Gabriel Abed, Bitt Co-Founder
PRESS RELEASE - Barbadian, Gabriel Abed, Co-founder of the Caribbean’s first digital currency asset exchange, Bitt, will be representing the region at a Block Chain Summit hosted by Richard Branson on Necker Island from 26-28 May, 2015.
The aim of the Forum is to gather top thinkers in the world of Blockchain, Digital Currency and Bitcoin to help define the future.
Abed’s invite was to “come visit Sir Richard Branson’s private island as we conclude a set of discussion highlighting critical issues and solutions that will help lay out a framework for a world where humankind is fully benefitting from the amazing technology behind the Blockchain.”
Blockchain is a transactional database found in crypto-currencies.
Based in Hastings, Barbados, Bitt offers a platform that targets the Caribbean remittance market. It got off the ground in November 2014 with a seed funding round of $1.5m to develop and expand its trading platform.
Michael J. Casey, author of the Wall Street Journal publication, ‘The Age of Cryptocurrency : How Bitcoin and Digital money are Challenging the Global Economic Order,’ endorsed Abed’s attendance at the Forum.
Casey, who has quoted Abed within the publication, dubbing him ‘Mr Bitt’, notes that “as we enjoy the gifts of the Caribbean over our three day stay in Necker, it seems fitting that someone from the region’s fledgling digital-currency industry should be present.”
“We wrote about Gabriel in our book, mostly because a year ago or so he eloquently articulated the case for why the Caribbean should be a natural breeding ground for digital currencies. Caribbean countries might share sporting teams, but financially they are ridiculously fragmented. Its low tax regime might have attracted hoards of foreign companies in need of a favourable domicle but the human residents of the archipelago face far greater constraints. They must deal with draconian capital control, competing national currencies that make intra-Caribbean exchange a cumbersome, three-currency process, woefully inefficient payment systems and expensive consumer finance options,” he said.
“In short, the region has the making of a great market for bitcoin,” he highlighted.
Since the release of Casey’s publication, Bitt has moved forward, developing some innovative solutions to address bitcoin-to-fiat volatility in a way that could help cut the remittance fees charged in the region.
Co-founder and CFO of Bitt, Oliver Gale has been quoted as saying that “Bitt is poised to become the leading digital financial, technology company in the Caribbean” and Casey notes that as such, Abed “has an interesting story to tell.”
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