iPayYou, the friendliest Bitcoin wallet, now supports the purchase of various gift cards

iPayYou, a user-friendly wallet service for beginners, says it wants to create a business ecosystem for bitcoin. To get started, it now allows users to buy gift cards at Amazon, Best Buy, iTunes and Starbucks, with more retailers to be added in the coming month.

iPayYou is Bitcoin-friendly

iPayYou CEO Gene Kavner explained that his company wanted to solve Bitcoin's "lack of adoption problem." This problem is experienced by many new Bitcoiners - now that they have Bitcoin, what should they spend it on?

iPayYou is a qualified Bitcoin online wallet, and its selling point is user-friendliness - you don't need to know what Bitcoin is to use it. There are no long addresses or private key management. You can send money to other users via email addresses or even Twitter.

It’s worth noting that if people make a mistake when sending a transaction they can cancel the payment, which is absolutely not possible with standard Bitcoin transactions.

Bitcoin is too complicated for beginners

Kavner said he wanted iPayYou to be the friendliest Bitcoin wallet. He started the company after he saw how new users had trouble understanding Bitcoin and how it worked. "Bitcoin was too complicated, I had to help people create wallet addresses, and they kept losing their private keys," he said.

He then added on the “lack of adoption problem” that Bitcoin has.

“The average person is asking, what next, where do I use it? They find themselves on an island, not knowing what to do with their bitcoin.”

Creating a simple and easy system for spending bitcoin is crucial to getting people to adopt it, he said. Selling bitcoin gift cards gives users a useful and versatile way to handle their digital cash.

In this respect, iPayYou is similar to other Bitcoin gift card services such as Gyft and Purse.io, except that iPayYou is a Bitcoin wallet first and a purchasing service second.

iPayYou will add more retailer gift card options in the coming month. So far, the gift card service is only available in the United States. If gift card holders want to exchange them for Bitcoin or US dollars, the company will buy them back at the purchase price. Of course, this only applies to gift cards sold by iPayYou.

Gift card service combines Bitcoin exchange and wallet

Users increase the value of their iPayYou wallets just like they own a Bitcoin exchange. That is, the company accepts deposits in USD wire transfers or Bitcoin deposits. In addition, there is a KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure for those who wish to link a bank account.

Kavner said that within 30 days, iPayYou will be connected to all US banks to support deposits and withdrawals.

iPayYou does not support gift card purchases elsewhere. This means people can’t simply buy a gift card from a convenience store and use it to buy Bitcoin.

Kavner said there are also security issues to deal with. That is, some users could use fake or spent gift cards to defraud the company. "Whenever there's a problem, people always complain about Bitcoin."

Start buying now. iPayYou is selling gift cards on Amazon, Best Buy, iTunes, and Starbucks. This means users will have a ton of options when it comes to buying with Bitcoin. If this project is successful, it could be the beginning of the consumer system Kavner wants to see.