Cointext, a service which cryptocurrency users can avail to conduct transactions directly through mobile SMS, has announced the launch of its Bitcoin Cash (BCH) wallet in Argentina and Turkey, two cryptocurrency markets that are becoming more and more popular because of the current volatile nature of their local currencies.
“Bitcoin is better money,” The Business Journals quoted CoinText founder and CTO Vin Armani. “Many Turks and Argentinians already understand this due to high inflation. We are excited to provide tools to help them use cryptocurrency.”
In 2018, after the Venezuelan bolivar’s collapse, Argentina’s peso and Turkey’s lira are going through the steepest of declines in their exchange rate with the American dollar. While the peso’s decline has been almost 60%, the Turkish lira’s value has fallen by around 40% against the dollar this year.
CoinText’s services could lend a helping hand in both countries, as it enables sending money to mobile phone numbers or BCH addresses via SMS. The service does not even require Internet, apps, accounts, or passwords, to function. Hence, it is easy to introduce in new areas.
The service can function on any kind of mobile phone, which includes iPhone, Samsung, and also the old Nokia flip phones. As long as a phone can send and receive SMS messages using the local telecom service, CoinText can be used to send and receive BCH.
“Before CoinText, you had to download a software wallet or join an exchange to get your first cryptocurrency,” Armani added. “And to onboard your friends, you had to convince them to do the same process. Now you can just text money to their phone.”
Users of CoinText are able to control their wallet with simple SMS commands such as BALANCE to check their balance amount and RECEIVE to display the address of their wallet. Users can send money to domestic as well as foreign mobile phone numbers by using text commands such as SEND $1 PHONENUMBER. They have to enter a 2FA code, after which, transactions are immediately settled on the BCH blockchain. Argentine users can receive a wallet by texting the words COINTEXT INICIAR to 11011.
CoinText is a for-purpose fintech company which is also a cryptocurrency exchange platform. The services it provides do not require apps, accounts, passwords, or the Internet. The service boasts of offering frictionless onboarding to the cryptocurrency ecosystem for anybody who owns a text-enabled phone. The company also has a foundation designed for cryptocurrency solutions that include touchless payments, streaming money, and for the Internet of Things (IoT).
