Galoy, the startup that created the open-source Bitcoin Beach wallet in El Salvador, has announced it is expanding its project to a wider audience.
Summary
Bitcoin Beach expands
Ten days ago, the company had announced the closing of a $3 million funding round. The company’s marketing director Andrew Begin had said that this funding would be used to further develop the applications and extend the Bitcoin banking platform to other communities, businesses, and governments.
“We’re really expanding from what started as a proof-of-concept. The Beach Bitcoin wallet is being transformed into its own company with local leadership.”
That’s what Begin said while also talking about two projects related to the use of Galoy’s wallet in Costa Rica and Guatemala. The company’s plans for 2022 would be to extend its wallet to other countries worldwide.
Financial services from a Bitcoin wallet
Galoy’s suite of solutions allows any community, business, or government to offer banking services using Bitcoin and Lightning, as explained in an interview by the company’s founder and CEO Nicolas Burtey, who said he believes.
“Bitcoin is the base layer for the financial system of the future.”
Companies Kingsway Capital, Trammell Venture Partners, and Balaji Srinivasan have joined the company as financial partners in this deal that is expected to lead to increased adoption of the company’s open-source banking platform.
Kingsway Capital founder Manuel Stotz said in a statement:
“Galoy is inventing Bitcoin tools at the intersection of SaaS and frontier markets. The team has already delivered a successful proof of concept in El Salvador. This can serve as a model for leaders in emerging markets to replicate.”
Bitcoin Beach, El Salvador’s first Bitcoin wallet
In October 2020, Miami-based Galoy developed its Bitcoin Beach wallet in the village of El Zonte, a well-known location among the worldwide surfing community in El Salvador. According to Galoy’s website, the wallet already has over 6,000 users.
Bitcoin Beach is a different wallet from the much more famous and used in El Salvador, Chivo, funded by the state that debuted in September 2021. Chivo, for this very reason, cannot be considered an open-source project.
Begin further explained:
“Galoy is not in the business of being a bank; we want to provide the software and infrastructure for others to replicate what we saw in El Zonte, El Salvador,” Begin explained. “As a result, we’ll be scaling operations and team development in order to truly bring the platform to a broader audience in the right places around the world.”
