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Bitcoin Email Payment Comes To Europe

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:44 PM
Lester Coleman
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:44 PM

bitwalaBitwala, the Netherlands-based bitcoin payment service, has introduced a bitcoin email payment service called EmailPay. Registered users only need an email address to send a bitcoin payment using the service.

Bitwala, which debuted about three months ago, settles payments in EUR in the European Commission’s Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

To pay using EmailPay, the user only needs the email address of the recipient and the amount of money they wish to send. Users have to pay Bitwala’s 0.5 percent transaction fee. They can send payments up to whatever amount they are authorized. Fully-registered Bitwala users can transfer up to 50 000€ per month.

EmailPay Expands On Bitwala QuickPay

The EmailPay expands on the benefits of the QuickPay feature that Bitwala introduced in May. Quickpay eliminated logins and passwords associated with paying bills through the Bitwala platform.

“We had hundreds of transfers in May,” Jörg von Minckwitz, CEO Bitwala, told CCN.com. “We don’t know exactly how many of them were QuickPay, but we got really good feedback on that feature from our users.”

To pay using the Bitwala website, the user goes to the dashboard on the Bitwala website and clicks the “New Bill” button. They then fill in details of the transfer, confirm the details, accept the terms and conditions, and then send their payment in bitcoin.

Also read: Netherlands startup launches email postage scheme using bitcoin

Greatest Use: Utility Bills And Rent

At the moment, most people use it to pay their utilities like electricity, phone bills or rent, von Minckwitz said.

“The last couple of months we have had increasing demand from people who just want to transfer money abroad. Most of those customers come from Eastern Europe, Greece, Romania, Albania etc., but also from North Africa, India, and many more are contacting us on a regular basis now.”

Bitwala pays bills in the 19 European Union member states that are part of the Eurozone: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Only the recipient must be in one of above countries. The sender may be from any country.

The service is designed primarily for consumers to use for paying bills. However, some businesses are using Bitwala. “We have some little companies that pay their bills with Bitwala,” Minckwitz said.

Minckwitz believes the ease of making payments with EmailPay will help popularize bitcoin in the European Union.

Featured image from Shutterstock.