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SA fintech enables electricity, airtime purchases using Bitcoin

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb news editor.
Johannesburg, 18 Jun 2020

South African fintech firm Centbee has launched a new feature in its BitcoinSV wallet today that allows users to purchase prepaid electricity, airtime and data.

In a statement, the start-up company says this is the realisation of a dream by co-founders Lorien Gamaroff and Angus Brown, finally making the vision for Bitcoin as electronic cash a reality.

South African Centbee users have been able to top up their wallets with BitcoinSV from over 50 000 retail stores since early 2019 and from their South African bank accounts since February 2020.

In addition, BitcoinSV can be bought from South African crypto-currency exchanges VALR.com and AltCoinTrader and sent to a Centbee wallet in seconds.

To use Centbee to buy prepaid electricity, airtime and data with BitcoinSV, users will find a new “buy” button in the Centbee app menu where they can purchase prepaid electricity, airtime and data from mobile networks in South Africa.

With BitcoinSV already in their wallets, they can buy electricity, airtime and data in just a few minutes.

Lorien Gamaroff says: “This is the reason I built the Centbee app. To make Bitcoin useful, convenient and accessible so that anyone with a mobile phone can use it like cash, which was always Bitcoin’s vision. Now, with a way to buy everyday products and services with BitcoinSV, we’re one step closer to making BitcoinSV the everyday electronic cash that millions of people can use.”

The company notes that making BitcoinSV useful for consumers has always been a priority for Centbee and the BitcoinSV blockchain is the obvious choice for large transaction volumes at the lowest cost.

It claims that BitcoinSV is the only blockchain that can scale exponentially and its industry players are known for their unyielding commitment to regulatory compliance and supporting traceable and legal transactions.

Gamaroff points out that the Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (SV) blockchain restores the original protocol described in the Bitcoin Whitepaper in 2009 by Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, and fulfils the vision for Bitcoin as peer-to-peer electronic cash.

Angus Brown comments: “As experts in payments and financial systems, we strongly believe that regulatory compliance is an essential element to building the BitcoinSV ecosystem.

“We support regulations that protect consumers and give businesses the confidence to utilise blockchain technologies. BitcoinSV is the only blockchain that is able to deliver this as well as fast, cheap and exponentially scalable transactions.”

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