India's Unocoin launches Bitcoin mobile app on iOS and Android

Bangalore-based Unocoin, which is India's main Bitcoin company, has launched a new mobile app for both iOS and Android devices. Unocoin's app will allow consumers to buy, sell, send, receive and store bitcoin all in one place, from any remote device, said a statement.

It makes Unocoin the first company to offer a full featured mobile Bitcoin app in India, which is seeing a surge in interest in cryptocurrency, in particular of late with the government's decision to demonetize 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. Places like Mumbai and Bangalore are now seasoned technology hubs, and Unocoin knows the mobile market could potentially run to over a billion users.

Abhinand Kaseti, co-founder and CMO of Unocoin said, "As of now, there are more than one billion Indians who use mobile phones. More than 300 million use their phones regularly for accessing the internet. This trend is expected to go up by 56% per year.

"We focused on creating a design and interface that provided a seamless user experience on mobile. Customer satisfaction, easy navigation and user simplicity are the most important tenets to us, and we wanted to provide an even more convenient way for users to access and manage their digital currency portfolio when a home or work computer is out of reach."

After raising $1.5m in October (a national record), Unocoin's app release follows the implementation of a robust new API. The company, whose mission is to "Bring Bitcoin to Billions," designed the app to include every feature already embedded into the company website. The app will include the buy and sell pairing for BTC/INR, mobile/DTH (Direct to Home Satellite Program) recharge, SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) access. Unocoin has also released its POS (Point of Sale) app on both App Store and Play Store to enable physical stores to accept bitcoin as a mode of payment about six months ago.

Kaseti said: "We built this app from the ground up, using our very own public API, to ensure security and ease of use. It is secure with TouchID for iOS devices and password access for Android devices, and boasts a one touch button for buying and selling bitcoin, complete with inbuilt conversion.

"The dashboard displays the users BTC wallet, with the option to send and request bitcoin, and the INR wallet, with the option to add and withdraw Indian rupees. The dashboard also features a 24 hour price graph, address books, messaging capability and transaction progress and confirmations."

The Unocoin wallet app requires iOS 7.0 or later for iPhone, iPad and iTouch users, and Jelly Bean or later for Android users.