Zebpay, an Indian startup, has announced the launch of a mobile app for Android which it claims is as easy to use as instant text messages. The company sees its mission in bringing bitcoins “to everyone for everyday use”.

India has a thriving and promising ecosystem of bitcoin startups and a favourable regulatory climate. In December 2014, the governor of India’s Reserve Bank Raghuram Rajan called  bitcoin “fascinating” during a discussion broadcast on Indian television, although he also expressed concerns about its securtiy and volatility. He did not reject the idea of the adoption of bitcoin by central banks. FlipKart, one of India's major online retailers, is likely to integrate bitcoin payments, following the example of global giants like Paypal and Expedia.  

The Zebpay launch announcement explains that after downloading the app, users will be able to send bitcoins to anyone in their address book, using just the recipient’s mobile number. “Zebpay is the world's first Bitcoin mobile wallet targeted at everyone, not just geeks. If you use popular instant messaging apps, then you already know how to use Zebpay,” the announcement reads.

To make the product even more accessible, Zebpay published a video explaining how to use the new app on YouTube. “We want our community to have billions of normal people rather than a few million geeks,” Mahin Gupta, the company's co-founder and CTO told IHB. A beta version of the app was released in November 2014. The company is also trying to lure early adopters by promised rewards of the bitcoin equivalent of $1 to first-time users, as well as $5 for inviting others to sign up.

The company claims that the technology behind the wallet is revolutionary. Members of the bitcoin community, however, doubt it. A Reddit user calls the new app “a paypal clone”: “It's pretty easy to do that when you aren't actually sending bitcoins, as is the case here. You're actually sending IOU Bitcoin via SMS, so when the recipient creates a "Zebpay" account with that phone number, they will have numbers in their account balance. No bitcoins have actually moved, and the recipient is obviously required to use Zebpay. There is absolutely nothing innovative about it.”