With Dether, everyone is a mobile ATM

A while back I had friend point me out to the Dether project and I've been following it ever since. It was a project from the start that I saw potential to increase the adoption of cryptocurrency (crypto or ether in this case). The idea behind the platform is simple, why not make everyone a mobile ATM for crypto to fiat conversion and vice versa.

One of the biggest issues facing crypto currently is the fiat to crypto and crypto to fiat conversion. Bitcoin and Altcoin ATMs are growing at good rate, but no where near to match the demand we've see for cryptocurrency over the past six months. Per Coin ATM Radar there are only 1,579 ATMs worldwide, and a majority of them are located in North America.

Dether's Scalability

This is where Dether can fill the gap. Dether's ability to scale is as simple as downloading an app and looking for someone to exchange cash to Ether. Smartphones are used by 77% of U.S. adults per Pew Research Data as of early 2017.

The app is surprisingly well put together for an alpha. I have fooled around with it a little bit and it's simple. You have a buy option on the home page along with an option to set a sell point. The buy option opens you up to a map (check image below), and allows you to search for nearby sellers and shows there address for where to meet them along with Ethereum address, transaction fee, and option to open Telegram, the messaging app.

Here is a picture of the homepage and map from my phone:

Clearly there are not many sellers yet, but if we take a look at Dether's timeline, we should see that number increase as we get closer to their crowdsale in Q4 2017. It will be interesting to watch this number grow as their exposure grows around the crowdsale and marketing they will do prior to then.

Atomic Swaps

For those unfamiliar with term Atomic Swaps, it means being able to exchange cryptocurrency without going through an exchange or middle man. This allows cryptocurrency holders to exchange crypto directly. Currently only Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Decred support this.

Charlie Lee, the Founder of Litecoin just completed an atomic swap with Litecoin to Bitcoin on September 22nd. He announced it via his twitter page:

The only issue with atomic swaps is it still doesn't solve crypto to fiat and fiat to crypto conversion. In the Nasdaq article "Decred Adds Atomic Swap Support for Exchange-Free Cryptocurrency Trading", it discusses the huge break through that atomic swaps bring, but mentions at the end fiat to crypto issues:

"However, it doesn't solve the problem of crypto-to-fiat and fiat-to-crypto trading, which is arguably of top concern for cryptocurrency users."

If Ethereum is able to perform cross-chain swaps with Bitcoin or Litecoin down the road, Dether has got the crypto to fiat conversion covered. Plus Dether isn't an exchange a person is going through, but instead a person to person meetup.

The future is looking bright for cryptocurrency with Dether offering a new avenue for people to become cryptocurrency holders and atomic swaps mitigating the steps for people to set up accounts on exchanges.

Tell me what you guys think about Atomic Swaps and Dether in the comments below. Do you think this is the next logical step forward for cryptocurrency?

You can check out my previous article on Dether here.

The Dether app is currently in Alpha and you can participate here.

If you want to find out more about the project here are some links:

Slack: http://slack.dether.io
Website: https://dether.io
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dether.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dether_io
Medium: https://medium.com/@DETHER/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dether/

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Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, always do your own research. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based on your own personal circumstances.