A Bitcoin payments system solution provider is looking to bring an SMS wallet to Singapore – paving the way for new opportunities for mobile device users.
Singapore-based CoinPip joined up with 37 Coins digital wallet, which will open the door for bitcoin users with any mobile device to carry out transactions.
Anson Zeall, co-founder of CoinPip, explained how teaming up with the 37 Coins SMS-based system will expand the horizon for users without smartphones. The current bitcoin wallet landscape relies mostly on QR codes.
Zeall highlighted the large potential for the new partnership:
“The mobile market in Southeast Asia is extremely massive but the usage of smartphones is lagging. So QR code scanning is not that useful. Thus the collaboration with 37coins is going to make payments more convenient for everyone else.”
CoinPip aims to expand the presence of Bitcoin across the Asia-Pacific region via promotion and education.
The company relies heavily on their free BOOST events that include speeches by cryptocurrency experts and allow new users to set up their first wallet, buy their first BTC, and meet with merchants offering products and services at a discount price. CoinPip itself also offers a variety of free tech support and other resources.
37 Coins was founded in December 2013 and allows sending and receiving bitcoin via SMS shortcodes. Large transactions are validated by a voice-pin service, while an Android application acts as a gateway to the internet. Any person can open a gateway and promote their number to people. These keepers receive a small fee of every transaction completed in their gateway.
This “gateway” approach, which allows operators to join or leave at their own free will, is a significant reason CoinPip chose 37 Coins SMS systems. Most other wallets run on a centralized system. This decentralized alternative will make it virtually impossible to shut down and leaves control of the money with the users. Zeall noted:
“With this in mind, when we need to expand to another country, we just have to open our own gateway. We don’t need to wait for 37coins to say ‘yes’ or ‘no.'"
The launch of this partnership will be at the May 7 Boost:Bitcoin event in Singapore, hosted by Zeall.