Bitwala, the easiest way for international money transfers using blockchain technology, announced today that it has raised €800k in a seed funding round including the largest German VC investment firm High-Tech-Gründerfonds (HTGF) and the leading bitcoin and blockchain investor Digital Currency Group (DCG).Traditional banking is no longer making the cut for global payments.International wire transfer options offered today are slow, expensive and complicated for everyday customers.As a solution, Bitwala offers the fastest option for international money transfers at a fraction of the cost.Blockchain technology-based Bitwala reinvents the conventional banking system, all without the need of having a bank account.Along with the Bitwala Debit Card, the company simplifies and improves how people do financing in their everyday lives.Bitwala users are able to make cash withdrawals at ATMs and payments at any store or website that accepts VISA.Bitwala offers the best bitcoin exchange rates, same-day transfers and with 0.5% the lowest processing fee on the market.

Since 2012, Bitwala’s founding team has been active in the European bitcoin community and are the backers of the first bitcoin startup incubator Bitcoins Berlin.The team bootstrapped and self-funded many internationally successful bitcoin ventures such as All4btc, Gold4btc or E4btc.Bitwala CEO Jörg von Minckwitz said that the funding came in time when the company along with the private and public interest towards bitcoin and blockchain technology is growing rapidly.litecoin hard wareThe investment will be mainly used for developing the Bitwala app and expanding globally.bitcoin is fiat money“My co-founders Jan Goslicki, Benjamin Jones and I are very proud of what we have achieved so far.bitcoin amsterdam 2015With the company still in its early stage, our focus has not been to gain the most capital but more towards building and maintaining strong and lasting partnerships.”, said von Minckwitz.bitcoin wie geld verdienen

High-Tech-Gründerfonds (HTGF) is the lead investor in this seed funding round.HTGF has invested in over 400 startups across the country with Bitwala being the latest addition to its portfolio.“Bitwala will be the first truly international bank account which allows people from all over the world to send and receive money in various currencies at marginal fees and in real-time.armory bitcoin for androidUsing the blockchain as infrastructure to transact local currency provides an easy, secure and cost-efficient technology for underserved customers that have a real pain point.”, says Chiara Sommer, Investment Manager at HTGF.bitcoin beritaDigital Currency Group (DCG) is managed by Barry Silbert and has been the most active investor in bitcoin and blockchain tech companies.bitcoin core private key

The strategic investor actively supports development teams and applications to build new use cases to enable global value transfers over the Internet using Bitcoin and Blockchain technology.For more information on Bitwala and features offered by the company, visit https://bitwa.la.About Bitwala Based in Berlin, Bitwala is the smartest way to send money internationally easily, cheap and fast.bitcoin wallet brasilLaunched in early-2015, the German company has surpassed 2 Million Euros in transaction volume and has collected over 2000 customers across Africa, Asia and Europe.1 bitcoin a day rigBitwala is offering 11 different currencies, a bitcoin debit card and business accounts for users with and without bank accounts Contact: Jörg von Minckwitz, CEO Bitwala GmbH Ohlauer Strasse 43, 10999 Berlin Office: +49 (0) 30 8939 8563 support@bitwa.la About Digital Currency Group Based in New York City, DCG is the most active seed investor in the digital currency industry with more than 70 investments in 20 countries.

Learn more at dcg.co or follow us @DCGCo for the latest News.About High-Tech Gründerfonds High-Tech Gründerfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups.The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch.Typically, High-Tech Gründerfonds invests EUR 600,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing.Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B.Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co.KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss.High-Tech Gründerfonds has about EUR 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).Contact: High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH Chiara Sommer Schlegelstraße 2 53113 Bonn Tel.: +49 228 823001-00 Fax: +49 228 823000-50 info@htgf.de www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

I’ve been interested in bitcoin (BTC) as a concept since its inception.Until recently, however, I considered bitcoin more of a cryptographic experiment than something that could affect my daily life.One of the biggest obstacles for me was practicality.A few years ago, buying bitcoin or selling them in order to get fiat (“real” currency such as American dollars or Euros) wasn’t easy at all.Now, however, bitcoin has become much more common as a currency and the technology required to use it has also become more user friendly.With these improvements in mind, I have decided to try and use bitcoin as my only source of money.I don’t know about you, but honestly I’m sick and tired of the banking system.For one thing, I’m sick of being told to “trust” that my money is safe, even when I have no idea where it is or who is controlling it.With bitcoin, this is never an issue.At the same time, I hate the idea that someone is monitoring how much I can withdraw or deposit at any given time.

It’s my money and I should be able to access it whenever I want, without the interference or input of the government or banking officials.The same goes for mandatory waiting times on wire transfers—this isn’t a technical issue, banks are free to continue speculating on my money even when I am not able to access it.And, obviously, banking fees are a huge scam.They are simply way too high for the quality of service provided.Please be aware that what follows is still a work in progress.I’m learning and experimenting as I go along.If you want to follow a similar path, make sure you know what you’re doing first—don’t just take my word for it.Like any other big life change, there are a few logistical issues we need to solve upfront.The first and most important one is safety.There are plenty of services that will allow you to create your own bitcoin wallet, but wallets stored on the web are as secure as the web infrastructure they rely upon.Remember, no matter how safe they claim to be, web services can be hacked (or simply go bankrupt).

When this happens, you could lose all your money.Bitcoin has no central entity, meaning there’s no financial guarantee that you will get your bitcoin back if they somehow disappear.Obviously, there is no way to perfectly protect your money, but buying a hardware wallet is a good place to start.Personally I’ve bought a Trezor, but there are plenty of other options available out there.A hardware wallet like the Trezor stores your cryptographic keys (the sequences you use to send or receive bitcoin).Bitcoin has no central entity, meaning there’s no financial guarantee that you will get your bitcoin back.Your computer sends each transaction to the device, and the device makes the transaction.There is no flow of information from the wallet to your computer, which makes it much harder for a malicious third party to compromise your bitcoin by hacking into your computer.Moreover, if you lose your device or break it, you can recover your bitcoin from the “initialization seed” given to you when you initialize the device for the first time.

As a general rule, you should only move the minimum amount of bitcoin you require out of your hardware wallet, and always remember to enable two-factor authentication.Having a very strong and unique password for every different web service is also good practice.You can use software such as KeepPass, 1Password or SafeInCloud in order to generate and store your passwords safely.After getting the security question settled, there’s the issue of practicality.Bitcoin is great in theory, but can you pay for your groceries with it?Or your rent, for that matter, or your restaurant bill?Bitcoin is only as reliable as the means with it can be converted to US dollars or euros or whatever currency you need—anytime, anywhere.The most obvious option is via debit cards.There are a few online services that allow you to open a bitcoin wallet (remember, do not deposit all of your bitcoin on these wallets) and receive a real debit card connected to it.This will allow you to access the funds in your wallet.

The service I’m using right now is called CryptoPay, which I like the best so far.CryptoPay connects my Trezor hardware wallet with a physical debit card.Once you’ve verified your identity, the service places no limits on your activity, meaning you can charge the card as many times as you want with as much money as you need.But how do you put money in your wallet in the first place?I work for a US company, and every month I receive my paycheck in USD (which eventually are converted to EUR from my bank).I needed a way to receive my money directly as bitcoin, preferably without asking my employer to switch to bitcoin payments.Ideally, I would just give him a new International Bank Account Number (IBAN), which would “map” to my bitcoin wallet.There are two main services that allow you to do this, and I’m currently testing both.(I also asked for some users feedbacks on Reddit.)My employer and I are keeping a close eye on bank transactions just to be sure payments go through smoothly.

Similar in usability, they basically generate a unique set of bank coordinates along with a unique reference ID.You can then ask your employer to send your next paycheck to those coordinates—they will be automatically sent through the blockchain to your bitcoin wallet.Cashila also allows you to make wire transfers, so if you want to pay your bills with a more traditional transfer, you can easily use your Cashila account.(Note: BitWage still does not offer this feature.)While some employers may not be initially familiar with this type of payment system, I have personally found that explaining the procedure (and why I’m doing it) can be quite persuasive.My employer and I are keeping a close eye on bank transactions going through the BitWage service just to be sure all payments go through smoothly.I think as more and more people are educated about the ways banks control our world, these types of work-around requests are going to become more and more common.Using the aforementioned services and tools, I believe it is possible to live using bitcoin as your main form of currency.