersome, so it will never be picked up as a’ mainstream’ means of payment. Gulden, on the other hand, is built to be a means of payment. Payments are processed quickly, the wallet is easy to use and it is easy for entrepreneurs to use Gulden.

B: One of the criticisms addressed to Bitcoin is the (low) transaction speed, only every 10 minutes. What about Gulden?
G: One of our spearheads is transaction speed. In order for Gulden to succeed as a means of payment, a transaction must be processed within a few seconds. Currently, a transaction is processed many times faster than with Bitcoin, with the upcoming Gulden update this will be even much faster.

B: The market cap of Gulden is currently (17 November 2017) above $31,000,000 and the price is close to 9ct, while last March it was around 1.4ct. How do you explain this great rise and popularity of Gulden?
G: Although we don’t do anything about marketing, last year we noticed that Gulden was picked up by various media. We also have a great community that devises applications with great enthusiasm and tells people about Gulden.

B: Recently, the AFM was critical of investing in cryptocurrencies and ICOs. How do you look at that?
G: Investing always involves risks. This applies to crypto, but also to’ old-fashioned’ investments. It is very good that people should be made aware of this by authorities such as the AFM and we fully support this warning. Especially with ICOs you should be careful, we would never advise to invest in an ICO. We would approach ICOs as a trip to the casino.

B: With the exception of regulation, what are the other major challenges ahead of cryptocurrency in general?
G: The open character and freedom involved on one hand, of course, is a great advantage, but unfortunately it is often abused. We are very much in favour of a quality mark; the code is public, so it is easy to be checked by capable developers. Then 99% of the cryptocurrency projects will drop out and it becomes safer for the general public to get in. In addition, the ease of use: in order to have a chance, it must be as easy to use as existing payment instruments. That is our ambition.

B: What can we expect from Gulden in the (near) future and how can we best follow you?
G: The PoW2 update will be implemented soon. With this update we make it possible to lock Gulden for a certain period of time, interest will be paid on these Guldens. In addition, PoW2 will make the network very fast and transactions are already secure after 1 confirmation. With the development of PoW2, we have also included our own implementation of Segwit. Because we have completely rewritten and optimised it for Gulden we call it Segsig. More information about this on dev.gulden.com. Furthermore, we are constantly working on ease of use, faster synchronization, a more efficient network, all things that are rightfully self-evident for most people, but which are rare in crypto.

B: If we do this interview again in 3 years’ time, where do you hope to stand with Gulden?
G: We are not really busy with hoping. We know exactly where we want to stand in 3 years’ time and are working hard in realizing it. Results will be visible by themselves, we are not going to reveal anything about this now!

B: Will we do this interview again in 3 years’ time?
G: Sure, when do you have time?

Thanks Dorin!

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