37coins, the bitcoin wallet service provider has decided to shut down all its operations as it has failed to gain traction in the market place.The company was established in the year 2013 and provided a SMS based bitcoin wallet service for the people who they condescendingly refer to as the “unbanked” and “unteched” in “developing economies without Internet access.”On 2013, the company positioned itself as a new and safe way to transfer funds without any unnecessary complications.The 37coins system was operated at the user end through a series of inputted commands. For example, by texting ‘Bal’ on mobile phone to the gateway number, a user can check their balance while ‘Addr’ requests their bitcoin wallet address and so on.
According to the new blog post that was posted in their website, it stated, “We received attention and gained traction for two reasons: First bitcoin advocates desire a way to easily send bitcoins to new users.Secondly, 37coins and bitcoin has the potential to bring financial products to the 2.5 billion adults that are unbanked. With both of these goals we were proud to have a positive social impact on the world.The decision to cease operations and to shut down our service was difficult.
Despite the best of intentions, we were unable to deliver a quality product that showed product- market fit.We also found that SMS delivery between different carriers in countries outside the USA is unreliable. Lastly, our initial objective was not possible to achieve with the amount of capital raised.”This closure also marks the end of a process that saw the company take part in Plug and Play’s bitcoin startup group.The company has plans to make money as ‘white label’ solutions for the regional operators by offering the use of SMS- based wallet system in return for a cut of transactions or exchange fees from the operators end.It was an enticing alternative to large wallet sites such as Blockchain.
info and LocalBitCoins.com.The post further stated, “It has been a privilege getting to know all the bitcoin supporters around the world and to work together toward a fair and balanced financial system. Thank you for being such passionate supporters.
”The company suggested their current users to take advantage of the other companies that has started since they began such as BitGive, Coins.ph and ChangeTip. 37coins mentioned that funds will be safe and will keep them at SMS Wallet until 31st of December, 2015.
