Medici Ventures, the blockchain investment arm of American Internet retailer Overstock, has paid $8 million for a controlling interest in Barbados-based Bitt.
Bitt was founded in 2013 to provide infrastructure to support a digital financial ecosystem throughout the Caribbean. Medici has made two previous investments in the firm.
Bitt's financial software and mobile application platform use blockchain and distributed ledger technology to facilitate secure peer-to-peer transactions.
Last year it signed a contract with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) to pilot a securely minted and issued digital version of the bank's dollar. The ECCB plans to see the digital dollar distributed and used by financial institutions throughout the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union’s member countries, facilitating peer-to-peer transactions between merchants and consumers via phones.
Jonathan Johnson, CEO, Overstock, says: “Bitt’s pioneering work in the central bank digital currency space promotes social inclusion, financial empowerment, and economic growth. It is the perfect use case for blockchain technology to fundamentally change the way in which we transact, and fundamentally change how societies function.”