BitSpark ‘it’s the cheapest way to send money’

Harrap focused BitSpark on remittance using Bitcoin. The digital currency provides clear advantages over legacy systems, and Harrap was quick to implement a Bitcoin coin based solution – early in 2014. “In my experiences back then ease of use was non existent, trust was (and still is) an important issue, customer support was lacking.” Harrap explains.

“Bitcoin is a real enabler […] and a means of transmission.”
— – BitSpark CEO George Harrap

The Hong Kong-based company started with a location right next door to the competition, securing a space at the World Wide House, a center frequently visited by people who seek to send money overseas. “Hong Kong is a large remittance corridor in itself, but many of the emerging markets in Asia are under-serviced. If you go to perhaps Thailand you might see a Western Union, or if you go to Laos, but that’s about it. Especially if you want to send money from pretty much anywhere else in the world, your options are limited.” Harrap explained.

A core driving factor in the BitSpark business model is Harraps view of the digital currency, “Bitcoin is this amazing, fantastic thing, but if you have to explain to someone how to go into an exchange and get verified and make a wire transfer, and then learn how to trade and learn what bid and ask is and all this kind of stuff. People just want Bitcoin or they just want to send money; they don’t really care how it gets there.”

“we don’t really mention anything about Bitcoin; its just ‘hey, this is the cheapest way to send money’.”
— – Harrap

The company has been steadily expanding, recently adding Australia to the list of growing markets, “so we have Hong Kong, Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and we can remit either way whether it is to or from the destination country,” says Harrap. “We’re going to be opening up more pretty soon. That’s the first thing – providing the access.” explains Harrap, “That’s where we see the growth coming from really.”

With the increase in business, BitSpark has moved to partnering with companies offering innovative, scalable solutions. A recent partnership with BitGo adds multi-signature security features, “[BitGo] has a really good product and I think you’ll only see more companies this year start to use multi-sig because it’s so important.” Harrap said.

“Trust and transparency are very important.”
— – Harrap

BitSpark uses offline storage to secure funds, and has insurance for protection against theft or the loss of coins. This makes them a perfect fit with BitGo, which offers multi-signature addresses and offline storage. Harrap found the integration easy, “We’re REALLY happy with their security setup. Especially if you are a company that’s looking to get started [..] their API is really easy to use, so you don’t have to re-invent the wheel and try to do everything yourself like perhaps 2 years ago in the Bitcoin world you had to do.”

“It’s all about education at the end of the day as well. People are used to using the existing means to send money, and here’s this new kid on the block. So it’s all about providing a trustworthy platform for people to use.”
— – Harrap

Harrap elaborated on the simplicity of the partnership, “our customers don’t have to do anything or change their habits. You log onto your account on BitSpark and your wallet has automatically been upgraded to a multi-signature address. [BitGo] can provide us the security know-how to give our customers some more peace of mind when dealing with BitSpark. This also works in conjunction with our proveable reserves for the exchange, which are in real time.”

Security is a priority for any company that handles Bitcoin, and now that BitSpark has implemented industry leading technology, Harrap is exploring expansion ideas, “We can’t be everywhere at once” said Harrap. “We just launched our pre-paid card trial. We started off as a Bitcoin remittance company physically having a presence, but we’ve found that perhaps the best way for us to scale is to incorporate some sort of pre-paid mechanism or something that we can sell to distributors here in Hong Kong.”

“[pre-paid cards are] just an easy way for people to access the same services they find with us,”
— – Harrap

Partnerships, Harrap explains, are driving several areas of the business. While Bitcoin companies in the US and Europe have struggled to find Banking partners, BitSpark has been able to develop this core aspect of the business with ease.  “We’ve unveiled five different fiat currencies to the exchange as well as a couple more cryptocurrencies. We’re going to be adding a few more [fiat currencies] in the coming weeks as well,” states Harrap.

“We have access to a few more with our banking partners so we thought – why not?”
— – Harrap

Despite the vast variety of changes implemented in the past few months, Harrap has a certain positive energy about him as we speak. He has a unique combination of passion and interest in what he does that allows him to serve those looking for remittances with a blockchain-based solution. “We’re sort of waiting to ball a few updates all together and hit out with a couple of brand new things,” explains Harrap. “It’s gonna be a really busy next few weeks.”

With an exciting past few months and even more to come, it’s no wonder Harrap hasn’t seen a day off in some time. He and the BitSpark team are working hard to provide a service that can help people in their day-to-day lives. At the same time inherent value is being added to the Bitcoin ecosystem.