The post 37Coins Closure appeared first on iceCUBED Bitcoin and Litecoin Exchange - South Africa.

The 37Coins Closure rumours have now been confirmed.

We were very sad to learn of the 37Coins closure. The team announced the 37Coins closure via a post on Medium.

The team cited the difficult economic climate and increasing squeeze from larger competitors as the main reason behind the decision for the 37Coins closure.

In the post they explained:

“The decision to cease operations and to shut down our service was difficult. Despite the best of intentions, we were unable to deliver a quality product that showed product-market fit. We also found that SMS delivery between different carriers in countries outside the USA is unreliable.”

It is a real shame when a promising start up like this has to close its doors. They have a very talented development team and was one of the start-ups incubated at the PlugAndPlay incubator in California.

Huge difference in carrier reliability across regions

One of the main difficulties the team ran into, seems to be the huge disparity in the quality of cellular services provided across regions. This will be a major consideration for any company looking to provide a remittance service which uses traditional cellular networks to transmit sms data. I think it more likely that smartphones and wider internet adoption in developing countries will win this battle.

User funds still available after 37Coins closure

Whilst estimated amounts arent known, funds held by 37coins will be returned to users. Users have until 30th December 2015 to withdraw their balances by going to www.smswallet.com.

The post 37Coins Closure appeared first on iceCUBED Bitcoin and Litecoin Exchange - South Africa.