Circle’s Bitcoin Services Now Available In Spain & Ireland

[Posternut]

Bitcoin company Circle Financial recently announced it’s expanding into Spain and Ireland. The firm is also focused on pricing aimed at “consumer value exchange” with a vast array of currencies.

"Our product launches in Spain and Ireland take another step toward realizing our vision of instant, global, free and fun consumer payments. As an EU-licensed E-Money Issuer, Circle is committed to serving all of the 500M+ European consumers in the EU/EEA, and we will be adding more countries over the next several weeks and months." said Circle's Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire.

https://news.bitcoin.com/circle-bitcoin-services-spain-ireland/

[Milkduds]

Interesting choices for Countries to extend the services to,Spain has a rocky economy and Ireland seems to be going through another who am I stage where they debate joining together and leaving the U.K! Little worrying at how fast they seem to be spreading,nowing that they like to have customers go through some extra hoops in identification.

[bitbunnny]

It's good to see that services are spreading through the Europe. I saw the annoucement about further list of countries that will be added and I think eastern european countries could be also good choice. The number of Bitcoin users there is increasing so they could have their interest there for sure.

[Kprawn]

The thing that gets me exited is this ---> " The firm also recently integrated with Apple’s iOS 10 iMessage platform, enabling users to

exchange bitcoin and fiat currencies over SMS. " ...This will help to increase adoption in 3rd world countries where they have to compete with

similar systems like M-Pesa in Africa. We need systems with low bandwidth and resource requirements that would fit these markets.  

[~Bitcoin~]

Bitcoin exchange platforms needs to expand towards african and asian countries also but majority of them are focusing and expanding in european and american countries only. Even developing countries from asia and africa could become good place for bitcoin adoption and i am quite sure many of bitcoin users are also from these countries who are trying to easily buy and sell bitcoin for their local currency. Interest rate as well as opportunity to invest is really limited in developing countries and investing bitcoin and trading it could be really nice breakthrough for them.

[Snorek]

The thing that gets me exited is this ---> " The firm also recently integrated with Apple’s iOS 10 iMessage platform, enabling users to

exchange bitcoin and fiat currencies over SMS. " ...This will help to increase adoption in 3rd world countries where they have to compete with

similar systems like M-Pesa in Africa. We need systems with low bandwidth and resource requirements that would fit these markets.  

I am not familiar with Apple's systems all that much but do you honestly think that poor people in Africa are Apple customers?
Apple devices can't help anyone in poor countres, they are overpriced toys for first world citizens. Plus, from what I experienced SMS services tend to include awfully high fees.

[DimensionZ]

People in Africa don't use smartphones in the first place and I am not sure how they will deal with Bitcoin when there is no reliable Internet there as well. Even if the new service requires less bandwidth I don't think it will be as successful as simple SMS payments between people with no technical know-how of Bitcoin wallets and no advanced phones.

[rozee]

wow thats good news that circle now available for spain and ireland
so far use their service so great and all going fast sent and receive money free
i use it on my android easy to use but not try it yet on iOS version

[iv4n]

Interesting choices for Countries to extend the services to,Spain has a rocky economy and Ireland seems to be going through another who am I stage where they debate joining together and leaving the U.K! Little worrying at how fast they seem to be spreading,nowing that they like to have customers go through some extra hoops in identification.

This kind of companies like when situation is rocky, as strong and stable company with their arrival on the market people will more likely choose them over the others. When situation is stable, people rarely change habits.
I think globalization can be a good thing if its conducted properly, so this kind of services will have more chances to be successful in future. Well I hope this will come one day in my country, I see this as something that can make things easier then they are now.

[European Central Bank]

why do we hear so much less complaining about circle compared to coinbase? is it less users or because they do a smoother job?

this is the easiest and quickest way to get bitcoin for many people. cheaper than localbitcoins and you don't need to verify yourself for small amounts either. good news.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Interesting choices for Countries to extend the services to,Spain has a rocky economy and Ireland seems to be going through another who am I stage where they debate joining together and leaving the U.K! Little worrying at how fast they seem to be spreading,nowing that they like to have customers go through some extra hoops in identification.

It definitely is an interesting choice of countries, and I suspect Circle did their due diligence with respect to the law beforehand, and the decision tree collapsed to those two for now as a result.

I really like Circle and I'm actually happy they're spreading out.  That's how I get most of my bitcoin.

Edit:  ECB, Coinbase canceled my account faster than you or I could blink.  It was a stupid mistake on my part (I accidentally tried to make a $3 buy from a bank account that I had closed but still had on my list).  That was it.  And I think their customer service just tends to be worse than Circle.

[outatime1]

Good news as bitcoin spreads into more countries. I think we will see slow progress in many ways and this is a good example of it.

[shinratensei_]

The thing that gets me exited is this ---> " The firm also recently integrated with Apple’s iOS 10 iMessage platform, enabling users to

exchange bitcoin and fiat currencies over SMS. " ...This will help to increase adoption in 3rd world countries where they have to compete with

similar systems like M-Pesa in Africa. We need systems with low bandwidth and resource requirements that would fit these markets.  

That's also means just enabling for the iOS users, right? totally worth for the iOS users everywhere they can trying for exchanging their bitcoin. but it's just can use by the iOS users and not for the another right?

[Yakamoto]

Interesting choices for Countries to extend the services to,Spain has a rocky economy and Ireland seems to be going through another who am I stage where they debate joining together and leaving the U.K! Little worrying at how fast they seem to be spreading,nowing that they like to have customers go through some extra hoops in identification.

Chaos is an opportunity for business, and chances are there are some Spaniards that will be more than likely inclined to get their money out of the Spanish currency (if that exists, might just be the Euro for all I know) and there are some very basic employment opportunities for some of the youth (and even older folks) within Spain. Could be good for some people to get involved with Circle.

[deadsilent]

Thats a good news. Bitcoin is really going to conquer the world. Since media spread the news about bitcoin, many countries are going to accept this kind of currency. Here in my country, you're free to use it. But soon, gambling into an online casinos are prohibited.

[mangez]

This is great news I am from Spain

[Kakmakr]

People in Africa don't use smartphones in the first place and I am not sure how they will deal with Bitcoin when there is no reliable Internet there as well. Even if the new service requires less bandwidth I don't think it will be as successful as simple SMS payments between people with no technical know-how of Bitcoin wallets and no advanced phones.

That my friend is arrogance and misinformation being spread by the media in first world countries. Did you know this?
M-Pesa (M for mobile, pesa is Swahili for money) is a mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and microfinancing service, launched in 2007 by Vodafone for Safaricom and Vodacom, the largest mobile network operators in Kenya and Tanzania.

This was 2 years before Bitcoin was launched. So they used a digital <currency> albeit through a centralized network on their old outdated phones, long before Bitcoin existed. Bitcoin still needs to adapt for it to be used on cheap phones, showing that these African countries are not that stupid as most of the 1st world countries might think.

I am a global contract worker, and I work in both 1st world and 3rd world countries and I can tell you that the only thing keeping these people from being as successful as 1st world countries are good leadership <politics> and money.