To quote Satoshi Nakamoto: “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”
However, 10 years later, no cryptos are being used as a form of payment on a mass scale, and until they are, widespread adoption will remain a pipe dream.
Despite growing awareness surrounding the crypto and blockchain space, no group has tackled the issue of how to turn crypto into cryptocurrency by making it easily spendable. As any economist knows, the population will not adopt a new form of currency until it is practical, easy and, most importantly, can be used to acquire essential items/services.
Do not think Lambos and luxury yachts. Think basics like food and clothing — or paying your barber. While Mastercard, PayPal, etc. are attempting to solve this problem, their solution will almost certainly be centralized linked to fiat conversion.
It appears the industry has gotten lost in advancing technology, disrupting big industries, and lining their pockets (or ledger). But BitcoinVend is to be different.
Founded by long-term crypto investor and advocate Christopher Cousins along with a team of experienced legal, tech and marketing gurus, BitcoinVend is creating a grassroots movement focused on tackling the major issues that limit the growth of crypto.
To quote Chris: “Blockchain projects typically love to build solutions no one outside the industry understands. We have taken a bottom-up approach, making a product for everyday people. If you can turn on your phone, you can now buy or sell items with crypto.”
What is BitcoinVend, and why is it special?
BitcoinVend is the first mobile application that empowers crypto users, small merchants and non-crypto users with the means to pay friends, accept crypto at one’s store, and experience the power of crypto without investing capital.
BitcoinVend has three core features that, in its words, “puts the global economy in the palm of your hand.”
- An online marketplace like eBay, Amazon or Facebook marketplace.
- A wallet for sending crypto between users or paying merchants (online or in-store).
- A peer-to-peer exchange not dissimilar to LocalBitcoins.
The principles are simple but very well thought out — integrating features that will make the app very accessible to individuals and businesses. Think Amazon API connections, escrow services, QR codes, etc.
Better yet, they have developed an app with its own money before coming to market. It’s currently in beta testing and will soon be released on Google Play and App Store.
The plan transitions through various stages while involving users in decisions that relate to the project’s future developments.
Incentivization, game theory and voting
You can discover more about the specifics on the company’s website, where some things stand out.
Firstly, it is giving away its ERC-20 BCVToken (BCVT) in the app instead of the now age-old airdrop. Users sign-up to be notified of the release, download the app, and will be rewarded with some free tokens. By initially limiting withdrawals of these tokens, it encourages the creation of an active marketplace where token holders will not pay any fees (because their token covers the fees).
This could have huge implications, both economically and socially, especially if the marketing team is as good as it sounds.
Secondly, with a game theory-style approach, the company is implementing a “Trust Score” based on successful interactions and user feedback and have a dispute mediation service where users with high trust score settle disagreements. The mediation fee is “High” to make foul play costly. Great idea.
Lastly, BitconVend is going to allow users who hold BCVT in the app to vote on policies as well as feature integrations. Naturally, it’s also talking about standard topics, such as staking pools and node owners being able to share in network transaction fees.
A feasible route to mass adoption? Maybe
With a campaign-style home page and use of mostly layman’s terms, the BitcoinVend team seems to be speaking to the masses.
Now, if your thinking: But it’s not properly decentralized… please give them a break. They have to start somewhere. And the roadmap states the company plans to develop a Cosmos-style blockchain network at a later stage. BitcoinVend is definitely thinking the right way.
All-in-all, it may be the early days, and the mission is a mammoth, but we commend what it’s doing and we will be watching closely to see how this unfolds.
The app will launch in Q2 this year. If the project taps into the community of non-crypto users with its “experience crypto at no risk” message, it could be huge.
Well done BitcoinVend team, we wish you all the success! To follow BitcoinVend, check out the links below.
Telegram | Facebook | Linkedin | Twitter
Media details
Company: BitcoinVend
Email: press@bitcoinvend.com
Website: https://bitcoinvend.com/