BitPay and Vodi Bring Bitcoin Payments to Messaging Tools

Instant messenger systems are a big part of our lives; some use them for work, others for talking with friends. A new partnership between BitPay and Vodi is set to bring instant message systems to a whole new use: making payments in bitcoin.

With BitPay and Vodi working together, users get an array of new options to put bitcoin to work: buying gift cards or phone minutes in the cryptocurrency becomes possible.

So far, over 90 different companies have gift cards involved in the platform—from Hotels.com to CVS Pharmacy and beyond—and over 390 mobile phone service providers in 135 countries will allow users to top-up airtime payments.

The mobile phone minutes can even be gifts to other users.

Since mobile payments have become such a big part of the retail environment these days, it makes sense for businesses to get in.

The gift cards and the phone minutes are great ideas, and incorporating bitcoin gives it that extra bit of edge to get attention. What this could really revolutionize, however, is peer-to-peer mobile payments.

That’s a point that most standard mobile payment systems have been ignoring—or just haven’t branched out into—for some time, and it’s a point a lot of users are really starting to notice the lack of.

A platform that can offer peer-to-peer payments may be able to get a real edge in the market, so we now have a potential for bitcoin users, messenger users, and those who want peer-to-peer they’re not getting elsewhere to serve as a market.

This could be a real stroke for Vodi and BitPay, though only time will tell if this really catches on.

It’s got some great potential in the field, and if it can gain ground in its target market, it may come out a lot more successful than most would suspect.