The internet is opening up the previously rigidly defined ways that money can be shared throughout the economy. Mobile banking apps and platforms like Monzo allow individuals to monitor and direct their funds quickly and easily.

Can the same principles be applied to cryptocurrencies?

MoneyBadger wants to create a truly social base for transferring Bitcoin, allowing users to send the currency to email accounts, phone numbers and Twitter accounts.

The startup was founded in 2016 to tackle some perceived problems with the way Bitcoin currently operates:

• the ‘pseudo-anonymity’ of transactions has often hampered retail adoption
• the current way that Bitcoin is transferred is considered complex and its irreversible nature means that it mistakes are costly and hard to fix
• transactions and their frequency can be tracked on blockchain, which can worry those concerned with their individual identity

There are added difficulties for individuals in states with authoritarian governments, where companies are hired specifically to trace transactions and provide user data to their customers.

MoneyBadger looks to solve these issues through two main mechanisms:

Social money

By enabling users to send Bitcoin to a variety of verifiable accounts that are already known to the user, the need for a random string of alphanumeric characters is removed.

In the case of sending currency to an email address, this allows for a way of ensuring that the money gets to who you want.

Privacy

This process means that there is no need to generate a new wallet address. Instead, users provide the system with an email or telephone number from which they receive money.

When a person is paid, they receive a code through the medium that the payment has been made (a text for example), which they then enter into the MoneyBadger platform. It is the platform that then releases the money to the individual so that user anonymity is preserved.

In a blog post, the company states

“Our objective is to provide an ecosystem that allows individuals to increasingly use their verifiable identity for transactions while ensuring their privacy remains protected.”

Interested in hearing leading global brands discuss subjects like this in person? Find out more at the Blockchain Expo World Series, Global, Europe and North America.