Bittrex Joins the Universal Protocol Alliance to Advance Crypto Mobile Payments

Where the last few years of the cryptocurrency market were a bit on the “Wild West” side of things, recent developments have helped inject a vital dose of security and standards into the concept and, progressively, made it a bit more attractive to investors of all sizes. Recently, Bittrex—one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges around—sent a release our way through Business Wire about their own recent move on this front.

Now, Bittrex International is part of the Universal Protocol Alliance, a group that has an eye on “the next hundred million” in cryptocurrency users. Other members of the alliance include such names as Uphold and Brave, and the alliance itself has several significant plans going forward.

Already, the alliance is working on the Universal Protocol Platform, or UP Platform, which is working to mint and burn so-called Proxy tokens. The UP Platform will also, reports note, be used later on to roll out both the Universal Dollar and the Universal Euro, which will hopefully help drive further mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

These Proxy tokens are poised to be used to address issues of interoperability among cryptocurrencies. Since currencies like bitcoin and Ethereum are on completely different blockchain platforms, they can’t readily interact. This makes for some unnecessary inefficiency in the market, and cries out for a solution. The Proxy token, therefore, can serve as a “digital representation of an underlying asset”, or effectively, a digital dollar or digital Euro. This allows it to serve as a bridge between the two coins and improve efficient movement.

Bittrex’s Bill Shihara noted “We’re thrilled to join an Alliance of like-minded blockchain companies dedicated to incubating blockchain-based technologies and helping projects go mainstream. The blockchain industry needs technology that can build trust and transparency, and the platform the Alliance has built should help drive mass utility and adoption.”

Some might question why such a bridge is necessary or even desirable. Others might note darker undertones about these Proxy tokens ultimately becoming the bedrock of a cashless society. There are certainly many ways to take this news, including on the positive side as cryptocurrencies become that much easier to use. If the digital dollar can be readily converted to a paper one—or deposited like one in a bank account—then one of the biggest barriers to cryptocurrency has fallen with it.

Improving ease of use is definitely a bonus to fueling mass acceptance of cryptocurrency, and though some might question the methods, the Universal Protocol Alliance is definitely moving forward.