Bitcoin payment service startup Bitwala plans to expand to Mexico and Japan, offering 5 euros discount to testers

Rage Review : Good news, European startup Bitwala will send 5 euros to anyone with a Mexican or Japanese bank account, and there is no expiration date for this offer. Bitwala announced that it will enter the Mexican peso and popular Japanese yen markets, one of its goals is to make foreign remittances simpler, more convenient and safer. Japan is the second largest country in the world in terms of Bitcoin trading volume, and global yen trading is usually two to four times the global dollar trading volume, so Japan has great potential for blockchain innovation.

Translation: Nicole

Bitwala, a Finland-based bitcoin payment service startup, recently announced that it will enter the Mexican peso and the popular Japanese yen markets. The company said:

“In order to be able to provide you with the best Bitcoin and Altcoin Mexican Peso services, we need your help!”

Bitwala was founded in March 2015 to provide a one-stop service for various bitcoin-to-cash bill solutions. The service currently supports SEPA payments, but people from all over the world send money to Europe.

Users can arrange a SEPA bank transfer to pay their rent or credit card bills and have the money sent to someone’s email address. While the service currently supports 17 fiat currencies, it does not have access to bank accounts in most countries, including the United States.

The European SEPA network operates on a network of banks in 33 Eurozone countries. The network charges a 0.5% fee on each transaction, with a minimum fee of €1. Using the SWIFT payment network will cost Bitwala users a minimum fee of €15 and take several business days.

The company received $910,000 in seed funding from KfW Banking Group and the Digital Currency Group last April and has been busy developing the service every day since then.

“One of our goals at Bitwala is to make sending money abroad easier, more convenient, and more secure.”

-- Bitwala

That same month the company launched its own Visa debit card, which costs €1. The card withdraws local currency directly from your Bitwala wallet Bitcoin balance and is accepted anywhere Visa is accepted. The card requires the usual KYC documentation, sending them some kind of ID and a copy of your utility bill, just like competitor cards from Shift and Bitpay.

Launching a partnership with ShapeShift in July, Bitwala users can now pay their bills using any of the 36 currencies available on the service.

The company then launched Bitwala Messenger, a web application messaging app that enables money transfers and interactions between consumers, and also launched their own Bitcoin wallet. This simplifies the process of debit card and Bitcoin transactions within the Bitwala site. Putting the wallet at the center of their product, their service is more like Coinbase's Bitcoin bank account in the United States.

Having unveiled a series of further upgrades to the site last month, including a comprehensive redesign with on-site help, the company is now steadily rolling out the new currency network, while hinting in the podcast that some stores are coming soon.

The startup plans to offer a similar service for the SEPA network, with the Japanese yen as their first target fiat currency, followed by the peso. Bitwala is also offering financial incentives for early adopters.

According to Bitwala’s blog, the European startup will send 5 euros to anyone with a Mexican or Japanese bank account while determining the average transaction time. The offer has no expiration date.

“Customers in Japan can pay bills, send money or top up their Bitwala debit cards with Bitcoin or any major altcoin.”

-- Bitwala

Japan is the second largest country in the world in terms of Bitcoin trading volume, and global yen trading is usually two to four times the global dollar trading volume. Trading volume began to increase earlier this year when the Japanese government found that the Financial Services Agency (FSA) considered Bitcoin as an asset class currency. The Bank of Japan also talked about some of the benefits of Bitcoin and blockchain at a recent settlement forum. News of Bitcoin trading volume and merchant registrations have been increasing at an unprecedented rate.

The "Coincheck Electricity" platform will be launched in November. The payment platform of the popular bitcoin exchange will allow customers in central Japan, including Tokyo, to pay their electricity bills with bitcoin. There is even a 4% to 6% discount for payments in cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin ATMs are also popping up in the land of the rising sun. There are currently 11 ATMs listed on CoinATMRadar, 7 in the Tokyo area alone. However, of the 800 Bitcoin ATMs in the world, 200 are in Europe, and Bitwala is used for competitive purposes.

“We see huge potential in Japan to open up to innovative technologies within blockchain and see the wonders of using Bitcoin every day.”

-- Bitwala

In Mexico, Bitwala’s competition may be a bit stiff for consumer payments. Mexican payment processor MercadoPago began accepting Bitcoin to their platform, which is used by over 150,000 merchants. However, most of their retailers are online, such as WalMart, Groupon, HP, and Lenovo.

Only three Bitcoin ATM machines appear on CoinATMRadar’s list in Mexico. Unfortunately, one Bitcoin company that went out of business last summer, Sendbitcoin.mx, was able to send and receive Bitcoin at 6,000 ATMs across the country. The company ceased operations because the Mexican government temporarily made sending and receiving Bitcoin from abroad illegal at the time. The law has since been clarified that the move was to prevent large purchases and to ensure that users leave enough paper evidence for tax purposes.