BTC China has announced it is expanding its range of digital currency services with the addition of a new mining pool and merchant payments processing.
It marks another step on the company’s transition from simple exchange to an integrated services platform, and reflects a recent diversification trend among Chinese digital currency businesses.
The company said in a statement:
“BTC China’s expanded portfolio covers all aspects of the digital economy, allowing a user to mine bitcoin and litecoin in its mining pool, store it in BTC China’s wallet, pay for goods through its payment gateway, and trade for fiat on the exchange.”
Users will now be able to access all of BTC China’s services, including the existing exchange and bitcoin/litecoin wallets, with a single user account.
The mining pool is not a cloud-mining or subscription service, but a pool for existing miners to join. At this stage it is for bitcoin mining only, and instructions are in Chinese language only.
Mining pool
BTC China CEO Bobby Lee said the company is remaining at the forefront of an industry that has grown immensely in the past year.
Lee said:
“You can mine bitcoin, store it safely, pay for goods and services, trade bitcoin, and exchange for fiat, all on BTC China’s new platform. Moving forward, BTC China will continue to innovate and set industry standards for service, security and innovation.”
The mining pool implements the PROP (proportional) payout scheme, whereby blocks are paid out proportionally to the number of shares a contributor has earned. BTC China promises 100% transparency in its hashrate distribution, with no hidden hashrate reductions.
Lower fees will apply to users who send their mined coins to other BTC China services instead of external addresses.
Payment processor
To showcase its new payment processing system, the company has already partnered with regional merchants who are willing to accept bitcoins.
These include Shenzhoufu Hong Kong, an online transaction provider that facilitates payments between online game operators and users, and Aicaike, a ‘P2F’ (peer-to-firm) financial information publishing platform.
Launched in 2011, Shanghai-based BTC China is the world’s oldest continuously operating bitcoin exchange and, like its direct competitors in China, it is one of the world’s largest by trade volume.
The company currently supports bitcoin and litecoin trading and deposits/withdrawals in USD, CNY and Hong Kong dollars (HKD).
Mining image via Shutterstock