Today, Purse.io is announcing a new partnership with Coinbase in an effort to increase its mainstream user base by making it easier for customers to shop with bitcoin on Amazon.com.
Purse is a peer-to-peer marketplace that connects spenders and buyers of bitcoins. Customers shop for items on Amazon.com by creating a wishlist.Then they exchange bitcoins for items on the list with customers who are interested in buying their bitcoins. Shoppers typically see a savings of between 8 and 20 percent on their purchases, but the process can be a bit complicated for new users. Purse is hoping to streamline this process and create a more seamless experience once the Coinbase integration goes live.
“This is a pretty big focus for us,” says Ashkan Motamedi, business developer and marketing manager at Purse. He said that, like Coinbase, one of Purse’s primary goals is to promote mainstream adoption of bitcoin.
Coinbase is a bitcoin wallet and platform for merchants and consumers. It powers a collection of third-party apps on its website, allowing companies to build their bitcoin service on its wallet infrastructure. Purse customers will be able to download the Purse.io app and connect directly through their Coinbase accounts.
They will then be able to access funds directly from their Coinbase wallets when they make purchases through Purse.
Adding Coinbase integration also offers an extra level of security and fraud protection to Purse’s business model. Dogged in the past by concerns over users’ potential fraud and money-laundering practices, Purse has taken steps to ensure that users are verified and customers are protected.
“Spenders are totally vetted through Coinbase,” says Motamedi. He also said that fraud detection goes through both Amazon and Sift Science, a system that goes through users’ behaviors, IPs and buying history: “It’s like what Amazon already does but it’s just another level of verification,” says Motamedi.
Motamedi cited improved security and ease-of-use as two important steps toward more mainstream adoption for bitcoin businesses. Over the coming months, Purse has plans to make more changes to its service that will move things farther in that direction.
“In the future, when we build new apps, we’ll of course be using Bitcoin in the back end … but making the front end more seamless,” says Motamedi. There are also plans in the works to improve the search function and phase out the “wishlist” step, thus making ordering and delivery faster and more convenient.
Image via Purse.io
March 16, 2015 at 09:44PM
