Welcome to the latest edition of the NewsBTC Weekly Bitcoin Recap, where we highlight our top bitcoin news stories of the week. Let’s take a look at the biggest headlines for the week of February 1 – 7, 2015.
1. Bitcoin Startup Bonafide.io Raises $850,000 to Further Secure Bitcoin’s Reputation – as reported on February 2nd.
Recently, the startup known as Bonafide managed to raise almost $1,000,000 ($850,000 to be exact) through a special funding round. The money is slated to be used to build a reputation system for the bitcoin industry.
Investments came from a number of prestigious companies such as Quest Venture Partners, Crypto Currency Partners and the AngelList Bitcoin Syndicate.
2. Rebit Allows Overseas Filipinos to Pay Family’s Bills through Bitcoin – as reported on February 3rd.
Targeted remittance company Rebit recently announced a new service that will enable immigrant Filipinos abroad to pay their family’s bills and load phones back home through Bitcoin.
According to their press release, the Philippines-based company is offering over 91 bills payment options and 5 e-load providers (Red Mobile, Smart, Sun, Globe, and Talk n’ Text). Using these services enables non resident Filipinos to pay for their family’s utility, cable and telephone bills directly through Bitcoin.
3. CoinJar Announces New iOS App Release! – as reported on February 5th.
CoinJar has announced the release of a new mobile app for iOS. The company, reportedly the largest 
bitcoin company in Australia to date, has named the app the CoinJar touch, and suggests that its user-friendly interface should both increase speed and ease of use for bitcoin transactions.
Head of marketing Samuel Tate Goudie had the following to say about the new app, stating,
We’re trying to get as many people as possible using bitcoin through CoinJar, not just getting existing bitcoin users, so we needed to humanize payments for all the consumers who don’t have a clue what bitcoin is.
4. ChainPay Aims to Serve as Europe’s Coinbase – as reported on February 6th.
The bitcoin conglomerates Coinbase and BitPay are about to have some major competition from ChainPay.
ChainPay is aiming to introduce smaller fees and easier payment methods in an attempt to compete in the big leagues and tackle more customers in Europe.
According to co-founder James Carter,
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.
ChainPay currently only takes 1 percent from each transaction. It also offers exchange rates from both Kraken and Bitstamp, depending on which rate is better at the time.
That does it for this week’s NewsBTC Weekly Bitcoin Recap. Be sure to signup for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for all the latest Bitcoin news. To the moon!
Image from Flickr.
