After months of beta-testing and operations in an invite-only phase, Circle is finally ready to make its services open.
The company launched its initial services this morning, a welcome announcement to those of us who applied for an account back in May but never received a confirmation.
Launch Features
Circle’s initial service offering includse three main ideas.
The first is creating an interface which is easy to use, logical, and flows naturally. “Online banking applications stink,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a blog post. “We wanted an elegant design aesthetic that would appeal to digital natives.”
Next, they want to make it easier for people to acquire Bitcoin, which is currently one of the most difficult and frustrating aspects of the Bitcoin world. “Even sophisticated, technology-savvy people…often experience [friction] in acquiring and spending Bitcoin. Starting today, people can onboard into a Circle account and begin using digital money within minutes, not days.”
Though Bitcoin ATMs help with accessibility, they’re only useful for people who happen to live near one. And although we now have more than 200 Bitcoin ATMs worldwide, that’s tiny compared to how many people who could be served by Bitcoin.
Finally, the company hopes to make Bitcoin “instant and free”. Current Bitcoin services can be a little sluggish, but Circle’s goal is “to be instant for onboarding, instant for depositing and converting money, and nearly instant for sending and receiving payments – anywhere on the planet.”
At launch, Circle’s services will be available in seven different languages: English, Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, German, and French, with plans to add more languages as they grow.
Security
Security may be the most important factor for any online Bitcoin service in 2014.
While it was always an important thing to consider, many Bitcoin businesses didn’t take it as seriously as they should have. As a result, many Bitcoin-related services ended up falling victim to hackers. 2014 has seen Bitcoin bankers Flexcoin and Dogecoin storage Dogevault succumb to hackers, altcoin exchange MintPal losing 30% of the world’s supply of VeriCoin, and Bter losing a large amount of NXT.
And then, of course, there’s Mt. Gox.
Many within the community have been burned, and it takes a lot to trust these online services.
Circle has declared that all users are 100% insured on their Circle balances, provided by Marsh, one of the largest insurance brokers in the world.
Since May, we’ve continued to build out our insurance program, acquiring more underwriters for both our online and cold storage/offline assets. Today we offer this unprecedented insurance coverage to every Circle customer…The underwriters for this insurance are all highly-rated. Insurance on Bitcoin is a new market, and we’re proud to be a market maker in establishing this valuable service to users of digital assets.
Though this isn’t the first time a Bitcoin company has offered insurance (Coinbase announced their policy last August), it will go a long way toward establishing trust in Circle’s platform.
Future plans for Circle include the development of apps for iOS and Android, and translations into more languages. To register for Circle, visit their website.
Circle Launches Its Bitcoin Banking Platform
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