Even though Chinese authorities have been cracking down on crypto trading platforms and Initial coin Offerings (ICOs), owning cryptocurrencies in the country has not been outlawed. Now according to a report by Bloomberg, Huawei, which is arguably one of the largest telecommunication manufacturers in the world, is enabling easier access to Bitcoin for its users.
The Chinese telecommunication firm and renowned smartphone maker has partnered with BTC.com to roll out a bitcoin wallet for the tech giant’s proprietary app store, AppGallery. The BTC.com wallet will be the first of its kind to be offered in the Shenzen-based tech firm’s app store and will be pre-installed on all new Huawei and Honor phones – older phones will not be left out and will thus have the app rolled out to them in coming months as confirmed by BTC.com’s vice president of business operations Alejandro de la Torre.
“New users can access Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash in a simple, secure and trusted environment. China is almost a ‘cashless economy’ today, accounting for almost 62% of all global mobile transactions. This dwarfs the estimated $49.3 billion in total mobile payment transactions in the United States in 2017, which highlights the amazing opportunity cryptocurrencies have in replacing fiat currency as the currency of choice for mobile payments. Huawei is leading the way in terms of adoption of blockchain technologies, and we’re excited to bring BTC.com to Huawei’s user base for the first time,” de la Torre said.
As it stands, the greatest impact of this new venture by both BTC.com and Huawei will be felt on the Chinese mobile phone market which Huawei own a huge chunk of. Furthermore, China has been a hotbed for cryptocurrencies despite the government’s aggressive stance trading in them and Initial Coin Offerings. As part of these control measures, the Chinese government has blocked Android’s Google Play Store and certain sections of Apple’s iTunes in order to limit access to such services as BTC.com. Still, as mentioned earlier, owning cryptocurrencies is not illegal in China and therefore Huawei and BTC.com can get away with this clever workaround.
“It’s a good opportunity to tap into the Chinese market. The use of cashless payments with apps is very big and the traditional banking system is lacking, so there’s a good use case for crypto payments to grow there,” de la Torre added.
Huawei’s move came as little less of a surprise particularly because of the company’s recent beefed up efforts towards the development of a blockchain.
“Cryptocurrencies have recently expanded the human understanding of digital economy at a large scale. From our leadership position in China, the tip of the spear of mobile payments, we expect to see massive growth in global cryptocurrency adoption habits in the near future,” said Dr. Jaime Gonzalo, vice president of Huawei Mobile Services.
