Bitcoiners in South Africa rejoiced when they launched their first Bitcoin ATM. And now they have another easy way to get their hands on Bitcoin.
Xoin (pronounced with a click where the X is), a South African startup, has begun selling prepaid Bitcoin vouchers, which people can purchase with cash.
The idea here is to help underbanked markets in South Africa become more involved in the global market. It’s not uncommon for African teens to lack access to bank accounts, and as a result they’re entirely cut off from the world of ecommerce.
Bitcoin, though, allows people to use their funds to access ecommerce without the bank as an intermediary.
Xoin’s vouchers can be purchased with cash at merchants who choose to sell them. From there, customers use their smartphones to scan the code and redeem them for Bitcoin through BitX, a South African Bitcoin exchange.
Bitcoin And Ecommerce
More companies are beginning to accept Bitcoin payments. But merchant acceptance is still not widespread enough for it to be truly useful.
Other services have popped up in their midst, though, to fill the void.
Bongocoin and CoinGateway have begun popping up, which allow users to purchase anything sold online with Bitcoin, as well as certain altcoins as well.
Through these services, you find an item you want to purchase, and send it to them. They then decide how much it should cost in Bitcoin, plus a small fee. You send them the Bitcoin, they purchase the item in fiat, and sendi t your way.
An imperfect solution for Bitcoin purists who want to see a world entirely devoid of fiat currency, but for the underbanked in Africa and South America, it opens a whole new world to them.
South Africa’s Bitcoin Presence
South Africa has been making Bitcoin headlines recently.
Back in June, the Johannesburg-based power company Invirohub, announced it was building a series of smart meters with Bitcoin technology built into them. These machines would have their own Bitcoin wallet built in, and would calculate the user’s power bill based on up-to-the-minute Bitcoin prices.
South African payment company PayFast has also integrated a Bitcoin payment model. The company has a large number of merchants already on board, and PayFast’s system allows them to begin integrating Bitcoin payments without any additional work on their part.
It is also one of the three countries to which Overstock will ship Bitcoin orders (the other two being Réunion ad Egypt).
Bitcoin acceptance in Africa has generally been slow, but South Africa seems to be leading the charge.
South African Startup Xoin Makes Bitcoin More Accessible
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