Serial entrepreneur Steve Kirsch’s latest venture, Cointrust, is creating technology he says can turn Bitcoin into a mass-market currency.
“We show how Bitcoin can be turned into something that is user-friendly and regulator-friendly,” Kirsch told IDG News Service in a recent interview. “Everybody I’ve talked to, every bank that I’ve explained what we are doing to, loves the idea.”
Kirsch wouldn’t reveal the precise technical details of Cointrust’s technology, as it remains in stealth mode before a launch later this year. But the company’s general goals are laid out in some detail on its website.
He particularly wants to woo the financial sector. “Getting involved in Bitcoin today, either directly or by providing banking services to Bitcoin startup companies, is a challenge because of the compliance and regulatory risks,” states a page on the Cointrust site aimed at banking customers. “We’ll show you how we make these transactions as safe and compliant as traditional fiat currency transactions.”
Cointrust’s technology won’t require any changes to banks’ existing software infrastructure, the page adds.
Bitcoin developers are another audience Cointrust wants to court, with APIs (application programming interfaces) for managing financial transactions. The APIs will be “irresistible” to developers because they’ll make their lives so much easier, Kirsch said.
Finally, Cointrust intends to calm the nerves of regulators regarding the virtual currency.
Its technology will make sure problems that have befallen exchanges such as Mt. Gox, which filed for bankruptcy protection, “cannot happen ever again,” the website states. “
Regulators we’ve briefed love our innovative approach to solving the compliance problem because we give them control over every Bitcoin transaction.”
Does that say regulators will have control over every Bitcoin transaction?
Maybe
This IS why bitcoins are dirt cheap right now?