This week we spoke with Lefteris Karapetsas of Rotki, an open source portfolio tracker, accounting, and analytics tool that protects your privacy.
From Side Project to Rotki
In 2016, Lefteris was living in Germany and struggling to figure out how to do his taxes having worked with cryptocurrency. “At first I was like, how the heck do you do this? Especially if you trade a bit—it is just not really possible to do your taxes by hand or it would take way too much time.” He decided to create a tool that he could use to complete his own taxes more seamlessly and spent the next 3 years benefitting from what he had created. Though initially just a side project for his own use, his friends and community started reaching out to him with questions about how to track their own crypto finances safely. “What started as a way for me to solve a problem slowly grew into a product,” he told us.
Out of this personal experiment grew Rotki, a product that helps you track your cryptocurrency transactions and do your accounting / taxes in a safe manner so that you don’t have any data saved within centralized third parties. The idea is to make Rotki a “one stop shop” portfolio for its users, and there are two features that make it particularly unique. First, Rotki is open source, which Lefteris described as particularly important when dealing with sensitive financial data. “You want to be able to know how it works! And you want to make sure it is not sending your data to others.” This brings us to the next aspect that makes Rotki stand out: privacy. As a local application, Rotki keeps all data inside your hard drive instead of a server or centralized third party. As Rotki continues to evolve, Lefteris would like to see it move even beyond portfolio tracking, into asset management and integrate with traditional finance as well.
Try it Out!
Rotki is powered by a small, self-funded team, and most of their user community has grown via word of mouth. Lefteris let us know that the best way you can support Rotki is to try it out and spread the word! You can use the product for free or select the premium version for about $12 USD / month. Learn more about how to download their free app on their website, and engage with the Rotki community on Discord and Twitter!
Thanks to Lefteris and the Rotki team for your contribution to our community!