Wyre, a business aimed at utilizing the blockchain and cryptocurrency for international payments was received 5.8 million as a start up. The goal of Wyre is to enable businesses to take advantage of the ease of digital currency for cross-border payments, without actually handling any of this currency themselves.
Wyre uses both the Bitcoin Blockchain and the blockchains of other altcoins such as Ethereum to settle transactions. A particular area it is involved in is transactions between both china and the United States.
The company is looking to enable businesses between countries to make it easier to transact, while also profiting from helping them do so, as it is a for-profit start up.
They are aiming to bring their services to Europe and Latin America, as well. They are aiming to gain adoption by doing the ‘leg work’ for using and exchanging digital currency to make it easier on businesses which wish to realize the benefits of it.
The launch was after a 10 month beta-test of the companies’ services which were conducted in private by some Chinese businesses. Coindesk is a stakeholder of Wyre also, so it seems that some prominent figures in the cryptocurrency industry see this as a potential business start up.
It is interesting to see where such a venture goes, as it has potential to bridge the gap between people who struggle to manage cryptocurrency, and those who can, as cryptocurrency increases in adoption around the world.
With advents of networks such as the lightning network, provided segregated witness is adopted then this could also change how such businesses conduct themselves, due to the lack of bloat on the blockchain and a great scaling opportunity will eventually enable the blockchain and cryptocurrency to handle as many transactions as the likes of visa and MasterCard do a day.
It looks like as the year 2016 comes to a close that it has been a major year for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, and it remains to be seen if this trend will continue in 2017, but it is likely that it will.