Bitcoin startup Caricoin recently announced the launch of a social mobile money platform for the Caribbean. UK-based Caricoin has released a mobile wallet in collaboration with leading Blockchain security company, BitGo, which will provide Caribbean users with the ability to send and receive money where traditional banking is limited. The wallet combines elements of social messaging platforms with payment via Bitcoin, allowing senders and receivers to talk to each other with the option to top-up mobile phones with prepaid minutes within the Caribbean.
Speaking to CoinTelegraph, Karsten Becker , Caricoin CEO, said that the mobile wallet was designed as a substitute to traditional banking, where, according to the World Bank 2015 Global Findex Report , around 50% of the population is unbanked.
Becker notes: “Access to banks is hard for most of the population especially for people living in rural areas. Even harder than actually getting to banks is the process of signing up for an account due to an out-dated KYC [Know-Your-Customer] process and strict regulations.” Big potential for Bitcoin in Jamaica
Becker said that there was a large need in Jamaica for a mobile money platform that would provide easy access to digital bill payments and incoming remittances. Despite the fact that Jamaica has extremely high smart phone coverage, people still have to travel large distances at a great cost to pay their bills, with payment companies taking large cuts of the money.
He underlines: “Jamaica is unique in that over 80% of people have smartphones and 4g coverage along with very low cost data plans, so we hope to see more and more people coming on board as the ecosystem starts to grow.” Of course, with the right marketing and access to mobile phones with data, Becker believes that anything is possible with people signing up in remote areas […]
