The bot won't allow your account to start trading if it doesn't detect the 500 RBY so that is required no matter what. As far as the 1 BTC goes, I don't have any say or control over that matter. I've seen it work fine with less, but I also know first hand that it works 100x better with the proper amount of funding. My suggestion would be to join the Slack channel. I can fully see why putting 1 BTC on the line for this sounds super risky, considering the value of BTC these days.