Halsey Minor, founder of CNET website and an early backer of Salesforce.com, is launching bitcoin platform Bitreserve.org.
Halsey Minor, CNET founder, introduced his new bitcoin venture Bitserve.org – a low-cost service for bitcoin and fiat currency transactions.
In addition to transactions between merchants and customers, the system allows its members to make direct transfers of fiat balances at zero cost. This means the customers doesn’t have to pay transaction costs.
Bitreserve aims at providing transaction traceability and proof of solvency. “Bitcoin is a remarkable innovation, created and supported by lots of very smart people,” Minor said. “Bitreserve is built on top of the bitcoin network, allowing members to convert bitcoin into money they know, trust and understand.”
Halsey Minor noted that the main problem for bitcoin is the issue of price differences that occur during transactions. He added: “If you want to create something that is perceived as money, it’s going to have to represent the same value that people are using already.”
Minor will be the firm’s executive chairman, while Tim Parsa will become the start-up’s chief executive officer.
Parsa said: “We offer our members all the advantages of bitcoin – fast, low-cost, peer-to-peer payments – but without bitcoin’s value-destroying volatility.”
Besides bitcoin wallet, the system members can use USD, CNY, GBP, EUR and JPY versions. The time of payment processing is reduced. Thus, the average transaction takes about 10 seconds. According to the company, personal information of Bitreserve users is kept private.
The reason for the low-cost bitcoin transactions and free fiat currency payments is the cloud-based infrastructure of the system. Minor said:
“Because we built a cloud-based service thats debiting and crediting money, instead having a bunch of banks and processing companies in the middle, we can do this very quickly between accounts.”
Bitserve can also be used as a payment platform for merchants.
“Merchants who are now accepting Bitreserve either directly or as part of another payments system, their costs would be zero,” Minor commented.
The service users can make transaction with Amazon as the site has its own account and accepts payments from buyers.
Halsey Minor established CNET in 1995 but in 2008 sold it to CBS Corporation for $1.8 billion. He is also a founder of Saleforce.com and the capital company Minor Ventures.
In 2013, Minor filed for bankruptcy after a number of bad investments. He claimed to be about $100 million in debt. Minor said that his problems during the financial crisis partly inspired him to create the new bitcoin system.
Headquartered in Charleston, the company also operates its offices in San Francisco, Shanghai and Braga, Portugal.
Bitreserve is now in invitation-only private beta version. Invitations can be requested online.
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