NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

From central bankers and academics to speculators, everyone is getting over-excited about Bitcoin. Everyone that is apart from consumers, very few of whom have first-hand experience of buying actual goods with the virtual currency.

The currency can only be traded online via specialist exchanges and has no central authority in charge of supply, all of which makes bankers uneasy, but it is intriguing some in the mobile industry who think the virtual currency might have a role for mobile money.

A number of firms are eyeing Bitcoin as an alternative to the traditional financial system for transferring international remittances or moving cash between mobile money services, an area where interoperability is often absent.