Coinffeine, a Spanish bitcoin startup, has officially launched the world’s first decentralized, peer- to- peer bitcoin exchange in over 70 countries among which are SEPA members.
Last year in November, the bitcoin exchange has received an investment of undisclosed size from the Bankinter Innovation Foundation, the venture capital arm of Bankiter, which is one of the largest banks in Spain.Since then, it has been in a ‘technical preview stage.’After two months of the release of the Technical Preview version, where the consumers are being able to experiment with the platform, recently Coinffeine allows the exchange of bitcoins and FIAT money in a peer- to- peer way and in the global market.Last year, Coinffeine demonstrated a trail version of an exchange platform. The trail version has been presented in Madrid.
The peer- to- peer bitcoin exchange platform was also featured in the trail version.In the website of Coinffeine, it is noted, “Coinffeine is completely distributed, just like BitTorrent.The exchange is done peer- to- peer, so there is only a very limited disclosure of information with the person you are doing the exchange, you are always in control of your bitcoins, and your trusted payment processor of choice is in your control of your local currency.Unlike traditional exchanges, you receive your bitcoins directly to your wallet and your local currency directly to your payment processor’s account, so you can start spending them as soon as the exchange is finished.
”The chief executive officer of Coinffeine, Alberto Gomez Toribio explained that by using Coinffeine is as simple as LocalBitcoins, but is also as powerful as using Coinbase or BitStamp.He stated, “We want our customers to be those who simply have a PayPal- like account and want to buy or sell bitcoins in a simple and effective way.”No deposits or withdrawals are made on Coinffeine where on other hand, many of the conventional exchanges function as a third party entrusted with client funds.The transactions are administered by a ‘Micropayment Channel’, which leverages temporary collaterals to force the users to accept the terms of the deal.The funds of the users are not affected to the exchange’s collapse, insolvency or hacking.Gomez Toribio further stated, “Not having to identify users or enforce KYC laws has allowed us to design a much more scalable exchange model.
But what is even more interesting, is the user experience we offer. Coinffeine is like BitTorrent. You just download it, you connect your OKPAY account, or PayPal in the future, and use it.”
