DigitalBTC quits mining bitcoin, focuses on ‘AirPocket’ remittance app

DigitalBTC, an Australia-listed bitcoin-mining company, is moving away from bitcoin mining and will focus on using blockchain technology as a cheap way to transfer money to people in developing countries.

Sydney Morning Herald reported that DigitalBTC started beta testing on Tuesday for AirPocket, its first product-an app being used by 50 people to transfer money between the United States and the Dominican Republic.

Zhenya Tsvetnenko, Executive chairman and BRW Young Rich lister, told the publication house that the decision was made to shift from the original business as the company was losing money. 

"As much as we believe that bitcoin as a financial instrument can be a valuable tool, we basically have the opinion that it is going to take longer than we thought," Mr Tsvetnenko said."When we saw the big drop in the value of bitcoin, just like a traditional miner, we had to look for something else to do. We have been slowly winding down our bitcoin mining operations and we will be progressively moving away from using it as a currency." 

Since Digital CC listed in June 2014, the value of a bitcoin has dropped 61 percent from $340 to $239. The company reported a net loss after tax of $6.77 million, and negative earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of $3.16 million for the complete financial year ending June 2015, Zdnet reported.

"Fortunately for us we were able to take what we learnt – the [intellectual property] related to blockchain and then apply this to something that is a lot more longlasting”, he added.