CoinText lets users send BCH via SMS
Users don’t need an Internet connection, smartphones, registration, downloads, apps, accounts or passwords.
Crypto startup CoinText has launched beta testing of its SMS Bitcoin Cash Wallet, which allows people to send and receive the popular digital currency between mobile phones using simple text message (SMS) commands.
Most cryptocurrency wallets rely on QR codes and mobile apps in order to function.
CoinText’s advantage is that users can transact cryptocurrency without the need for an Internet connection, smartphones, registration, downloads, apps, accounts or passwords. However, the company advised that users may require an international texting plan to participate until CoinText establishes a number in their region.
CoinText never holds any funds. All transactions are settled immediately on the blockchain. Additionally, CoinText doesn’t store any data about users’ phone numbers, keypairs, or transactions in its system.
Technology: Help Test The Future With @CoinText.
Public beta testing commences in March, go to https://t.co/6ZLvpjXOgN to register. https://t.co/6ZLvpjXOgN pic.twitter.com/QfrVpNJ2VF
— Bitcoin Cash (BCH) News (@BTCNewsUpdates) February 12, 2018
The project is currently in private beta testing mode, according to a notice on CoinText’s website. A limited public release is due in March 2018. Beta users who sign up in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia will receive US$1 worth of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) free in order to help test the wallet.
“The ability to transact an international currency like Bitcoin Cash over SMS opens global opportunities for billions of poor and underbanked people around the world,” CoinText says on its website.
“Our SMS wallet also enables feature-phone users to privately secure their savings against failing national currencies, bank bail-ins, civil forfeiture and other thieves.
“We are also developing a full suite of tools where transacting over SMS is necessary or beneficial like ATMs, merchant solutions, just-in-time utilities, vending machines, smartlocks, gaming and much more.”
CoinText users can simply deposit, withdraw, send and receive BCH by typing basic commands into an SMS. You can also check your wallet’s balance at any time. Texting HELP reveals these commands in further detail. In order to send BCH via text, you need to enter the sum in USD or BCH and then add the receiver’s phone number. Once sent, an e-wallet will be automatically generated for the receiver if they don’t already have one.
For now, the only pair supported by CoinText’s wallet is USD/BCH.
In a draft paper released late last month which analyzes and outlines blockchain technology, a US government innovation and industrial competition agency claimed Bitcoin Cash is actually the original bitcoin blockchain. In defining Bitcoin Cash, the paper suggests that “technically” bitcoin is a fork and not the original blockchain.
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