Bunz just launched its own cryptocurrency

Toronto's most successful Facebook community-turned-global bartering network just launched its own crytopcurrency called BTZ (pronounced "bits.")

Bunz Trading Zone, which started as an invite-only Facebook group in Toronto five years ago, has blossomed since 2013 into a cashless buy-and-sell app with active users in every major Canadian city.

Up until now, users of the service could only trade physical goods between each other. Cash trades were (and still are) strictly prohibited.

Not everyone has something appropriate to trade for every item they want, however, so looser forms of currency like booze and TTC tokens had become common as a form of payment.

BTZ promises to eliminate this pain point by letting users deal in crypto that can be exchanged at more than 100 local businesses (so far) including The Drake General Store, Bar Neon, Crywolf, Hooky's Fish & Chips and The Fifth Pubhouse.

"BTZ will act as an alternative currency for use on the Bunz app when trading and will be redeemable at local stores, breweries, cafes and more, in the cities where Bunz is active," reads the company's website.

"As technology changes the way we build communities and organize ourselves — online and off — Bunz' move into the cryptocurrency space should be seen as an exciting adventure into a future that is not yet completely known, but one we’ll help create and mould into a friendly and more sustainable world."

Bunz announced in a press release on Monday that, as of today, anyone with the latest version of the service's app will receive 1000 BTZ for free. This applies to all new downloads as well, though "there is a finite amount of BTZ to be distributed."

The company says that it will continue to grow its networks of brick-and-mortar partner stores in Toronto and beyond, allowing users to further participate in the cash-free, alternative economy on a daily basis.

"BTZ is an extension of the Bunz bartering revolution," said Bunz CEO Sascha Mojtahedi when announcing the news today.

"We see a future where large institutions will be replaced with decentralized systems that are owned by the people who use them, instead of the people that built them."