Use Coinbase on iOS and Android to Instantly Experience the Power of Bitcoin

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At Coinbase, we strive to make the global economy more connected. The open, inclusive nature of Bitcoin has the potential to bring financial access to the billions of people that aren’t adequately served by traditional payment infrastructure. There are many things that need to be accomplished before billions of people can unlock the power of Bitcoin, and our mission is to continue to lay the building blocks that are essential to making this happen.

One of the most important building blocks is a secure, easy to use mobile bitcoin wallet. Today we’re excited to announce that we’ve updated our iOS and Android apps to make storing and transferring value on mobile easier than ever. Anyone with an Internet connection can use our mobile apps to securely store and transfer value around the world. The most important new features for iOS and Android users are:

• Free bits for all new users: Anyone who creates an account and verifies it immediately gets 100 bits, which can be securely stored or sent to a friend anywhere in the world

• Instantly buy bitcoin on mobile: US and European users in supported jurisdictions can connect a bank account, verify their mobile number within the app, and instantly transfer USD and EUR to buy and sell bitcoin

Additionally, we’ve made a few improvements specific to Android:

• Integration with Google Contacts: Android users can easily send bits to Google contacts from within the app

• Support for older Android devices: The Android app supports devices dating back to Gingerbread, a version of the Android OS that was released 5 years ago. Users do not need new mobile devices to use the Coinbase Android app

Today we have users in 190 countries who use Coinbase to store and transfer value globally. Few payment solutions have the same global reach, largely because of the fragmented and closed nature of traditional payment rails. We believe the combination of Bitcoin’s open network and the rapid penetration of mobile phones will spur many in developed and developing markets to skip a bank account and go straight to a mobile bitcoin wallet as their first means of storing and transferring value.

We hope you will try out the updated version of our app and send some bits to your friends-- there’s no better way to understand Bitcoin than to start using it!

via The Coinbase Blog http://ift.tt/1KNIk0b