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The bitcoin conglomerates Coinbase and BitPay are about to have some major competition from ChainPay, a new payment processor headquartered in the Isle of Man.
ChainPay is being launched by startup firm AltXE, which according to co-founder James Carter, is aiming to introduce smaller fees and easier payment methods in an attempt to compete with the big leagues and tackle more customers in Europe:
“If you sign up with Coinbase you might be just another merchant in their box. If you sign up with us, we’ll be engaged with the merchant, making sure that everything is functioning well.”
The firm entails small transaction fees and only takes 1 percent from each transaction. It also offers exchange rates from both Kraken and Bitstamp, depending on which rates are better at the time.
ChainPay has gotten off to a rocky start, due to the Isle of Man’s fluctuating relationship with bitcoin and surrounding financial institutions. A huge blow was delivered to the island’s bitcoin industry back in September of last year, when CTS (Capital Treasury Services), the company that links bitcoin businesses with banks, decided to cut ties with digital currency. ChainPay was originally set to have an earlier launch, but the broken relationship hurt its original plans.
Carter mentioned at the time:
“The plan was to tell everybody… We were going to come here and tell everyone we were ready to go. But CTS has pulled out and it has been really disappointing.”
But now the operation is up and about, and Carter has big plans in store for his new payments company:
“I’m funding ChainPay myself, so we’ve got a reasonable amount of runway. We can do the next 12 months.”
Images from ChainPay and Creative Commons
