Bitt has partnered with Netki and Colu to launch a new product that allows users to easily hold and transfer local fiat currencies using the Bitcoin blockchain.

The Caribbean has historically faced many challenges with its banking and financial infrastructure, namely accessibility and efficiency. This not only severely affects large institutions, but also everyday Caribbean people. From Bitt’s perspective, the region has been trying to increase financial inclusion for quite some time, but with little progress to show for it. The technology launched by Bitt is a major step forward in solving this problem.

Our goal at Bitt is to build a financial ecosystem in the Caribbean that remedies the issues that people in the region experience daily. High frictional fees from banks and other money services operations, make sending money in and out of the region cumbersome and costly. “Small businesses find it too financially prohibitive to offer online payment options to consumers; a drag on e-commerce inertia in the Caribbean.” – Bitt CEO, Gabriel Abed

To build the financial ecosystem needed to overcome these hurdles, Bitt partnered with like-minded companies to provide services under the mantra of “accessibility” and “affordability”.

Colu

While bitcoin as a currency has its benefits, it still does not appeal much to mainstream consumers. Colu allows Bitt to digitise fiat currencies and transact them on the bitcoin blockchain. The Colu Engine provides a gateway to the Blockchain and Colored Coin protocol for the creation and management of digital assets. In partnership with Colu, Bitt “colors” a small portion of a bitcoin to create a digital asset that inherits all the technological benefits of bitcoin, such as transacting with security, speed and transparency

Caribbean fiat currencies can now have digital equivalents that are linked in a 1:1 ration with their Central Bank issued counterparts.

Netki

Typically, a digital currency address on the blockchain is a complicated string of 32 characters like1CpLXM15vjULK3ZPGUTDMUcGATGR9xGitv. This presents non-technical users with a cumbersome and foreign experience when trying to send or receive digital currencies.

Similar to the Domain Name System (DNS) which allows users to interact with a name like www.google.com instead of a numeric IP address like 74.125.224.72, Netki’s Wallet Name Service allows digital currency companies to create easy to remember Wallet Names like ‘name.company.com’, which can be used to send and receive digital currencies in place of cumbersome public wallet addresses.

Using Netki’s Partner Wallet Name Service, Bitt will now be able to automatically generate Wallet Names using our ‘bi.tt’ domain. Users simply choose a username during the regular signup process, and a Wallet Name – such as ‘jeff.bi.tt’ – that points to their digital currency address is automatically created by Netki.

This makes sending or receiving funds on Bitt’s new platform as easy as sending an email.

Together, these technologies allow Bitt to demystify cryptocurrencies and bring the convenience of a regular wallet into the digital space. User friendliness and support are key to bringing modern solutions to a region that has been denied these opportunities for so long.

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