BitQuick Goes Passwordless

BitQuick is the latest Bitcoin company to integrate Clef’s passwordless two-factor authentication to make logins safe and easy for a big audience.

Oakland, CA – May 26, 2015 — BitQuick, the fastest way to buy Bitcoin, announced an integration with Clef today to protect the accounts on their platform. Clef is becoming increasingly popular for Bitcoin companies who are interested in growing their audience, especially companies on the rise like BitQuick. BitQuick has rapidly grown their volume by circumventing some of the traditional requirements for buying Bitcoin and making the process take hours instead of days. In an industry where every millisecond is tracked to help increase sales, speed is a huge asset both for the company and for the entire Bitcoin ecosystem.

A growing appeal of Clef is the network of sites which already use it. More than 70,000 sites, including popular Bitcoin networks like AlphaPoint, have already integrated Clef. Users of those sites have already gotten rid of some passwords, but actively seek out new sites where they can use Clef. This translates to an influx of new users for sites that integrate Clef and then a steady stream as it is added to Clef’s recommendation engine. The increased traffic had overwhelmed some unprepared sites, so Clef now works to even out the initial spike.

BitQuick’s speed is the headline selling point, but the service has also developed a reputation for spotting and thwarting potential scams. The slowness of other services is rooted in their fraud-prevention systems, so BitQuick has used its volume to focus on learning patterns that help identify fraud and squash it before it happens. Other services leave the fraud detection completely to the users, who cannot have the same high-level perspective and learnings. BitQuick has also integrated with Purse, and Fold to make their speedy Bitcoin purchases available for people making purchases at Amazon or Starbucks.

“Everyone in the ecosystem is talking about friction, and how we can reduce the friction in using Bitcoin,” said Brennen Byrne, CEO of Clef. “But the first Bitcoin purchase is still unforgivably slow on most systems. That’s why we’re so excited to see BitQuick solving the Bitcoin purchase problem. To get more people owning and spending Bitcoin is the key, and I know that Clef users are going to love BitQuick.

BitQuick does not require everyone trading on their platform to make accounts, but the cases where users do need to log in are particularly important to protect. Making two-factor authentication accessible for those users, and also making it really easy to use, helps them build more trust with their users. Typically, sites that offer two-factor auth see fewer than 1% of users opt in to protect their accounts, but sites that use Clef have seen more than 50% of their users opt in to the safer login. To make the process simple and seamless, Clef recognizes a user’s phone instead of anything they need to remember or type.

“For us, Clef is more than just an evolved two-factor solution,” said Jad Mubaslat, CEO of BitQuick. “We’re excited about using Clef to replace confusing passwords altogether. This improves both the experience and security habits of our users.”

A customer can log into BitQuick on any computer in the world by holding their phone up to the computer screen. Clef uses the phone’s camera and an animation called the Clef Wave to seamlessly sync with the computer and log the user in. The process is backed by the same public key cryptography as Bitcoin wallets and is available for free on any iOS or Android device.

About Clef

Clef is an Oakland startup building the two-factor of the future. By taking advantage of the rapid spread of mobile devices, Clef has built technology that is not only much more secure than traditional logins, but also much easier to use. Since 2013, Clef has spread to more than 70,000 sites and received accolades from The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, and The Economist. Clef is funded by Morado Ventures and angels from a broad variety of product and security backgrounds. For more information on Clef, visit getclef.com or email press@getclef.com.