Hive, a company that has developed a stylized bitcoin wallet for Mac OS X, has acquired the Android bitcoin app Bridgewalker.
Bridgewalker is a Euro-based platform for bitcoin designed with speed in mind. Some of its framework and design cues will be integrated into Hive’s product strategy.
“Basically, Bridgewalker will become part of Hive’s offering. In addition, I will be joining the Hive team and initially focus on developing an Android port of Hive,” says Jan Vornberger, the developer behind Bridgewalker.
The main attraction of Hive’s wallet software on Apple’s PC platform is its design. It’s built to be attractive and usable for a non-technical crowd, an audience that has become increasingly interested in virtual currencies since they are becoming more valuable.
Although Hive is available for the Mac OS X PC operating system, Apple’s behavior towards bitcoin apps for iOS is a foreboding sign for distributed electronic currencies on its mobile platform.
Bitcoin wallet and payment processor Coinbase, just weeks after releasing its first iPhone/iPad app, was unceremoniously removed from the Apple App Store last week.
One other app available for iOS that allows users to send and receive bitcoins is Gliph, which uses a messaging system that allows the attachment of bitcoin to messages. Gliph received $200,000 in venture capital funding back in September.
Vornberger believes that he can help bring Hive to Android, where his experience lies, and give it a great looking interface.
The QR code interface on Bridgewalker for Android.“The first objective is to provide a bitcoin wallet for major platforms that really puts the focus on usability and looks great,” he told CoinDesk.
“Many of the wallets out there right now still cater to the more technical early adopters. We try to focus on the next wave of users and try to provide a good starting point and an easy-to-use interface for those newcomers.”
There are a number of bitcoin apps available for Android, and the popular Blockchain.info even has a wallet app on the platform.
In August, it was discovered that there was a flaw in Android that made bitcoin wallets vulnerable to theft. The vulnerability was patched by Google just a few days after it was discovered.
The transactions interface on Hive for Mac OS X.Vornberger, the Bridgewalker developer, says that his app will still be available while Hive’s is being developed for Android.
“Bridgewalker will continue to operate as an open beta and we will explore how to best integrate it into the Hive ecosystem down the line. It will be put a little bit on the back burner and the focus is on a pure bitcoin wallet for Android in the style of the Hive Mac OS X interface,” he said.
“It will be somewhat along those lines of the Mac app – not necessarily along the lines of Bridgewalker, but maybe some inspiration from there as well.”