Bernhard Kaufmann is a blockchain technology expert specializing on peer-to-peer payments for digital goods and services. His extensive experience with the Bitcoin ecosystem, as well as his involvement as an AML-compliance officer, have convinced him that decentralized and non-custodial applications require less administrative effort, have lower transaction costs, and are ultimately more secure than centralized systems. His company was the first crypto firm in Switzerland to get direct approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority as a regulated financial intermediary. Today, the author focuses on novel use cases involving Ethereum smart contracts.