International payments provider Payza announced a partnership today with digital currency provider Dash that will integrate the cryptocurrency as a way for merchants and customers to send and receive payments.

Aside from local currencies, Payza until today only allowed users to exchange bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency at a market cap of $139 billion. As Bitcoin’s popularity has fueled an interest in digital currencies, Payza added bitcoin payments in May and now the company is branching out into that market.

Dash started out as a project developed to allow instant and private transactions for the purposes of being a digital currency. Although its current name, Dash, is a portmanteau of “Digital Cash,” its former name is Darkcoin. According to CoinMarketCap, Dash currently sees a daily trading volume of about $97.5 million and has a market cap approaching $3.3 billion.

Payza is headquartered in the U.K. but primarily serves Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South America with its focus on individuals and merchants underserved by central banking systems. By using mobile devices and a payment network built to provide rapid transactions and a wallet system, the company aims to deliver an alternative payment method.

The company serves more than 13 million users in 190 countries and offers access to more than 10,000 e-commerce retailers. Customers can exchange Bitcoin and Dash into 25 different local currencies as well.

“Payza is supporting underbanked populations in nearly 200 countries, and the Dash network’s low-cost instant transactions are ideal attributes for meeting these customers’ needs,” said Ryan Taylor, chief executive of Dash. “Payza is also well-regarded in the industry, with literally millions of users, and they’ve thus far refrained from integrating other coins across their platform.”

Firoz Patel, Payza’s CEO, said that over the past few months, the company has seen a significant increase in demand for Dash. He cited Dash’s low fees and the currency’s own focus on helping underbanked communities.

Payza has been slow to approach and integrate cryptocurrencies into its platform. Although bitcoin is the most popular one in the world and has been touted as a potential way to assist communities underserved by central banks, such as Africa or Mexico, technical hurdles persist.

In the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, unbanked customer audiences have long been a focus of businesses attempting to build into that niche. That includes efforts by financial services company Humaniq, which raised $5.2 million in a token crowdsale; Philippines-based remittance firm Coins.ph, which raised $5 million in venture capital; and cryptocurrency startup Bitt Inc. This is a very small list of companies that over the years have sought to build alternative payment networks for local and international use.

Customer understanding of the underlying currency could make or break its adoption at large and Payza said it wanted to focus on choosing currencies that would impact the lives of its users.

“There are several reasons that we chose Dash to be the second cryptocurrency integrated into our platform, after Bitcoin,” said Patel. “Dash boasts low network fees and fast transactions, two features that users look for in a cryptocurrency. Dash also has a vibrant and active community, especially in the developing world, which appeals to us as a company that also focuses on empowering underbanked populations. Finally, Dash is user-friendly and has a roadmap in place to further improve usability.”

To celebrate the launch of Dash, Payza has begun a limited-time promotion for users who fill their wallets with Dash using local currencies or Bitcoin. Users who buy Dash will get an extra 10 percent when they buy up to 1 Dash – which is currently priced at around $413 – and an extra 5 percent for purchases above that, up to 5 Dash.

The integration was made possible through infrastructure work done by blockchain web services provider BlockCypher Inc. The company builds blockchain-agnostic solutions designed to make it easier for businesses to adopt cryptocurrencies into their already existing networks.

Through Payza’s partnership with BlockCypher, the company expects that it will be slowly integrating other popular cryptocurrencies. On Payza’s blog, a company spokesperson said customers can expect announcements about full support for Litecoin and Ethereum, and the company is exploring other currencies as well.

Image: Payza