BitZumi Cryptocurrency Exchange: Wallet, Media & Payments?

Bitzumi is a company that seeks to participate in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries at the “macro” level; while they are developing their own multi-currency wallet and exchange services, their primary ambition is to connect investors with the right services for them by offering completely transparent information and commissioning articles that explore the newest trends. However, recommending competitors' services over their own would be an unusual strategy, and while they mention a few ideas in passing, it's not entirely clear how they plan to profit from third parties' products.

The company is still in its development stage, offering equity to investors, and has not yet announced a definite launch date for any of the numerous services they describe. Despite the lack of firm details available at time of writing, Bitzumi is still certainly important to watch; the team has proven its mettle with decades of collective experience in finance and other industries, and some cryptocurrency news sites are suggesting that Bitzumi might compete with the most popular wallet and exchange services upon its release.

What Is BitZumi?

Bitzumi is a very young company; its pitch to investors describing its business plan and introducing its team was released only in December of 2017. At time of writing (January 2018), the company has not yet released any products, nor announced any release dates.

The company's two cofounders, James Altucher and Scot Cohen, hail from the finance industry, though Altucher has also studied computer science at a doctoral level. Altucher is a hedge fund manager, published author, frequent contributor to several prominent media outlets, and cofounder of over twenty companies. Cohen has over two decades of experience in wealth management, and worked with many noteworthy investment firms before founding his current group, V3 Capital. Altucher and Cohen are supported by a team of advisors, most of whom have backgrounds in marketing or finance, with a single software engineer. Their website describes the nine men listed as the “Management Team,” though, so they may have more employees than those mentioned there.

An internet search reveals that the company has not yet established a presence on social media, but has received some coverage from several major cryptocurrency news sites; some of these observers are already speculating that Bitzumi could become a major competitor of CoinBase.

The BitZumi Cryptocurrency Exchange & Wallet

Bitzumi plans to release a suite of products to offer users a one-stop gateway to cryptocurrency trading. In addition to their own wallet and exchange services, they mention that they'd like to manage several cryptocurrency news sites, and to develop a service that pairs users with the ideal brokerage for their investment goals. Their stated corporate strategy includes three distinct steps: attract customers' attention through high-quality media and targeted marketing, steer these customers towards the services best suited for their goals, and finally profit from them whether they're using Bitzumi's own products or those owned by affiliates.

BitZumi Cryptocurrency Exchange claims that their wallet and exchange platform will support a wide variety of different currencies. Many popular wallets and exchanges support only a few dozen currencies at most, so a truly flexible platform could be a very powerful tool for investors, but this could prove to be a daunting task for software developers.

Bitzumi also mentions a serious emphasis on security, including multi-factor authentication to prevent hacking and off-site “cold” storage for funds not being immediately traded. They claim that their exchange will offer both instant, real-time trades and escrow services for those requiring verification of services. As for exchanging fiat currencies for cryptocurrencies, the website only explicitly mentions U.S. dollars, but given the scope of the company's ambition, it's likely that they'd eventually expand to include more.

Bitzumi's website includes the logo of eBit News, but it's not clear whether they are affiliated with the site, which predates Bitzumi by several months. Nonetheless, they repeatedly mention a desire to provide users with authoritative news and analysis about the cryptocurrency market as part of their mission to offer traders a “macro” perspective of the industry. They mention an interest in maintaining media properties for both mobile and online users, so they could launch or acquire several such sites in the future.

The most innovative idea that Bitzumi describes is a service similar to Lendingtree, which pairs potential borrowers with the loan offers best suited to them. They hope to attract users curious about investing in cryptocurrencies, and present them with offers from different brokerages suited to their unique short- and long-term plans.

This service could become hugely popular, since brokerages would appreciate the direct connection to customers without marketing, and customers would reap the benefits of the various brokerages competing for their business. Bitzumi also mentions that they'd like to use artificial intelligence and big data to analyze the outcomes of these pairings and constantly improve their results.

Bitzumi's website also states that the company hopes to eventually partner with or acquire existing cryptocurrency businesses, but it's not clear when they plan to make these moves or what types of services they hope to add this way.

BitZumi Trading Platform

Bitzumi is currently offering equity to investors, though their website doesn't mention specifics about how much shares cost, and they haven't published a business timeline to give investors an idea of when they might see a return on their investment.

Bitzumi promises to offer some of the most powerful tools available for cryptocurrency trading, and clearly hope to compete with the most popular services currently available. It's too early to tell whether their products will be as powerful as they describe, but it'll be interesting to find out.

BitZumi Cryptocurrency Exchange Verdict

If their products are as remarkable as their corporate pitch describes, BitZumi Cryptocurrency Exchange has the potential to become a major force in cryptocurrency trading, but their plans are too light on details. The company's founders and management team have a long record of success, but considering the powerful software they describe, it's concerning that the team includes only a single software engineer. Bitzumi certainly merits keeping an eye on, but investors should wait for firmer plans and more thorough technical details before buying any shares.