Thanks to Bitcoin startup CoinJar’s Hedged Accounts, digital currency users won’t have to worry about the unstable Bitcoin price.
From late Tuesday, Coinjar joins a number of other bitcoin exchanges in offering “hedging accounts” that permit customers to peg (or ‘hedge’) the price of Bitcoin against the fiat currency. At the Finovate Europe conference, Coinjar is also announcing conversion to euros, British pounds and US dollars in addition to Australian dollars.
In December, Australian bitcoin startup CoinJar relocated its headquarters to London’s Docklands region entering the next stage of its growth strategy by integrating as a UK company. At the time, Mr Tan, CoinJar chief executive, commented on the company’s relocation:
“We spent some time in California, in the Silicon Valley tech scene. While it is still the Mecca for startups and tech, in terms of financial technology, the UK is on a par. And at the same time, the UK has been more open to investigating these new technologies.”
“We’re excited to launch Hedged Accounts at Finovate, and look forward to making the rest of our solutions available to local UK users in the near future,” says Mr Tan at the conference.
According to CoinJar, Hedged Accounts would be suitable for people who want to use Bitcoin for practical purposes, but don’t want to manage it actively or be concerned about swinging prices:
“While some users enjoy the speculative aspects of Bitcoin, there are others who would like to hold Bitcoin without worrying too much about the volatility. Hedged Accounts makes Bitcoin a more stable currency, and more useful to more people.”
For instance, if a customer has $200 worth of Bitcoins today, he or she will be able to access $200 worth of Bitcoins in the future transferring them to Hedged Accounts.
CoinJar states that there is no additional charge and no time limit on its hedged accounts. Customers are able to unhedge their money at any time. In a nutshell, CoinJar’s new account option lets the value of users’ bitcoin wallets stay permanent.
“Bitcoin inherently fosters innovation because of its underlying technology, the Blockchain, but to be relevant and usable it also needs to integrate with existing financial infrastructure and to connect new and existing technology.”
CoinJar is one of just a handful of international companies actively addressing Bitcoin price volatility to foster mainstream use and adoption of digital currencies.
The company plans to roll out a full product suite later this year for UK users, which will include its iOS app, CoinJar Touch, an Android app, and a bitcoin EFTPOS card, CoinJar Swipe, which allows CoinJar users to spend their Bitcoin on anything from coffee to taking a taxi. These products are already available to Australian users.
Hedged Accounts are available for CoinJar users globally; new customers can sign up for a standard CoinJar account and then add a Hedged Account at CoinJar‘s website.
Eugenia graduated from Minsk State Linguistic University with a degree in Intercultural Communication, Translation/Interpretation (Italian, English). Currently she works as a business analyst, freelance interpreter and tutor. She’s fond of numismatics, photos, good books and sports, adores travelling and cooking.
