GunBroker.com, the world’s largest website for hunting and shooting firearms, will adopt a new stablecoin called FreedomCoin to be used as a payment method in its auctions. As a stablecoin, FreedomCoin is pegged to the U.S. dollar, and customers will be able to use personal digital wallets via BitRail, a new blockchain-based infrastructure that allows organizations to employ regulatory-compliant cryptocurrencies for transactions. GunBroker.com brings buyers and sellers together within a secure and comprehensively informative auction site that has facilitated over $4 billion in cumulative sales.
Cameron Chell, blockchain entrepreneur and co-founder of BitRail, recently spoke at length about how FreedomCoin works and how it can help not only GunBroker.com and its customers, but can also benefit the entire firearms industry and firearms enthusiasts.
“Many aspects of regulation are squeezing the financial and transaction side of gun purchases,” Chell said. “The cryptocurrency that we’ve launched is not your typical cryptocurrency. First, it’s a stablecoin, so it’s tied to the U.S. dollar, so it doesn’t have big fluctuations. The big advantage of this particular coin that GunBroker.com is launching is that along with all your background checks, it also provides KYC, know-your-client, and it also provides AML, anti-money laundering, checks in it…”
Cameron Chell also provided a step-by-step description of the process that a GunBroker.com customer would use to populate his or her BitRail wallet for the first time. Customers can go to the GunBroker.com site and go to BitRail and they can either use a credit card, ACH, money order, or wire transfer, and populate their BitRail wallet from the GunBroker.com site. GunBroker.com members can get a BitRail wallet and utilize their FreedomCoin in order to make purchases.
The first time customers get into the coin, their credit card may charge a transaction fee, but once they’re in the coin, the fees are about half of any other comparable transactions in the industry.
The first thing BitRail is trying to ensure is a safe, transparent transaction. The second thing is to ensure is that there exists a payment mechanism for gun purchases. The third thing is to reduce transaction fees to the community.
FreedomCoin can also serve as an alternative to mainstream financial institutions and payment methods if those institutions ever withdraw their services from the firearms marketplace.
“It’s an alternative to other payment methods, which are Visa, Mastercard, and the PayPals of the world,” Cameron Chell added. “We’re regulatory compliant, we’re integrated in the banking system, we have money-transmitter licenses, we do all the things that are required by a regulated environment, but we do it in a manner that allows this community to ensure that they have got a purchase or payment option.”