Bitnet Technologies

About Bitnet Technologies

Bitnet Technologies was established in 2014 by co-founders John McDonnell and Stephen Mc Namara, who served as CEO and CTO, respectively. The company emerged to provide a digital commerce platform enabling enterprise-scale merchants to accept bitcoin and other digital currencies. Its business model was modeled after the payment platform CyberSource, focusing on delivering an industrial-grade payment processing service for large merchants like airlines, retailers, and digital content publishers. Through its application programming interface (API), merchants could integrate Bitnet's service to accept digital currency payments.

The platform was designed to offer security, reliability, and scalability to global businesses. A key feature was the ability for merchants to set prices in their local currency, accept bitcoin, and then settle the transaction in their currency of choice, mitigating volatility risks. Merchants using the platform could receive their funds in up to five days, or immediately if they chose to receive bitcoin. To address the challenge of bitcoin's confirmation times, Bitnet introduced an "Instant Approval" service in partnership with BlockCypher. This service calculated the confirmation likelihood of a transaction and assumed financial responsibility if it failed, effectively mimicking the near-instant authorization of credit card payments. Throughout its operation, Bitnet formed several strategic partnerships to expand its reach, including collaborations with Computop and PAY.ON, to integrate bitcoin payment options for thousands of merchants globally.

In October 2014, Bitnet secured $14.5 million in a Series A funding round, with investors including Highland Capital Partners, Rakuten Capital, and Webb Investment Network. Over its lifetime, the company raised a total of $16 million. On October 20, 2016, Bitnet was acquired by Uphold Worldwide, a digital money platform. Uphold, originally founded as Bitreserve in 2013 by Halsey Minor, provides a platform for trading and holding various assets, including cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, and precious metals. The acquisition was intended to strengthen Uphold's platform with Bitnet's enterprise-grade payment processing capabilities. Uphold continues to operate as a multi-asset digital trading platform, having powered over $3.5 billion in transactions across 184 countries.