In a bid to make buying bitcoin more user friendly and accessible in India, the world’s largest software platform for digital currency Blockchain has announced a strategic partnership with Indian bitcoin exchange Unocoin.
This partnership will allow individuals in India to seamlessly and quickly fund their Blockchain wallets.
Historically, acquiring bitcoin has been a multi-step process with high fees, long settlement delays, untrustworthy service providers, and opaque identity verification procedures.
This integration aims to eliminate that friction and make buying bitcoin more user friendly and more accessible for customers across India. Unocoin said in a statement that the partnership also gives users a greater purchasing power directly within their Blockchain wallets without compromising user security or control.
Founded in 2011, Blockchain offers the largest digital asset platform in the world. The company’s wallet software has millions of active users in 140 countries across the globe and sees billions of monthly consumer transaction volume.
Blockchain has raised over $70 million in funding and is now focused on expanding access to digital currency in emerging countries, like India.
Initially available to web users, the company plans on expanding the Unocoin integration to mobile for Android and iOS users in the near future.
“Blockchain is one of the most trusted companies in digital currency. We are thrilled to work together to provide users a convenient way to participate in the digital currency ecosystem and experience all of the benefits it has to offer,” said Sathvik Vishwanath, Co-founder and CEO, Unocoin.
With digital currency gaining recognition, millions of Indians have been adopting digital assets like bitcoins as a means to save and transfer money. And through this partnership, both the companies want to bring digital currency to the masses.
“Post demonetization, India became the fastest growing economy to witness a surge in use of digital wallets in daily transactions. The fondness for digital currency, especially bitcoin, has also seen a rise, attracting many users who want instant transactions. According to a recent report, 2500 Indians are investing in bitcoin daily, which makes India one of the top contenders for becoming the largest market for cryptocurrency. Keeping this in mind, we are partnering with Unocoin to bring in this digital currency to the masses,” said Nic Cary, Co-Founder and President, Blockchain.
Unocoin is a Bangalore-based startup and is India’s first entrant into the bitcoin industry. The company operates India’s largest BTC-INR trading platform which enables Indians to buy, sell, store, use and accept bitcoin.
Every month, Unocoin claims to process transactions worth more than Rs 600 million for its 400,000+ customers.
In September 2016, Unocoin raised $2 million in a Pre Series-A round from Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and ah! Ventures along with international investors such as Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future, Bitcoin Capital, Huiyin Ventures and FundersClub.