Welcome to Fint3ch Frontrunners, a series of interviews with the leading lights in the future of finance. Learn how they got started and read where they see the world of DeFi, Web3 and crypto going next.
Up this week is Dmitry Machikhin, Founder and CEO of BitOK, a portfolio tracker with tax and AML tools for crypto which recently added support for $RIF and the other tokens in the Rootstock ecosystem.
Hi Dmitry! Tell us how you got to where you are today.
Once I realized being just an international lawyer was definitely not my thing, I decided to re-invent legal services. It is worth confessing that I am truly not a fan of lawyers and set off on a mission to replace their work with automation and other innovative solutions.
This is what ultimately led me to pursue entrepreneurship and leave the corporate world behind. Working in Web3 and Fintech has given me opportunities to work on some truly disruptive projects.
Despite the attempts of cryptocurrencies to be outside of the regulatory system, they have failed to escape the attention of regulators represented by the state.
As a result, cryptocurrency owners have to monitor the quality of their assets, prove the legitimacy of their origin, calculate and pay taxes, and interact with banks.
BitOK helps to solve these problems. With BitOK, traders, corporates and global banks can keep track of their portfolios with AML and tax features. It, of course, supports the Rootstock sidechain as well as over 500 popular blockchains and exchanges around the world.
What does your typical workday look like?
For a person like me, it’s important not to stay in the same place. I travel a lot. So I have to work sometimes on the go, on the train or while flying. Constant calls, meetings and emails. Sometimes events. Boring entrepreneurial routine.
How did you come up with the name of your company?
I had a dream… Yes, seriously.
When did you first ‘get’ the power of blockchain?
Since 2015, I have been actively involved in the crypto industry, exploring a variety of roles such as consulting, mining, launching an exchange, creating a bank, tokenizing real estate, and even experiencing the wild ICO rally of 2017.
All this time since I had a feeling that we had been operating in a kind of grey area because the assets we were dealing with were hard to track, regulate, and make sense of. And I realized that this is exactly what crypto lacks for mass adoption.
So my team and I decided to create a service that would make working with crypto grandma clear and bring the idea of full assets transparency and control to the market!
Is there one piece of feedback you have received from a customer that has made all the hard work worthwhile?
We initially developed an online service that allowed businesses and private individuals to calculate taxes and prepare tax returns on cryptocurrency transactions. When the tax returns submitted through our service cleared desk audits in 2022, we recognized that all our efforts were not in vain. But we knew there was more to do, so we returned to product development with plans to transform the tax service into a full-scale portfolio tracker with additional tax and AML solutions. And so BitOK was born.
Any big predictions for 2023 and beyond?
- Bitcoin $100k plus by the end of the year or slightly later.
- Regulators are gonna try to regulate DeFi but will fail again.
- Some new big bankruptcy cases such as FTX.
Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Follow BitOK on Twitter and use Rootstock!
Please note: The views expressed by the participants in this series of interviews are their own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of IoV Labs, affiliated companies or companies the participant is affiliated with.