Just hours after announcing that the Texas-based diversified financial services group USAA has in partnership with Coinbase, launched a pilot that allows a randomly selected, limited group of USAA members to view their bitcoin balance on USAA.com and the USAA mobile app, the Bitcoin wallet and instant exchange company has received an overwhelming number of requests from unselected USAA members. The pilot was initially rolled out to USAA employees in September.
NEWSBTC.com has learned that the program will run for approximately 90-days from 11/2/2015 – 1/29/2016. On being asked about the next step following the Bitcoin pilot, USAA replied,
“Our next steps are dependent upon the results of this pilot.”
How will USAA’s Bitcoin pilot work?
The Bitcoin pilot project will use Coinbase API Coinbase Connect to enable the selected USAA members to link their Coinbase account to USAA and allow them to view their bitcoin balance on USAA.com and on the official mobile app.
In May, the financial services group dedicated to providing insurance, banking, investments, retirement products, and advice to 11.2 million current and former members of the U.S. military, had revealed that they are experimenting with the Bitcoin technology for back-office process optimization.
At that time, Managing Director of Corporate Development at USAA, Alex Marquez had said,
“We have a serious interest in the blockchain and we think the technology would have an impact on the organization. The fact that we have such a large group of people working on this shows how serious we are about the potential of this technology.”
Even though bitcoin has been attracting a lot of mainstream media attention lately, lack of confidence renders most consumers reluctant to use this cryptocurrency. This USAA pilot may help promote and bring bitcoin closer to more people in the U.S.
