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 three Asian countries. While Hong Kong is the first Asian country to connect with Cointext in an official capacity, crypto users in Israel and the Palestinian territories (Palestine) will also be able to access the service.
With the help of Cointext, anyone can send money to mobile phone numbers or Bitcoin Cash addresses even when there is no Internet, apps, or accounts. Apart from the residents of the Chinese autonomous territory, Israelis and Palestinians can also access the service.
“These are important regions for us to connect because they’re financial centres,” Bitcoin.com quoted the founder and lead developer Vin Armani. “And Cointext gives them a simple alternative to physical cash.”
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Users of Cointext are able to access their wallets when they send SMS commands such as BALANCE, RECEIVE, and SEND to a local access number. As soon as the recipient receives a message via the service, a new wallet is immediately set up. Now the residents of Hong Kong, Israel, and Palestine get access to a Cointext wallet by sending a text message containing the word START to their respective numbers (Hong Kong: 85257456744; Israel: 972526230418). If the money is sent to a person who does not have an account, the money will be conveniently stored until the person opens an account.
Cointext was launched this March in the US, Canada, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, and the UK. The service comprises of a full-featured wallet that does not need an app, an account, a password, or even access to the Internet. Another feature the service provides is an on-ramp to the cryptocurrency ecosystem for anybody who has an SMS-enabled phone.
Cointext claims that at the time that their service was launched in March 2018, about 2,000 people were in line to sign up. Initial users each also received a starting gift worth 50 cents of Bitcoin Cash, which was paid for by donations made from the Bitcoin Cash community. By July, the company had raised funding to the tune of USD 600,000, most of which came from Yeoman’s Capital, a venture capital company that is based out of Texas.
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In the beginning of this month, it was reported that Cointext has chosen to extend its services to six more countries in Europe. On the 1st of October, the company made an announcement that people in Germany, France, Austria, Portugal, Estonia and Czech Republic can now utilise the app to send BCH over SMS.
While the Hong Kong and Israel releases of Cointext service sport the default messaging in English, Hebrew and Chinese languages are soon to be expected, the company has said. Counting this most recent expansion in East Asia as well as the Middle East, Cointext services are now available in a total of twenty-five countries, while they support a total of fifteen languages.
