On November 19th, a new payment platform for cryptocurrency was established called Ivypay, based out of Australia. This new service is the product of the collaboration between two entities – Ivy, a blockchain company, and Hiveex, a broker for cryptocurrency. With Ivypay, locals will have the opportunities to use their cryptocurrency earnings for their bills, sending it directly to their bank account instead of having to wait.

The beta version was already released earlier this month, giving a select few an opportunity to be a part of this new streamlined process. The creators of the service want to find more cryptocurrency use cases to make it easier to spend, rather than just holding it in wallets and letting the value go up and down.

Whenever any transfer is made from the payment service to a bank account, the user incurs a 2% fee. Right now, the service only allows users to transact with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple, though there is no information to say if others will be added.

Ash Shilkin, the president of Ivy, commented on the collaboration, saying that it,

“will enable everyday Australians to use cryptocurrency to pay their bills, pay off their credit cards, or convert to Australian dollars deposited in their bank accounts at some of the lowest rates on the market.”

His statement was released directly to Bitcoin.com’s news section of the website.

Shilkin is, at minimum, realistic, about the fact that digital currency is years away from actually being used in a widespread way for payments. Still, the creation of payment processors like Ivypay are making the concept of simple payments with crypto into something more normalized. Shilkin expressed their content with having a project like Ivypay to introduce, hoping that it will be “a bridge between those with cryptocurrency and traditional financial institutions.” Shilkin also commented that they hoped to bring the services in the United States and similar countries before the year ends.

Based on a survey performed by Hiveex and Ivypay, there are presently over 2.5 million Australians that hold some kind of cryptocurrency, paying over 2,500 bills with their assets monthly. Nearly half of the individuals without digital assets commented that they would be open to doing it with the option of directing the funds to their accounts, which is what Ivypay allows. About 10% of the respondents expressed hesitation, considering the lack of ability to transfer the currency to their bank account. The survey included 1,997 citizens.

The founder of Hiveex, Fred Schebesta, commented,

“Despite cryptocurrency being around for the past decade, it still has quite a while to go before it’s as widely used as fiat currencies, like the Australian dollar.”

This company was only established in February, based on the intention of helping people make these types of purchases and sales. Specifically, they aimed to help with trades that exceeded 50,000 Australian dollars, which is about $36,500 in the United States.

Continuing, Schebesta said,

“We wanted to help build a platform to bridge the gap between fiat and crypto. It’s inevitable that cryptocurrency will have mass adoption when we create more ways to use it that are easier and cheaper alternatives to traditional banking. It’s going to shake up the way we pay for everything.”

Ivy has been around since 2017 and managed to bring in $17 million with a private token sale at the beginning of January. Their sale was part of their efforts to fund the progression of their combined blockchain and payments technology.

156 +