Bitcoin utility blockchain VerifiedX debuts ‘Venmo-for crypto’ payment app Butterfly

The team behind VerifiedX, a layer-1 blockchain and Bitcoin sidechain, released Butterfly, a payment app that aims to be as easy to use as utilities like Venmo or Cash App, the firm said on Wednesday.

The crypto payment system says it removes the complexity of many popular crypto wallets and payments offerings without the relatively high fees found with some exchanges. It goes live in partnership with Crypto.com, Moonpay and Blockdaemon.

Butterfly joins a number of firms looking to offer easier crypto transaction or peer-to-peer personal payments. Cash App and Venmo themselves offer limited crypto features alongside traditional transfers.

For over a decade, digital currency has been gated by complexity and a fear of confusing private keys, difficult software or just simply making a mistake, VerifiedX said in a press release. Butterfly offers users transactions that only cost a penny, the power of an institutional bank account and an “undo” button for mistyped payments.

VerifiedX started out five years ago to “create additional utility for Bitcoin and layer 1 to be a standalone platform for tokenization,” said Jay Pollak, the firm’s head of strategy and business development. This led to the creation of an “easy click and point environment” in the form of the VFX Switchblade wallet.

Butterfly takes this ease of use a step closer to existing web interfaces and user experience, Pollack said in an interview.

“What we had built with our wallet was usable and solved actual everyday problems, especially for bitcoin owners. But then we asked, ‘how do we take this technology and put it into a format that everyday people can understand?’” Pollacks aid. “Well, everyday people understand Venmo, they understand Zelle, they understand CashApp. So we folded what we had built into a front end web based app called Butterfly.”