Get Bitcoin wallet ID

Startup 37Coins has created a universal bitcoin wallet that can be used on any cellphone, aiming to provide people around the globe with better access to financial resources.

This means that the benefits of the digital currency can be accessible to people who arguably stand to benefit the most, like those in poorer regions of the developing world and areas without advanced communications infrastructure.

As Jonathan Zobro, one of the company’s founders, explained:

”We can give tools to people to help bring bitcoin’s benefits to their economy.”

How it works

For each country, 37Coins plans to establish a gateway for its service.

A gateway is a private operator who allows an Android device to be used as a conduit for transactions via its local number and Internet connection. Gateways are rewarded with small transaction fees in bitcoin for providing the service.

Anyone wanting a 37Coins wallet can set one up at the company’s website, but, for people lacking web access and/or smartphone, a hosted wallet is automatically created once a small amount of bitcoin is sent to their cellphone number.

The service acts virally and once, say, Alice has bitcoin in her new wallet, she can send funds on to Bob – thus creating a wallet for him, and so on.

The 37Coins system is operated at the user end via a series of inputted commands. By texting ‘Bal’ to the gateway number, a user can find out their balance, while ‘Addr’ requests their bitcoin wallet address, and so on.

To send value, the user texts an amount in either a fiat currency or bitcoin, along with the receiver’s phone number. The gateway will then ask for confirmation via a code before executing the transfer.

For security, users can opt to set up two-factor authentication. Once initiated and a PIN recorded, the system will then call the user to confirm each transaction.

Simplifying bitcoin payments