Caribbean bitcoin company Caricoin upgrades mobile functionality

A partnership between Caribbean bitcoin wallet Caricoin and Bitrefill has been confirmed, which will provide a mobile app facility for customers of Caricoin, which they can use to trade in their bitcoin account. The company claims the move will allow it to further target the unbanked population of the Caribbean.
Caricoin Mobile topup 'Working with Caricoin has been a blast - and their integration already offers one of the best mobile refill experiences I've seen thus far.' - Sergej Kotilar, CEO of Bitrefill

Caricoin, the bitcoin wallet of the Caribbean, is pleased to announce that it has partnered with airtime merchant Bitrefill to seamlessly integrate mobile top up functionality into its mobile wallet.

Caricoin users at home and abroad can now use bitcoin to quickly and easily top up their mobile phones or send credit to anyone in the Caribbean at great rates, directly from within the Caricoin app. Networks supported in the region include Digicel, Flow, bMobile and Claro, among others.

“Mobile top up is the ideal introduction to the world of digital currencies for new users in the Caribbean. Since some of the best top up rates worldwide are available to bitcoin customers, there is a strong incentive for people to start using bitcoin to access these benefits," said Karsten Becker, CEO of Caricoin Ltd.

Revolutionizing Mobile Topup

The mobile top-up market in the Caribbean currently stands at over US$300 million annually [1]. With lower fees an integral part of using bitcoin as the currency of choice for online transactions, the region could potentially save millions of dollars per year in add-on charges with Caricoin’s bitcoin-based mobile wallet.

Since over 50% of the Caribbean’s population remains unbanked[2] and without access to credit cards, these persons can easily use Caricoin’s wallet to instantly send, share and re-distribute bitcoin which can then be used to purchase mobile credit at any time.

Bitrefill’s online service facilitates easy top-up of mobile plans around the world using bitcoin and other digital currencies. They are partnered with many major mobile operators around the world including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange.

Founder and CEO of Bitrefill Sergej Kotilar recently said: "We constantly work to get new deals and integrations with airtime providers, so that we both always have the lowest prices, highest reliability and largest offering of countries and services. We're now up to 150 countries, which is the largest number in the industry.”

Says Becker of the partnership with Bitrefill: “We reached out to them and they loved the idea of working with us and gave us the support we needed to insert their functionality directly into our wallet.”

Kotilar adds, “Working with Caricoin has been a blast - and their integration already offers one of the best mobile refill experiences I've seen thus far. Looking forward to the iOS version!"

About Bitrefill

Bitrefill lets you top up any prepaid mobile phone using bitcoin. They support prepaid SIM cards from over 700 operators in 150 countries. Using bitcoin allows them to cut costs and pass the savings on to you. Transactions are private and virtually immediate and allows for integrations with minimal effort. Visit http://www.bitrefill.com for more information.

About Caricoin

Caricoin Ltd is a UK-based company with development offices in Kingston, Jamaica. It is focused on transforming the Caribbean’s economy by delivering a secure, user-friendly and less costly way of storing wealth and moving it around. To learn more and to install the Caricoin wallet on your device now, visit http://www.caricoin.com.

[1] Sourced from Caricoin Intelligence; data derived and calculated based on information in GSMA 2015 State of the Industry Report - Mobile Money

[2] Taken from the World Bank Migration and Remittances Brief, Oct 2015