Global blockchain research firm nChain announced on Monday that it has taken an equity stake in South African Bitcoin wallet provider Centbee.
This will make it easier for global consumers to acquire, hold and spend Bitcoin with retailers and other merchants. The wallet allows users to send Bitcoin to their contacts, which are loaded onto the app. It also uses a Bitcoin Cash point of sale system, allowing merchants to easily accept Bitcoin Cash.
Centbee co-founder Lorien Gamaroff said on Monday evening that he expected the wallet to be launched in 2018, and other features, such as integration with merchants, and a remittance service, among others, will be rolled out after the launch.
Centbee will use Bitcoin Cash, rather than a Bitcoin Core. Gamaroff believes Bitcoin Cash is a better protocol than Bitcoin Core because it has lower fees and a faster transaction network than Bitcoin Core.
"There are many features planned that will be bundled into the wallet in the coming months, specifically the ability to easily pay merchants with Bitcoin Cash.
'Bitcoin Cash is going to change the world'
"We are aiming to bring access to Bitcoin Cash to the mainstream. We will have voucher products so that Bitcoin Cash can be purchased with fiat currency at major retailers," he says.
Centbee was founded by Gamaroff and Angus Brown in 2017. Gamaroff is a leading thinker in blockchain technologies and crypto-currencies and has consulted and advised regulators and corporates all over the world.
Brown has 20 years' experience in payments and banking, including holding the role of CEO of eBucks, a bank-backed digital currency created in 2000.
"Centbee will be rolling out mechanisms for merchants to accept Bitcoin Cash payments more cheaply and securely than current bank payment systems without exposure to price volatility," says Brown in a statement.
Gamaroff says Centbee will benefit from nChain's research and intellectual property, enabling the wallet to "become a functional and secure wallet provider which will open up Bitcoin Cash merchant payments to a global market".
nChain CEO Jimmy Nguyen says Centbee has one of the most user-friendly Bitcoin wallets and merchant payment solutions it had seen, and represented "the true vision of Bitcoin".
It is envisaged that Centbee will be scaled beyond Sub-Saharan Africa to South Korea and Japan, among other territories.
While the size of nChain's stake has not been divulged, it has not taken a controlling stake in Centbee.
"I'm convinced that Bitcoin Cash is going to change the world and the companies that are building value around it are going to be the great success stories of the future," says Gamaroff.
"The whole financial system is falling apart and we need an alternative. I can change lives by focusing on Bitcoin Cash."
It is expected that the Centbee wallet will become available in the Apple and Google Play stores in early 2018.