Reserve to Launch ‘Venmo Style App’ in Venezuela – Details
Reserve, a stablecoin project has announced that it will launch a crypto-fiat payments app in Venezuela and Angola in a press release. The firm also revealed via the same press release that it is listing its separate utility token, Reserve Rights (RSR), on major exchange Huobi Global’s token sale platform, Houbi Prime.
According to the press release, the project’s stablecoin app to be launched for Android users via Google Play “in the coming weeks” will enable people and businesses to switch back and forth from their local fiat currency to the firm’s stablecoin, the Reserve Dollar (RSD). According to the announcement, RSD is a decentralized, United States dollar-pegged cryptocurrency.
Co-founder and CEO of Reserve, Nevin Freeman told Cointelegraph that the reason the app is launching in Venezuela in particular is linked to the extreme level of inflation in the country. He said:
“A lot of people, including some of our investors, discouraged us from starting in Venezuela. [..] The hyperinflation there is the exact problem that Reserve is built to fix, and Venezuela is suffering the most inflation of anywhere in the world right now, so we felt that it had to be done.”
The press release claims that there are currently 16 countries with annual inflation greater than 20%, but that the situation in Venezuela is particularly troubling, with the Venezuelan bolivar losing nearly 10% of its value every day.
Reserve also said it has landed a partnership in Angola with 7Mobile Africa — reportedly the largest mobile importer in the country — to pre-load the app on all its shipped smartphones.