IBEX Mercado, OSMO Wallet Partner for Lightning Network Integration – Bitcoin Magazine
- Guatemalans using OSMO Wallet now have access to instant, low-cost bitcoin transfers and payments.
- OSMO partnered with IBEX Mercado to develop Lightning infrastructure for its users.
- OSMO is partnering with AirPak, a money transfer company that will allow OSMO customers to withdraw bitcoin at over 8,000 locations.
A new partnership between IBEX Mercado – an integrated bitcoin infrastructure provider for El Salvador’s bitcoin rollout – and startup Guatemalan bitcoin service provider OSMO Wallet enables users to buy, sell and trade bitcoin in one of the most underbanked regions in the world, in a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine
Nearly 70% of Central Americans are unbanked even though the population has an incredible smartphone penetration rate. While economic inclusion is declining, the capacity for connection within the region is thus constantly expanding.
Therefore, with increased connectivity levels in Guatemala, OSMO Wallet provided a needed feature in the region through a partnership with AirPak – a money transfer services company – operating in over 8,000 retail locations from Mexico to Costa Rica allowing OSMO users to cash out BTC held in the wallet for fiat.
“Latin America has one of the most underbanked populations in the world, and Bitcoin has the potential to be truly transformative,” said Piero Coen, co-founder of OSMO Wallet. “The challenge of exchanging Bitcoin for cash has been a major roadblock to adoption. By bringing cash convertibility to the unbanked across LATAM, we are changing the game.”
With the addition of IBEX’s infrastructure, OSMO will now be able to perform both on- and off-chain transactions by leveraging the Lightning Network without requiring users to change any settings enabling reasonable transfers and payments. In addition, OSMO Business – a Lightning Network point of sale – was built on top of IBEX’s application programming interface (API) and has record time to market in Latin America, according to the release.
“By demonstrating how easily and quickly we can enable financial services to go to market using the lightning network, we can actually empower communities that have historically been excluded,” said Esteban de la Peña, Partner at IBEX. “Our infrastructure services will transform people’s lives, while creating [Latin America] LATAM a compelling case study and proof of concept for other underserved communities worldwide.”
OSMO stated a goal of 1 million retail points adopting a bitcoin standard in the next five years across Latin America by leveraging these services.
