By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 17th, 2018
Developers will now be able to trade digital items for bitcoin through the globe’s first micropayments marketplace.
San Francisco-based cryptocurrency startup, 21 Inc, has launched the micropayments marketplace that will enable buyers and sellers to trade digital goods using micropayments.
As 21 Inc wrote on Medium, the launch of the 21 Micropayments Marketplace is a major step towards promoting the use of virtual currency by developers. “It specifically attacks two known, quantifiable developer pain points: the cost for buyers to sign up and pay for an API, and the cost for sellers to publish and receive payment for a new paid API,” the company stated.
At first, the marketplace will specifically concentrate on trading APIs for developers. The service will be initially available only to users of the 21 Bitcoin Computer, but the startup noted the offering will work on every device in the near future.
First introduced in September 2015, the company’s 21 Bitcoin Computer allows developers to create similar bitcoin-payable apps and sell digital goods and services for cryptocurrency.
The device enables instant bitcoin transactions through the use of two components: 21 mining chip, which allows buying goods for virtual currency, and 21 micropayments server, which lets selling items. Notably, it was built using the funds provided by Cisco, Andreessen Horowitz and Qualcomm.
According to 21Inc, the service will make it easier to sign up for APIs, eliminating the need to provide additional data. Besides, it doesn’t require users to own a bank account.
“With a micropayments marketplace, we can essentially eliminate the fixed cost of sign up for any listed API. Just use your bitcoin wallet to do a one-shot purchase of a listed API, or set up a micropayment channel to do many purchases,” the company wrote.
“You can replace the process of signing up for many APIs and giving out your information and credit card details to each site with a single software install and a local supply of digital currency.”
21 Inc can boast a broad list of investors, such as Khosla Ventures, ZhenFund, Cisco, Thiel Foundation and Yuan Capital. In 2015, the startup secured $121.1 million in multiple fundraising rounds from a range of investors, including RRE Venture and founders from Expedia, PayPal, Dropbox and eBay.
Last month, the company unveiled a free web app designed to help users of digital currency to define the fee necessary to confirm a transaction in a given amount of time. The service shows real-time information about the fees that are being paid on the bitcoin network. In addition, the app shows the expected times for confirmation of transactions.
