Lorien Gamaroff on radicalizing Bitcoin by becoming traditional

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With Bitcoin changing the financial world, many companies in the digital currency industry have operated under the impression that the regular policies don’t apply to them. This has led to many of them ending up on the wrong side of the law. Bitcoin has to grow up, however, if it is to become the future of finance. Centbee has been doing this and as the CEO Lorien Gamaroff shared with CoinGeek, the company has found great success.

“We don’t think of ourselves as this tech startup creating cool products. We think of ourselves as a financial services business,” he told CoinGeek’s Hanna Jackson on the sidelines of the CoinGeek London Conference. As a financial services firm, Centbee understands that it has certain obligations to its customers as well as the regulators.

Centbee intends on incorporating all the best practices of the financial services world, including sustaining a business and providing the best value for its customers. Gamaroff, who is also the co-founder of the South African Bitcoin wallet, stated, “So, that’s why we think we are radicalizing Bitcoin by becoming traditional.”

Centbee has recognized international remittances as one of the prime areas of growth. Africans are aggressive in their search for opportunities which leads them to move to other countries, in the region and beyond. However, they end up paying exorbitant fees when they send money back home to their families. Centbee is capitalizing on the power of Bitcoin to offer a better solution, one with lower fees and which is way faster.

This is not all, he revealed. “We have a whole focus on merchants. We like the idea of Bitcoin as cash.” Centbee has already solved the onboarding challenge through its in-store Bitcoin purchasing service. Users can “buy their groceries and Bitcoin at the same time in every major supermarket in South Africa.” The company is now working on onboarding more merchants.

Gamaroff revealed during the CoinGeek London Conference that Centbee now allowed its users to use their personal emails for Bitcoin payments. He further explained, “Centbee now allows you to add your own personal email into the wallet and that can become your Paymail and you can receive money. You don’t need to try and snatch up a handle, which has been typical up to now.”