Bitcoin, Blockchain Payments Startups Win RemTECH Awards at United Nations
Bitcoin and blockchain services Airpocket, Bitso, Everex, Moneytis and Trulioo have taken home awards at RemTECH, an awards show for the remittance industry. Airpocket won the award for ‘Remittances and Financial Inclusion.’ Bitso won the award for “Pioneering Spirit.” Everex won for ‘Service Originality.’ Moneytis won for “Most Innovative Service” and Trulioo won for its “Potential for Growth.”
Nine blockchain companies received recognition as innovators in remittance technology by the RemTECH awards, which recognizes groups and individuals transforming cross-border exchange.
15 companies overall were nominated, demonstrating the degree to which Bitcoin, and blockchain generally, have transformed the financial technology fabric. The awards show was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
The blockchain companies nominated by RemTECH included mostly Bitcoin-using outfits, such as Bitso, Bitex, Cashaa, Digital X, Moneytis, OKlink and Trulioo. It also nominated Everex, the only Ethereum-based project behind ‘Cryptocash’, which sets out to place fiat currencies on the blockchain as a basis for cross-border microfinance services. Remittance firm UAE Exchange earned a mention. The payments solutions company recently led a Series A investment into a blockchain loyalty program developer.
“We are happy to see increased number of blockchain companies alongside many traditional financial technology companies,” Everex CEO Alexi Lane told CCN.com. “The blockchain companies highlighted demonstrate that the technology behind popular platforms like Bitcoin and Ethereum is working today to improve not only global remittances, but other financial services. ”
Everex’s technology enables the creation of credit records for the underserved using blockchain remittance and payment transaction history, along with smartphone originated personal data,
“Like credit card transactions, blockchain records show how much is spent, so we can apply AI and machine learning to analyze the data and come up with the loan rate to offer the user,” explains Mr. Lane.
Other blockchain projects recognized include DigitalX, a mobile bill payments and remittance company, which uses public bitcoin and blockchain technology to create its patent pending technology called AirID and the award-winning Airpocket. Bitex is a global Bitcoin service provider. Bitso, winner of the “Pioneering Spirit” award, is a Mexican bitcoin and ether exchange at the heart of that country’s digital currency economy.
Cashaa is a peer-to-peer market to transfer cash over its blockchain-agnostic platform. “Potential for Growth” winner, Trulioo, offers global identity and verification services, while providing instant electronic identity and address verification.
While the winners were announced in New York, the nominees were announced Wednesday in San Francisco at the International Money Transfer and Payment Conference (IMTC USA 2017). The awards show specifically highlights those groups or individuals which improve “transparency, speed, cost and reliability for the companies and end-users that send and receive remittances every day.”
Blockchain allows many different people, who otherwise have no association, to write entries into a distributed data record. The people using a blockchain platform can control how data in such an arrangement is changed and updated. Along with cryptographic keys, such a shared ledger can ensure information is authentic and authorize actions based on this data. (think: digital transaction) Such technology is changing the way people send money across borders.
Alongside blockchain startups, payment companies nominated include TransferTo, Azimo, Remit-one, Comply, Advantage, Safaricom, Xoom and EcoCash, Diaspora, STPMEX and WireCash.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
