As part of their exploration of the crypto-currency, Bitcoin, mHITs, an Australian payments company, has launched a new pre-paid mobile minutes top-up service, called BitMoby, exclusively available for bitcoin.
According to mHITs’ press release, BitMoby is part of the company’s efforts to explore what is possible with crypto-currency.
“BitMoby is an example of how digital currencies such as Bitcoin can be used to demonstrate a highly efficient integrated transaction process where the payment instruction itself can uniquely identify the transaction and incorporate payment information,” reads a mHITs press release. “This innovation simply cannot be achieved via existing card-based technology. This means that no shopping cart or checkout process is required, providing for a simple, fast and efficient user experience.”
No registration or personal information is needed to use the service. Users just need to provide their phone number, country of residence, and email. After choosing the amount of minutes they want, users will then scan QR code and pay with bitcoin. The phone is topped-up shortly afterwards.
The service is available in 180 countries and has eye for the unbanked market. In some developing markets, prepaid minutes are wildly popular over phone contracts in many emerging economies and easily available. But in others, it very difficult and can require bank transfers, which is not option for many people in these countries. mHIts hopes their service could be a new option for customers in underserved markets.
BitMoby is not the first bitcoin top-up service. Bitrefill provides a very similar service and has been in operation since November of 2014. mHITs is not worried about their competition since BitMoby is just a “pilot service” as it looks to explore and possibly incorporate crypto-currency into more of its businesses.
mHITs was founded in 2004 to bring cheap and efficient payment solutions to the developing world. The company has created Point of Sale (POS) solutions and, remittance, billing, and money transfer services designed for payments via SMS text messages. Payments via mobile phones are one of the few methods of digital payments accessible for the unbanked. The company operates in a host of emerging economies spanning several continents, including Africa and Asia.
One of example of the company’s unique payment solutions for developing countries is BuyPowerNamibia.com. The service allows people residing in the Southern African country to buy emergency electricity with phone credits. By using mobile minutes as a currency, Namibia’s unbanked are able to quickly pay for electricity in times of trouble through text messages.
According to mHITs CEO, Harold Dimpel, the company’s long history has shown that legacy payment solutions are “ridiculous, especially for small payments […] consumers are wanting something better.” Bitcoin is one of the new payment methods the company has been exploring in blog posts and new business ventures.
The company has not given specific details as to what their futures plans are with crypto-currency and are currently waiting to see how BitMoby does.
What do you think about a mHITs’ interest in Bitcoin?
Photo courtesy of mHITs.com
Photo courtesy of bitmoby.com
Photo courtesy of buypowernamibia.com
