Bitwage Takes The Future of Payroll To The Next Level

Six months ago we launched Uphold Connect (formerly Bitreserve Connect) and invited several companies we felt were solving critical problems within the cloud money ecosystem to become launch partners. One of them was Bitwage, the company passionate about the future of payroll, and by leveraging the Uphold platform, they solve one of the most important problems hindering broad consumer adoption of cloud money and digital currency: receiving your salary and wages directly in the cloud.

This week they are proud to announce a round of financing worth $760,000, with $200,000 of it raised on the investment platform BnkToTheFuture. Investors include: Tim Draper’s Draper Associates, Orange Telecom’s Orange Silicon Valley, Saeed Amidi (Paypal, Dropbox, Lending Club), Max Keiser’s Bitcoin Capital, as well as our Founder’s Cloud Money Ventures.

For cloud money to succeed at the magnitude that PayPal and Google Wallet have not, we must invert the value storage pyramid. Together with Bitwage, we are helping more consumers understand the value and immediate benefits the cloud provides as the primary channel for the money we receive and use everyday. Banks should still have a place in financial services, but it should be selective of specific services such as bonds.

As more people choose to have their employer deposit directly into their cloud money account, there will be continued growth and accessibility to more and more ways one can spend, remit, and exchange money, with simplicity and cost-savings at the core. And with usage will come growth, and with growth will come broader and broader acceptance — until the term “bitcoin” and “blockchain” won’t seem to matter as much anymore. Our collective discourse will move beyond the technology as we shift focus to the potential inherent in a world when money moves as freely and frictionlessly as information does over the Internet.

We extend our congratulations to their whole team. We know it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to make their vision become a reality, and we are proud to call them partners.

Onwards and Upwards!