Bitrefill is a crypto-only company that offers different services worldwide like Gift Cards, prepaid mobile Refills, Lightning Network Services to consumers and business enterprises. It has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden and was founded in 2014. The company’s API provides access to approximately 1600 products in almost 170 countries. It also enables its customers with a fraud-proof experience of using crypto and does not need any login/registration. Bitrefill has a long term goal to provide access to tools that would be required to use bitcoin as everyday money. It uses the latest technology to provide digital gift cards and mobile airtime refills on a global scale. The cutting edge Lightning Network technology has helped in the development of a shopping platform with different cryptocurrency payment options.
Bitrefill has already been making use of the Lightning Network, which has been growing over the years. As the network has been expanding its capacities, Bitrefill has plans to make the maximum use of this capacity to provide some utilities for its customers. The Thor Turbo service would allow “anyone get an empty Lightning channel opened to them from Bitrefill’s node on the Lightning network.” Through this service, one can pay for, lend or gift the ability to have a channel that would open to a Lightning wallet, which would further enable them to receive payments over the Lightning Network anytime, anywhere. As the Bitrefill node is connected seamlessly to this network, it helps to receive bitcoins quickly as tips or other earnings. With the help of Thor, one can receive coins on Lightning with an app and a “link” even before they actually have a bitcoin.
Bitrefill now has plans to offer its customers multiple options to shop with Bitcoin with a catalog of 2000+ prepaid voucher products. Its customers can shop for various services like gaming, dining, entertainment and travel gift cards. Customers who have bitcoins in their wallets would be able to use Bitrefill’s catalog to purchase digital gift cards and mobile phone refills. Bitrefill and Bitfinex, a digital asset trading platform, “have created the world’s first dynamic B2B settlement process over the Lightning Network.” John Carvalho, CCO at Bitrefill, has said,
We believe that getting bitcoin exchanges on to the Lightning Network early is integral to preparing for the next wave of adoption and building out a parallel economy for Bitcoin. This collaboration signals a new era for Bitcoin commerce.
Recently Bitrefill has also revealed its plans to expand its services, following the funding round by the US-based bitcoin startup Coin Ninja. It has plans to expand services outside Europe and the US and also intends to bring in new products. Bitrefill had also enabled crypto payments for reservations made on the booking service website Airbnb which would allow customers to make reservations not only with Bitcoins but also with Ether, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Dash. This was followed by the launch of the “Thor Turbo,” a tool that has facilitated payment process channels on the Lightning Network.
Thus Bitrefill is bringing in various exciting features that would attract a large consumer base. Some of these interesting features are like the ‘new currency or price display tool.’ This would help customers to select the view they prefer for different product prices like BTC, SAT, LTC, ETH, DASH, DOGE and so on. This price display would bring in a degree of transparency and utility for its customers. Customers can now purchase a variety of gift cards and these vouchers can be delivered as gifts. The new feature “allows you to fully customize your gifts to include a custom message and theme that can be emailed and printed easily.” Bitrefill has also come up with features like a shopping cart that would hold bulk orders together and the theme of the website can now be changed from white to a dark one. It has also introduced 200+ gift card options for its customers in India who can now use them for e-commerce or supermarket or food, travel , entertainment and clothing.
Thus Bitrefill shows a lot of promise in the field of cryptocurrency as it would help cryptos to grow further as they would find far and wide applications in different forms and in various fields.