What is Bitsika?
The Bit Sika app is simple to use remittance platform which aims to provide quick money transfer services to users across the globe. Created mainly for Africa to help curb the high-cost monetary transactions, the app also provides remittances services to any user where a user can receive payments, donations and funding from anyone on earth at no cost or hidden charges.
All one needs is to download the app onto their phones and sign up, each user is assigned with a username starting with a Dollar Sign (e.g. $joseph, $atsu, $mary, etc.).
Deposit:
Users of the app are provided with an interface which displays how much one has stored in the wallet or on the app. Users can increase this balance amount by depositing money on the app via a variety of payment methods.
Send:
Each deposited amount is virtually exchanged into a stable currency or the US$ currency in a form of credits, these credits are stored in the app as your balance. You can send money to anyone who has the Bit Sika app, regardless of their location just by using their usernames ($ntkweinor).
The process is instant, never restricted and you can send as little as $0.01 (Yay, micro-transactions). That’s right, $atsu can send $yele $0.01 instantly regardless of where on earth any of these two people are.
Withdrawal:
Users can decide to withdraw/cash-out money from the app to their private bank accounts or other digital wallets. Withdrawals lead to a proportional reduction in a user’s balance at the current market exchange rate.
USDC:
The USD credits displayed by the App balance are backed by blockchain-based digital dollars the USDC (issued by Coinbase). These stablecoin tokens are not attached to each user’s account individually; in other words, our app is NOT decentralised.
TRANSACTIONS:
Moving money between countries happens with the help of crypto in the background, but our users are not even aware of this. These USD credits are believed to be the best way the African market woman or trader will get access to the USD without hustle and toil. It is also believed to be a great store of value for the User who wants to hedge their assets from unstable currencies.
Demonstration:
$yele in Lagos wants to send $100 to $atsu in Accra, he loads/deposits $100 credits on the Bit Sika app via credit card or bank transfer.
He sends that 100 dollars to $atsu within the app. $atsu withdraws the money via Mobile Money immediately a process which is believed to happen within 3 minutes maximum.
No Fees:
Bit Sika is in a good position to foster seamless money transfers into Africa from any part of the world, and also streamline money transfer within Africa its-self.
No flat fees, No percentage fees, and No exchange rate manipulations.
How then does Bit Sika make money?
We make money by having money. We are optimising our app so that people will be incentivised to spend money within the app itself instead of withdrawing. Users’ ability to store their balance in USD credits also adds to this incentive of keeping money in the app. As more users come on board, our reserves will increase and we can earn from interest on fiat and crypto reserves. Another source of profit will be percentage charges we put on our Merchant API for businesses that want to collect money from users from all over Africa and beyond using our Bit Sika credits.
We are taking a long term approach to create value and profit.
In the age of cryptocurrencies, geographically segmented banking systems are looking obsolete by the day. And a huge percentage of fees for transactions continue to make less sense. In the long run, Bit Sika can become the banking alternative in Africa for the crypto age.
Supported Payment Gateways:
Currently supported payment methods are Mobile Money (Ghana), Bank transfer (Nigeria), Credit/Debit cards (Worldwide), Bitcoin (Worldwide).
Any deposit through any of the listed gateways is added to the balance instantly with no fees charged.
A cool fact is that all money deposited is stored as US dollar credits at the current market exchange rate. This US dollar value, if not spent, never changes in value.
Future Aspirations:
In the coming months, we aim to support more payment methods for deposits, like BNB, USDT, Mpesa, and Mobile Money services in East African countries.
