The Leftover Bits 13/5/15: Bitcoin Comes To 5,000 Mexican Locations, Blocknet and Ethereum Meet, More Banking Institutions Looking at Crypto

By Ray Crawford·13 May 2015·2 min read

Key Points

Chip Chap operates a mobile app for converting cash to Bitcoin across several countries, focusing on Europe.
The company recently partnered with Paynet to extend those services to Mexico, targeting 5,

Chip Chap operates a mobile app for converting cash to Bitcoin across several countries, focusing on Europe. The company recently partnered with Paynet to extend those services to Mexico, targeting 5,000 ATMs and retail locations across the country. Users can send Bitcoin to the app and withdraw pesos at participating merchants, or deposit cash to receive Bitcoin deposited in their account. Merchants can opt to accept Bitcoin as a payment method if they choose. For Bitcoin to gain traction in remittance markets, where Western Union and MoneyGram dominate, it needs the infrastructure Chip Chap is building. Those established players succeeded by making money transfers accessible to ordinary people across thousands of locations. Bitcoin won't compete against them without similar convenience. Chip Chap seems to understand that market dynamic.

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The Blocknet team announced plans to integrate Ethereum into its platform. Blocknet, which Dan Metclaf of Xcurrency founded, describes itself as the "internet of blockchains," a system designed to let different cryptocurrencies interact with one another. Metclaf leads Ethereum's Boston meetup. Blocknet and Ethereum won't merge as platforms, though Blocknet applied for an Ethereum DEVGrant. Because Ethereum runs on open-source code, adding Blocknet to the ecosystem requires no changes from Ethereum's development team. The arrangement benefits both: Blocknet gains access to Ethereum's Virtual Machine, enabling advanced applications, while Ethereum gets access to Blocknet's decentralized applications and exchange. Blocknet aims to launch its decentralized exchange when Ether goes live.

The European Banking Association released a new report on blockchain technology and its potential role in banking. The authors stopped short of endorsing Bitcoin itself, but they acknowledged that blockchain systems could accelerate transaction settlement and lower operational costs across the industry. The report examined several altcoins alongside Bitcoin and assessed their utility for different banking use cases. Coindesk published a comprehensive breakdown of the findings. Banks continue to issue these blockchain reports with increasing frequency. Bitcoin developers have been arguing for years that the underlying technology could reshape how finance works. Whatever the motivation, each major institution that publishes such a report echoes arguments that Bitcoin advocates have been making since the technology first appeared.

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