Easbit develops the most granny proof Bitcoin wallet for Android smartphones

Introduction of ourselves

First of all we are obviously very strong believers and real enthusiasts of the Bitcoin. Due to the global crisis and a decreasing trust in the monetary financial systems we believe that the world is in urge of a new and transparent currency which cannot be interfered and/or be influenced by humans or central banks.

Our team has two Dutch co-founders. Our backgrounds lays in banking, IT and marketing. Because of our backgrounds we became truly passionate about Bitcoins. We have heard from the phenomenon Bitcoin since early 2010. We have seen close by how the financial crises emerged. In the news you still hear on a daily base that CEO’s get well overpaid and banks go bankrupt. That is exactly what we see as very unfair since the normal hard working tax payer has to work around the clock and pay eventually for the caused damage.

We have a clear vision about what we would like to achieve.

Our vision is: Make cryptocurrency accessible and easy for everybody by developing granny proof solutions.

Our mission is: Proof that we are the best not by saying we are the best, but by reaching top 5 for wallet providers in the world. We are ambitious.

Because of our individual skills we are an all-round team which is able to cover the fields from marketing to actual developing. All the required skills are in-house, together with our IT partner in India.

Who are the team members?

Linkedin: Junanto van der Veen: Core Skills: Project management, IT-developing, Networking, Banking and Philosopher

Linkedin: Patrick van Ek: Core Skills: Marketing, SEO, Networking, Designing and Philosopher

What is this about?

We are a startup in software development for cryptocurrency. A granny proof and high level security Bitcoin wallet for Android smartphones is the product. It is an Android application for smartphones which enables users to send and receive secured transactions in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. We always keep in mind that the usability MUST be as easy as using cash. From our perspective this is the only way to get Bitcoin “mainstream”. It is nonsense to say that solely this app would achieve this. But we definitely try to contribute to this process. Summarizing, the usage of cryptocurrency needs to be granny proof and safe in order to go global it is as simple as that!

Why the Easbit App?

Granny proof:

Bitcoin nowadays still has the image of being not user friendly and that usage is only meant for IT people. We want to accomplish to get rid of this image for Bitcoin. Bitcoin is meant for everybody around the globe! One thing which really distinguished ourselves from the competition is that we found a very user friendly way to handle the user unfriendly long Bitcoin addresses. Therefore all that counts for us is developing a wallet which meets 100% the needs for all kind of users. Which means: keep it stupid simple! Our goal is everybody should be able to use our app. And by everybody we mean everybody who uses cash today. Granny proof so to speak.

Android smartphones

We have consciously decided to develop a wallet for Android based smartphones. We did this for a reason.  

First of all according to EMarketer.com a smartphone will become more and more globally an essential part of our daily lives, if it isn’t already. So for Bitcoin it will be extremely important to be easily spendable by a smartphone. Security again plays here also a major role. A penetration of more than 33% of the global population is estimated to have a smartphone by 2017.

On the other hand we have the operating systems (OS). Our aim is that we would like to make our app available for as much people as possible. But we always keep in mind that what we do execute as perfect as possible. We are taking it step by step. So we have chosen to start off with the OS Android. Simply because it has the largest market share, it is most widely used and its open source character. 

Mobile payments

Our choice is also based on the future of mobile payments.

Technology researcher Gartner forecasts that the worldwide mobile payment market will have over 450 million users and a transaction value of more than $721 billion in 2017. This represents compound annual growth rates of 18% and 35% respectively for the period 2012 to 2017.

Non-US based:

Privacy is a big issue. Terms like NSA, spying, malware are common headlines these days. Of course it is not a guarantee, but the majority of the Bitcoin firms are US-based and we are not. Only 10% is European based and 61% US based (source: Coindesk). It brings in some balance.

Security & privacy

We are on top of our game when it comes to security. All critical data such as keys and exchanged data is encrypted. We will provide easy use for (automatic) backup facilities. The safety of your Bitcoins is our highest priority.

Accenture did a study on mobile payments. When it comes to mobile payments there are 3 things which are important:

1. Security

2. Privacy

3. Convenience

(source: Accenture)

We have developed our Android mobile application based on these fundamentals.

Storage

We do not store your Bitcoins (in other words the keys) on a central location. The main principal of Bitcoin is decentralization. This is a matter we do not like to interfere in. So we do not store any Bitcoin related data on our servers. The Bitcoins are stored locally on your own smartphone, just like you carry your own cash in your own wallet. Which means you are ALWAYS really in charge of your Bitcoins. Such thing which happened at Mt Gox is simply not possible, because we do not store your Bitcoins, private keys, public keys, personal information or any kind of crucial data. We only provide secured transactions and we will be hosting user friendly services to make the usage of your wallet as easy and secure as possible.

Backup

Of course we have added reliable and secured backup features. As well as cold storage and easy restoring in case of losing you smartphone.

Developing

We develop our software according level 5 CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) standards. We outsource the actual coding in India. The Indian company is a level 5 organization. Also many other Dutch leading companies are engaged with the same company. The company usually engages with larger companies/customers, but they were also impressed by our ideas for cryptocurrency and found it an interesting topic, that is the reason they have committed themselves to our startup.

Level 5 means: It is a characteristic of processes at this level that the focus is on continually improving process performance through both incremental and innovative technological changes/improvements. (source: Wikipedia)  

Working according the system does not guarantees anything of course. But it says something about the maturity level we develop.

It is also important to know is that we code native. The reason we do this is that people spend more and more time on their smartphones. Daily activities contain surfing the web, downloading apps, playing games and streaming videos. Simply said it is not possible to create the same rich and functional experiences as you would achieve with for e.g. HTML5.

What we need & what you get

We are currently already developing the application, and approaching final stage of development. We have funded the development in the initial phase so far by ourselves. In order to finish the application and fully test it we need an additional $25k.

We truly hope that you will be our supporter and contribute to our project. We genuinely think that we can contribute to the mainstream process of Bitcoin with our application. Of course we do not stop developing after the first release. In case of overfunding we will spend it on additional features. We have lots in mind as additional features!

Project accounting will be shown at our website: http://www.easbit.com/project-development.

The application will be released January.

The Impact

At a current status only 14% (source: Coindesk) of the companies involved in the Bitcoin ecosystem are wallet providers. We think there is still a lot to do to get Bitcoin mainstream. Especially when you think that a wallet is basically an essential need in order to spend your Bitcoins. So it is crucial part of the Bitcoin ecosystem. And especially this part of the ecosystem requires granny proof software.

A lot is said about Bitcoin. But there is one thing the majority agrees on there is a need for a “Killer-App”. We are convinced that our app can contribute to the mainstream process significantly. It is up to the crowd to decide whether it is a killer app or not. A granny proof and safe app is all that counts for us. Bitcoin is also described as money for nerds. Because of its open and transparent character it should be available for everybody with a smartphone. Processing a payment should be easier as swiping your card. That is what we try to accomplish. 

Technology is for everybody. Bitcoin may leapfrog credit cards. Due to lack of credit cards, approximately 65% and 35% (source: Coindesk) of all e-commerce in China and India respectively conducted with cash.

Another important feature of the Bitcoin is relatively cheap remittance transactions.

Remittance: Average global remittance fee of 8.14% per $200 ($16.28)

Bitcoin average transaction fee is $0.004

Remittance vs Bitcoin: Bitcoin is 4,070 times cheaper on a $200 transaction.

(Source: Coindesk)

By using the Easbit app people can send money globally almost instantly against very low fees comparing to traditional ways.

According to Wedbush Securities can (an award-winning research platform) Bitcoin become huge.

What is said about Bitcoin?

Bitcoin has also attracted the attention of some impressive people.

"[Bitcoin] is a techno tour de force." - Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

 “We have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical framework that is free of politics and human error.” - Tyler Winklevoss, Co-creator of Facebook

"Bitcoin may be the TCP/IP of money." - Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail

“ I think the fact that within the bitcoin universe an algorithm replaces the functions of [the government] … is actually pretty cool. I am a big fan of Bitcoin” - Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States

 “I do think Bitcoin is the first [encrypted money] that has the potential to do something like change the world." - Peter Thiel, Co-Founder of Paypal

"Bitcoin is a remarkable cryptographic achievement and the ability to create something that is not duplicable in the digital world has enormous value" - Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

Risk & Challenges

There is no project without risks. And so is ours. But we did our homework. Almost half a year of preparation, maturing our idea, writing a marketing and business plan, preparing the granny proof design, user friendly functionalities went by before we actually started coding. This was an essential part to get the best user experience there possibly is. So we are at least convinced that we did all we could within our powers. It is not only the developing that we focus on. We also have the proper skills when it comes to market the app. This part is at least as important to become successful. An awesome marketing plan is also part of the whole project. If people can’t find you, you can’t expect them to use your app!

A risk for projects in general is budgeting. Due to our preparations we are convinced we have defined our costs cautiously. As we said we are currently already developing and costs are lower than initially expected because of offshoring to India.

Because of the months of preparations we are absolutely sure when we meet our funding needs we can show the world the first release in January.

How to contribute to the Easbit Crowdfunding Campaign?

Step 1: Go to our campaign: http://igg.me/at/easbit or click the launch button in the email.

Step 2: In the upper right corner you will find the text: Select a contribution amount below. You can either choose here to contribute any desired amount or you can select any desired Perk which are shown right below.

Step 3: Click on the button: Contribute.

Step 4: Now you check your contribution. After checking you can click on: Continue to payment.

Step 5: You can choose here to contribute through either with credit card or PayPal.

When selected credit card please click: Submit payment.

When selected PayPal please click: Go to PayPal.

You are done. Again we thank you tremendously for contributing to our campaign! 

Other ways to help

If you are not able to contribute to this project don’t worry! You can still help us.

Please share our project through one of the tools on top of this page.

You can also contribute of course by sending us Bitcoins anonymously: 1GJAsnxTVf7hUs5T18t5DMokSDq9TcfEwL