Lawnmower app lets users invest small change into Bitcoin

Posted On 23 Apr 2015

Lawnmower is the name of a new mobile app that tracks users’ credit cards and banking transactions and rounds each transaction up to the next dollar, and then invests that spare change into Bitcoin, reported Fortune magazine.

For example, if a user buys a $3.25 cup of coffee, Lawnmower will round up to $4 and take the additional 75 cents and purchase Bitcoin. The money will add up and appreciate in value over time, at least in theory, said Fortune.

“We’re promoting these tiny little purchases every day,” said Lawnmower co-founder Alex Sunnarborg to Fortune. “It’s really for the saving, investing side” of Bitcoin’s growing uses, he said.

The magazine reported that the app does not charge any fees for its current service, but users are still subject to those of Coinbase, whose wallet users are required to register for in order to store the Bitcoins they accumulate.

Sunnarborg said he expects Bitcoin enthusiasts to represent most of Lawnmower’s early users, and that twenty-somethings could be next. “It’s definitely going to be easier to convert a 25 year-old,” he said.

Fortune reported that Lawnmower’s co-founders also hope their app’s easy automated approach to Bitcoin investing will help it appeal to more mainstream users without inundating them with the digital currency’s complexities.

Although it is not yet generating revenue, Lawnmower will eventually provide additional investing options and management services to make money. Fortune reported that referral fees from sending users to external services are another revenue stream Lawnmower could easily implement.

“Essentially the spare change was our first little quirk,” said Sunnarborg.

Image credit: Sirius

About the Author

Katherine Fletcher is a writer and editor based in London, Ontario, Canada. With a graduate degree in journalism, Katherine spent more than five years curating news on Canadian higher education for a marketing consultancy. Her interest in reporting on Bitcoin stems from her belief that digital currency is, and will continue to be, a disruptor in how we conceive modern currency.