The “Bitcoin bank” Circle has announced the end of its beta stage, which means the services offered by the digital currency company that makes it easy to exchange, store, send and receive Bitcoin are now open to everyone.
Circle wants to be known as a legitimate Bitcoin repository that allows its customers to instantly send money to other people in any point of the globe without charging any transaction fees. The effort to be truly “legitimate” is highlighted by the fact that the company is already compliant with the US anti-money laundering rules: the platform has to require the depositors’ real names, for example.
The company is making an effort to spread the word throughout the globe. Besides English, the site was also launched in six additional languages including Chinese and Portuguese. Besides, iOS and Android apps are currently being developed and will be available in the near future, The Guardian reports.
Circle went online for the general public this Monday (29th), but only after a long period of development boosted by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville’s work and a few investment rounds. The platform now offers several Bitcoin wallet-related services, allowing the users to transfer cash into their Circle account via a bank account or debit card. The fiat currency is then converted into cryptocurrency by Circle and the customers can spend the BTC directly at online or brick-and-mortar shops.
“Anyone can enrol, and they need to go through very basic security set-up and verification. Once they do that, they really have a cloud wallet: a service where they can send, receive and store Bitcoin very easily with a very simple interface in their own language”, Allaire told The Guardian.
The benefit is going to be for people who want to use an online service, and don’t want to worry about managing and securing private keys and so forth. They can store as much as they want, there’s no fees, and it includes all the offline storage we provide as well as full insurance on all deposits.
But how does the company intend to fight competitors like Blockchain or Coinbase? The answer is by offering much appreciated guarantees. For instance, every user’s deposits are fully insured, which means the customers don’t have to fear another Mt. Gox-like situation. The company also promises it will charge no fees, while making the process of opening an account and managing it as easy as possible. On the long term, Circle wants to compete with traditional banks, but the first step for now is to bring Bitcoin into the mainstream.
Featured image source: Circle.com