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Hive, one of the many Bitcoin startups around the world looking to unify financial services with blockchain technology, recently won the finals of Fintech Americas, an important event in the world of finance. Even though this competition was designed to find the “next big thing” in the remittance sector, Hive offers a lot more functionality than just that.
Also read: Safe.Cash Turns Euros Into Bitcoin-like Digital Currency
Bitcoin is often referred to by mainstream media as an anonymous digital currency, with a high potential to attract hackers and scammers. However, Bitcoin is not anonymous, nor has it ever been, nor does it need to be. But that doesn’t mean people wouldn’t mind selling their Bitcoins anonymously and withdraw fiat currency from any bank ATM at their disposal.
Selling Bitcoin in exchange for fiat currency is a process that has been simplified in recent years. But not every Bitcoin user likes to use a Bitcoin exchange to sell coins, mostly due to the identity verification procedures attached to those platforms. On top of that, Thailand is an underbanked nation, and most Bitcoin exchanges only pay out via wire transfer.
If we want to make Bitcoin more accessible and to appeal to everyday consumers, we need to put a lot more focus on the usability of this disruptive digital currency. Instead of issuing statements such as “be your bank” and “control your money”, we can also say “send money to anyone in the world”. And that story has become a whole lot more interesting recently, thanks to Bit2Me.
By the look of things, we may very well be headed towards a Bitcoin-to-cash withdrawal system that operates on 0% fees in the future. Most people still use Bitcoin exchanges to convert their Bitcoin to fiat currency, which is always subject to a fee – usually between 0.25% and 1.5%. But is that really a good way to remain competitive, or should these fees be removed completely?
Over in Spain, several companies are trying to bring something new to the market, by offering a service that converts Bitcoin to cash at a low fee. Or to be more precise, it looks like we have a small “war of fees” on our hands, as two companies have lowered their withdrawal fees to 0% in the past month or so.
