Caribbean-based Blockchain cryptocurrency startup Bitt, Inc. has raised $4 million Series A from Overstock.com, Inc.

Founded in 2016, Bitt offers a digital asset exchange whose core focus is on providing access to cryptocurrencies in emerging markets with a high-frequency trading platform that is claimed to offer the highest levels of access, security, customer service, transparency, and accountability.

Where things get really interesting though is how it’s using the Blockchain, with the company launching a Blockchain-based digital version of the Barbadian dollar in February backed by the Central Bank of Barbados, and it has plans to digitize other fiat currency in the region so that they can easily be traded among the islands, delivering what it describes as a modern solution to a region historically limited by inefficient exchange and settlement systems.

Of note Bitt’s platform also offers exchange services that allow users from outside the region to make payments in Bitcoin to Bitt itself, which can then be transferred to digital Barbadian dollars.

“Regional small businesses find it financially prohibitive to offer online payment options to consumers and this places a drag on entrepreneurism in the Caribbean,” Bitt Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Gabriel Abed said in a statement. “Our aim is to use crypto-technology to turn our regional citizens into global citizens, giving them the ability to send or receive money directly via their phones, in seconds, from all corners of the globe.”

Interesting idea

Bitcoin to fiat currency exchanges are far from new, but what’s interesting here is the introduction of a digitized version of an actual fiat currency backed by Government as a means to improve local and international remittances.

Overstock.com Chief Executive Officer Dr. Patrick M. Byrne explains the thinking as follows:

“A major impediment to economic advancement around the world is the fact that the vast majority of humans are unbanked. Yet mobile penetration in some countries exceeds 100%. Bitt has a vision for the Caribbean of frictionless mobile cash, beginning with central banks transparently issuing digital fiat which is then exchanged on a blockchain, all under proper regulatory oversight.”

Including the new funding Bitt has raised $5.5 million to date.

The company said in was use the new money to further its goal of building a financial ecosystem in the Caribbean that remedies the issues which people in the region experience daily, including high frictional fees from banks and other money services operations that make sending money in and out of the region cumbersome and costly.

Image credit: loimere/Flickr/CC by 2.0