The most attractive feature of cryptocurrency is its decentralized and borderless nature. Many organisations and individuals have begun to accept it and explore it’s almost limitless possibilities. Bitbond, an online bank, has been an active participant in the cryptocurrency market. It was the first bank to use BTC for international credit transfers, and now it has started accepting bitcoin for international loan payments.
The bank was founded in Germany in 2013 by Radoslav Albrecht. Currently the bank processes about $1 million in loan payments per month. Since 2013, the company has gathered popularity with mentions in Forbes and a couple other. Presently, Bitbond employs about 24 people from 12 different countries. The lean team takes care of the bank’s 100 clients. The clients are mostly small businesses and freelancers who do not surpass loans over $50,000. In 2016, the company became officially licensed and thus this has contributed to solidifying its longevity and successful track record.
While many see bitcoin as only a vastly speculative asset, Bitbond has developed a business model that competes with orthodox banking systems. According to Alberta, Bitcoin was an alternative choice to the Swift payment system, which is slower and more expensive. He further explained that
“Traditional money transfers are relatively costly due to currency exchange fees, and can take up to a few days. With Bitbond, payments work independently of where customers are. Via internet it is very, very quick and the fees are low.”
However, the coin’s volatility is a major setback. Most businesses are reluctant to accept bitcoin as payment because of its wildly fluctuating exchange rates. Bitbond is quite unaffected by this issue because users hold the tokens for their loans for a few seconds/minutes only until it’s time for it to be exchanged to the national currency of their choice.
According to the website:
“By innovating in the fields of payments and credit scoring, Bitbond makes financial inclusion a reality around the world. All payment transactions on Bitbond are conducted via the bitcoin blockchain. Therefore our service is available worldwide via the internet and is independent of banks.”
Germany remains global leader in Bitcoin adoption, whereas other countries are skeptical and pass anti-crypto regulation, Germany is 2nd to the United States in accepting crypto-related businesses.
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