Abra would like to build a global network for changing money with the smartphone. The startup from Silicon Valley will start soon and will now receive a financial injection from American Express.
For an American financial company of high standing, an investment in a Bitcoin or blockchain startup now seems to be a good thing Sound to include. It’s probably similar to advertising: You don’t know whether it will bring anything, but if you don’t do it, you lose touch. After Nasdaq, VISA, Goldman Sachs and the New York Stock Exchange, American Express has now also bought into a Bitcoin startup. The credit card company is one of a number of investors who have invested $ 12 million in remittance startup Abra. You could say: American Express is absorbing the coming competition.
Because Abra is targeting the global money sending market. The startup uses the Bitcoin, somehow, but does it secretly. The B-word is not found anywhere on the website. All you can find out here is that Abra makes “Cash” mobile. The Abra app should enable users to save money digitally on their smartphone and send it to any number in the world. Abra uses a network of cashiers around the world as well as bank connections to exchange the digital money for cash. Since the money is stored directly on the smartphone, Abra never touches it. In addition to Abra, there are also new items, this is just an opportunity to make money with the help of cryptocurrency toys. For example, BD writes about them in detail, the only drawback is the down payment for the purchase of monsters.
However, the Bitcoin blockchain is rumbling in the backend. On the one hand, Abra stores the phone numbers of the users in the blockchain.On the other hand, money transfers also take place via the Bitcoin blockchain. However, it is likely that not bitcoins will be transferred, but fiat money, probably written into the blockchain as a smart contract or colored coin. You won’t find out about the details either on the Abra website or in the relevant press reports.
In the coming weeks, the Abra app will be activated for users in the USA and the Philippines. The Philippines in particular seem to be an ideal place to experiment with alternative methods of sending money due to the low density of banks but high smartphone density. Further markets are to follow in the coming weeks. At the same time, Abra is opening a merchant service that enables shops to receive digital cash via Abra.
“Billions of consumers do not have easy access to debit and credit cards to transfer money. They don’t have a bank account, can’t make international transactions with their bank accounts, or travel to a place where they can’t use the local banking network … Abra merges payment and money transfer for these consumers into a single global cash network that includes all of them Issues, “comments Abra founder Bill Barhydt.
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