UNAIDS Director Steven Kraus Joins BitMinutes Advisory Board

BitMinutes announces the addition of Steven J. Kraus to its Advisory Board. Mr. Kraus most recently served as Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific. He joins the BitMinutes Advisory Board to support the financial inclusion goals that are at the core of the BitMinutes mission.

“In my 40 years of work in various capacities, serving communities that struggle with inconsistent and expensive financial services, I see how better access to reliable, affordable tools can help these communities break the cycle of poverty, capture more wealth for wider segments of the population, and raise health and overall living standards dramatically,” said Mr. Kraus. “Financial technology has huge potential in driving down the cost of delivering these critical services so that billions of more people can use them.”

“We are thrilled to have the energy, knowledge, and passion of Steven to tap in rolling out our BitMinutes technology over the next two years as we add markets in South America, Africa, and South Asia,” said BitMinutes CEO Tom Meredith. “His insights and influence will be indispensable in both opening new markets to us, and keeping us focused on the ultimate customer, the person in the village at the far outer edge of the current financial services delivery system.”

“BitMinutes has already established innovative approaches in applying blockchain and cryptocurrency innovations to the problem of reducing both direct and indirect costs within the financial service delivery system,” added Mr. Kraus. “This is a foundational need for expanding financial inclusion globally.”

BitMinutes launches its ICO April 30 and anticipates completing it within the month of May. The funds raised through the sale of BitMinutes (BMTs) will underwrite the expansion of services from six countries to over 70 through existing and pending agreements with financial and distribution partners in each country.

About Steven J. Kraus

Steven Kraus has more than 40 years of international development experience, Prior to joining UNAIDS, Steven Kraus served as the Global Coordinator and Chief of the HIV/AIDS Branch of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in New York, strengthening linkages between sexual and reproductive health and HIV. Previously, he served in World Health Organization’s Global Program on AIDS in Africa and Asia, with UNAIDS as Country Coordinator in Vietnam, and Program Advisor to the Inter-country Support Team in Asia, and later with the United Nations Development Group as the Senior HIV/AIDS Policy Adviser.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Mr. Kraus served in the United States of America’s diplomatic service, including five years in refugee, population and migration affairs, and five years with Catholic Relief Services in countries throughout South-East Asia. He is a Rotary International Goodwill Ambassador and an active member of several community development networks.

About BitMinutes

BitMinutes LLC is a start-up fintech company, founded in the U.S., with its European subsidiary recently established in Vaduz, Lichtenstein. BitMinutes is a cryptocurrency backed by prepaid airtime minutes, a real asset already traded informally globally by billions of mobile phone owners. The BitMinutes tagline “Better that BitCoin for Billions” reflects the fact that BitMinutes tokens allow peer-to-peer cash transactions to over 2 billion bank accounts in 70 countries and prepaid top-up to over 4 billion mobile accounts in over 200 countries. What is even more important, BitMinutes will facilitate the expansion of micro-credit and nano-credit lending in communities where lending is rare and too expensive for most individual borrowers. BitMinutes ownership and transactional records will establish a new type of consumer credit score for emerging market consumers who currently struggle with limited access to capital and a lack of traditional banking services.

Contact: Nona Perez, MVG for BitMinutes +1 646 205 7030, info@mvgmain.com