Italian Bank offers Bitcoin Wallet Integration in their Online Platform.

[fillippone]

Breaking NEWS.

Hype.it, a digital only subsidiary bank on the Italian Banca Sella, started activating bitcoin wallet integration on their online platform, enabling more and more clients to bitcoin trading.

Hype is the fifth challenger Bank  in Europe, something like a bank-startup, directly challenging bigger banks, inside the banking system context. Another example of this kind of actors is N26. Hype is part of Banca Sella group and already has 1,200,000 clients in Italy.
Services are at the moment allowed only for Italian residents only.

First important news: these are real bitcoins, not CFD contracts like the one you can find in Revolut.
You can buy transfer and sell your bitcoins without limitations.

Some links below (Google translation of their website included)


Come creare il tuo portafoglio Bitcoin

Creating your Bitcoin wallet is totally free and you only need 4 taps to do it. The first to enter the app Menu, the second to enter the Bitcoin functionality, the third and fourth to accept terms and conditions of use of the new service. Done, wallet created!

Terms and conditions refer respectively to the contract and to the privacy policy that you sign with Conio S.r.l., the company with which we have collaborated for the creation of the functionality.

The wallet will be linked to your HYPE account. This means that to buy Bitcoin you will not have to worry about top up another wallet or the account of another platform, but you will be able to use the balance on HYPE directly.

Come comprare e vendere Bitcoin

If you have created your wallet, you can now buy, sell and trade Bitcoins. Let's see in this case how the buying and selling operations work. We remind you that the wallet is linked to your HYPE account. This means that to buy the cryptocurrency you will not have to worry about reloading it, but you will be able to use the balance on HYPE directly.

Come scambiare Bitcoin

In addition to the buying and selling operations, with HYPE you can also send * Bitcoin to the contacts in your address book, or use the function to pay for your purchases in all cases where payment by cryptocurrency is expected.

The * part refers to the fact that at the moment you can only SEND bitcoin you bought on Hype to a BTC address.
For the moment the opposite operation is not yet available.
Basically you cannot send your BTC to Hype and sell them, you can only sell BTC you previously bouth via HYPE and never left your account in the bank.

This functionality is currently being beta-tested and it is going to be implemented in the coming months.


Further informations:

Banca Sella: 1.2 million Italians discover Bitcoin thanks to Hype

Banca Sella is not fearful of bitcoin and offers its customers a trading and exchange service directly from their online account thanks to Hype.

Hype is a project born in Sellalab, Sella Group’s innovation platform. Digital transformation and open innovation processes are the focus of this business unit supported by the Holding of Banca Sella.

An open path towards cryptocurrencies couldn’t be excluded, thus the famous Hype project, through its online application and account, transforms also into a bitcoin wallet.

The development of this app features the purchase and sale of bitcoin directly from the application.

The bank becomes an intermediary for buying and selling and, by charging a fee, allows users to avoid buying directly on exchanges or other bridging tools, making life easier for small consumers.

The deposit on the Bitcoin addresses, of which the users are in full control, occurs consistently using the blockchain, which is why variable transaction costs are also applied, depending on the standards imposed by the Bitcoin code.

Technically, all this has been made possible by the integration of Coinio SDK inside the Hype Ecosystem.

Vincenzo di Nicola, Conio co-founder and co-CEO, is an user of this forum and described the custody schemes currently utilised by Hype in this serie of Medium articles:

Custody at Conio — part 1
Custody at Conio — part 2

In addition he detailed an evolution to further enhance the multisig approach on this thread.

Multi-signature virtualization (Bitcoin and all ECDSA/EdDSA cryptocurrencies)

These latest enhancements are currently being tested, and are going to be implemented in production at Conio.

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[vincenzo]

I believe this is the very first time that a bank (especially a retail one) offers such a service to their customers.
Unfortunately it's only in Italy for now, but it paves the road for integration of crypto services in other banks worldwide.

[Leonardo7]

This is massive, this will make it easier for less experienced people to be able to buy bitcoin without falling victim to phishing sites and online bad actors. This will no doubt drive their revenue and profit. A good step to adoption.

[CaVO32]

I believe this is the very first time that a bank (especially a retail one) offers such a service to their customers.
Unfortunately it's only in Italy for now, but it paves the road for integration of crypto services in other banks worldwide.

But the good thing that will come out of this is that if this bank will successfully served the Italians and will have a positive feedback from its users, other banks will follow. Not only in Italy or neighbouring countries but across the globe. it will be a good example if everything goes right here. I hope they really do attain what they are aiming here. it will also be very good to bitcoin adoption. This will contribute in the increase of btc demand.

[malevolent]

It will be interesting to see if they start feeling any pressure from other banks due to FATF travel rule which is supposed to apply to cryptocurrency transactions too, that would spell the end transferring bitcoins without limitations through banks like these.

[fillippone]

It will be interesting to see if they start feeling any pressure from other banks due to FATF travel rule which is supposed to apply to cryptocurrency transactions too, that would spell the end transferring bitcoins without limitations through banks like these.

But the good thing that will come out of this is that if this bank will successfully served the Italians and will have a positive feedback from its users, other banks will follow. Not only in Italy or neighbouring countries but across the globe. it will be a good example if everything goes right here. I hope they really do attain what they are aiming here. it will also be very good to bitcoin adoption. This will contribute in the increase of btc demand.

These are good points.
If this experiment will be successful i think it will snowball across other institutions in Europe.

It's not a mystery German banks were already beginning to look into this direction:

From 2020, the sale and custody of Bitcoin will be allowed to all German banks

[Chrystora123]

Country List: Regulation of Cryptocurrency Around the World

when many countries are trying to innovate with cryptocurrencies (like Italy above), Russia instead has a negative policy towards Bitcoin and other crypto assets..

[stompix]

Finally something other than coronavirus, safe heaven, crash doom...

Now, it might sound weird, but where is the catch?
I know it has been a week with only bad news and even without it, I wouldn't have believed it that suddenly you can buy directly from your banking app some bitcoins (real bitcoins, as you mentioned not revolut CFD) and you can store them on your own wallet afterward.

So, as this is just too good to be true, where is the catch? 
And why aren't more people interested in this, I mean, if it's what I believe it is, it's the biggest piece of good news in ages!
Forget ETF or regulations, this is what we've always asked for, direct purchase and bitcoins that your own!

[fillippone]

So, as this is just too good to be true, where is the catch? 
And why aren't more people interested in this, I mean, if it's what I believe it is, it's the biggest piece of good news in ages!
Forget ETF or regulations, this is what we've always asked for, direct purchase and bitcoins that your own!

Totally agree.
This is indeed a very BIG news.

But I reckon that attention span is short lately.

Apparently no one is looking at this, but it is a very important step. Not only from the technologial side of it (it is like cash app, but better) but it is a ture milestone on the European Banking regulatory framework where no one has done this yet.

I didn't expect this from an italian bank, albeit one of the most "digital friendly ones".

Also, the fact only Italian customers are allowed into this, doesn't helo spreading attention to the international audience.

[stompix]

Also, the fact only Italian customers are allowed into this, doesn't helo spreading attention to the international audience.

Well, this is one of the things that pisses me off every damn time.
As a fellow European, I'm amazed at how people tend to ignore things that happen in largest economic zone or in the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th country by GDP but they are screaming like madmen when some forgotten country in Africa or another 3rd world country finally has an ATM installed or taxi drivers accepting bitcoins.

You can't expect the price to grow without the people who have the money buying the coin and adoption won't come without people who have money to spend on purchases. And no matter how much some dislike this, the money are in US and EU, not in Venezuela, not in Iran not in Zimbabwe.

Back to this, I'm guessing I found a small catch but there are two paragraphs involved and it's a bit contradicting:

In addition to the buying and selling operations, with HYPE you can also send * Bitcoin to the contacts in your address book,

that would lead me to believe that you can only send bitcoins to another customer of the same bank but..

The deposit on the Bitcoin addresses, of which the users are in full control, occurs consistently using the blockchain,

this leads me to believe you're not restricted to that.

Anyhow, this is one f* great step for BTC

[fillippone]

Back to this, I'm guessing I found a small catch but there are two paragraphs involved and it's a bit contradicting:

In addition to the buying and selling operations, with HYPE you can also send * Bitcoin to the contacts in your address book,

that would lead me to believe that you can only send bitcoins to another customer of the same bank but..

The deposit on the Bitcoin addresses, of which the users are in full control, occurs consistently using the blockchain,

this leads me to believe you're not restricted to that.

Anyhow, this is one f* great step for BTC

As far as I know, the bitcoins are not restricted to specific addresses, Probably they wanted to stress out sending bitcoin is "easy".

Maybe @vincenzo can shed some light on this aspect.

[Lucius]

Really good news for those who want to buy BTC in a very simple way without having to have any technical knowledge, because I assume the whole technical matter/security of the wallet is the responsibility of the bank. Does this mean that the user does not really have any control over his private keys, nor can he make a personal backup? As I said, the idea is not bad at all, on the contrary, but some do not look favorably on such a combination of banks and crypto, if we take into account our famous saying "not your private keys, not your coins".

What interests me is whether it is possible to send BTC from the app to another wallet, or all operations are limited only to app?

[sheenshane]

IMO, I'm afraid the Italian Government would notice this disruption. Unless the founders behind the start-up bank are powerful enough to control the government. Doing these kinds of moves are scary for traditional banks. Their businesses are being disrupted big time by cryptocurrency.

Corporate Banks are the ones who produce the majority of finance. If their business is gone, economic problems may persist, I guess.

[fiulpro]

I believe this is the very first time that a bank (especially a retail one) offers such a service to their customers.
Unfortunately it's only in Italy for now, but it paves the road for integration of crypto services in other banks worldwide.

The Italy is suffering and people above 80 are left to die , the world is getting worse because many countries are hiding the cases with Corona Virus because they don't want the people to panic and the other countries make fun of them .
So Italy needs all the help they can get . Bitcoins are doing what they can for the people and banks have come to realize this . I think all countries should do that one way or the other so that they will be able to give people more power and they don't have to rush to the banks anymore.

[vincenzo]

We made the official announcement yesterday.

Here's an article by Decrypt: https://decrypt.co/23034/italian-bank-releases-bitcoin-wallet-despite-coronavirus

Well, this is one of the things that pisses me off every damn time.
As a fellow European, I'm amazed at how people tend to ignore things that happen in largest economic zone or in the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th country by GDP

Unfortunately I have to agree with you on this.
We just gave seamless and true access to Bitcoin to over 1 Million people in Italy, and I believe we just wrote a piece of crypto History. Still, the news went almost unnoticed.

Well, who cares. I'm ecstatic that we're moving forward in the right direction, and helping to spread mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

[vincenzo]

Really good news for those who want to buy BTC in a very simple way without having to have any technical knowledge, because I assume the whole technical matter/security of the wallet is the responsibility of the bank. Does this mean that the user does not really have any control over his private keys, nor can he make a personal backup? As I said, the idea is not bad at all, on the contrary, but some do not look favorably on such a combination of banks and crypto, if we take into account our famous saying "not your private keys, not your coins".

I understand what you say. As @fillippone mentioned, I invite you to read the 3-series posts of the Conio custody solution, which where I extensively speak about our architecture and the reasons behind it:

Custody at Conio — part 1: https://medium.com/conio/custody-at-conio-part-1-ddbe81a106ce
Custody at Conio — part 2: https://medium.com/conio/custody-at-conio-part-2-21e976f86384
Custody at Conio — part 3: https://medium.com/conio/custody-at-conio-part-3-623292bc9222

Part 1 addresses our multi-signature approach, which has now also in the integration with Hype.

[dothebeats]

There goes my question on how would it be possible for the the technically-challenged people to utilize bitcoin in times of need in Italy. Though it may have sprouted on the toughest of times, it still is a great help and a move towards the right direction which is a way most traditional banks are scared to take. I just hope that the Italian government would not take this as a challenge against the traditional banking industry but rather see it as a different avenue and a novel approach in banking and finance.

With regards to the security, I'm sure this is well thought out, and that the wallet provider will be held liable should hacks arise and target the wallets. If that's the case, it should eliminate a layer of doubt about the saying 'not your keys, not your coin' which is still relevant to remembwr these days.

[carter34]

Corporate Banks are the ones who produce the majority of finance. If their business is gone, economic problems may persist, I guess.

Corporate banks are those called commercial banks. These banks are those really assigned to assist the people interns of servicing and loans. They are between the government and the people. Over the world therefore, the government do support them to be alive because of their role and so, the Italian government won't allow them to be isolated from their role whether in fiat or digital business.

[stompix]

~

Unfortunately I have to agree with you on this.
We just gave seamless and true access to Bitcoin to over 1 Million people in Italy, and I believe we just wrote a piece of crypto History. Still, the news went almost unnoticed.
Well, who cares. I'm ecstatic that we're moving forward in the right direction, and helping to spread mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Yeah, after all, who cares!!!!
I'm well passed the stage where I think the hype is good for anything else than a small bump in price.
We've always needed serious stuff, not vapourware stuff that won't materialize, not promises that bitcoin will do that and that and save humankind or anything else.

What we need is not thousands of tweets but real-world usage, easy ways to buy stuff with BTC, easy ways to buy BTC to send and store, real growth based on usage and accessibility. Without this, we won't be living long on empty promises and hype.

Anyhow, congratulations on achieving this, I hope the rest of the EU block follows!!!

[fillippone]

We've always needed serious stuff, not vapourware stuff that won't materialize, not promises that bitcoin will do that and that and save humankind or anything else.
[...]

What we need is [...] easy ways to buy stuff with BTC, easy ways to buy BTC to send and store,
[...]

Anyhow, congratulations on achieving this, I hope the rest of the EU block follows!!!

I dare to say that THIS is exactly what I think as an easy way to buy and use your coins.
What is better than a complete integration of Bitcoin in your mobile banking app?