📣 Bitkipi is joining forces with Pocket Bitcoin! read more

Published on Dec 22, 2021

Terms and Conditions

1. Introduction.

Kipi Technologies Sàrl, is a Swiss limited liability company (“Kipi Technologies“) which aims at providing technical and digital services to the large public, including but not limited to the Bitkipi mobile application (“Bitkipi“), and related software and infrastructure services (the “Services“).

By accessing, browsing and using our website (“Website“) and using our Services, you (“User“) acknowledge that you have read, understood and fully accepted the Terms of Service, to which we make changes from time to time.

Kipi Technologies provides Bitkipi and its Services for a fee (set as general rule at 2.5% of the transaction – reference to our FAQs for greater details on our fee model) which is charged only and only when transactions are performed by the User. There is no charge for using Bitkipi without performing transactions. The Services offered are fully non-custodial. Kipi Technologies will not hold any fund from the User.

As Bitkipi is completely relying on the Swiss company Pocket App GmbH for performing the transactions, it is fundamental that following information is conveyed to the possible Users of its Services:

  • Bitkipi is a technical platform allowing Users to purchase Bitcoin.
  • In this sense no actor including us is capable of ensuring which transactions are passed and which ones fail.
  • No actor can cancel a transaction or reverse it once it has been fully ordered.

Bitkipi source code (the code ensuring all features and functioning of the application) is fully tested and revised by independent parties before is made available to its Users. The source code is owned by Kipi Technologies. Despite that, Bitkipi fully depends on Pocket App GmbH services to execute some of its core functions.

As a result of this, Kipi Technologies is not capable to uniquely act and/or govern all its services. The User has to agree to the terms and conditions of Pocket App GmbH prior to the purchase of Bitcoin with Bitkipi. The terms and conditions of Pocket App GmbH are available under the following website: https://pocketbitcoin.com/policy/terms.

2. User Representations.

In virtue of the foregoing, Users hereby confirm that they have been made duly aware of the concepts described hereinabove and, therefore, by using Kipi Technologies' services and Bitkipi they acknowledge the following:

  • Even if Kipi Technologies manages it Services and infrastructure, it cannot fully ensure either the liveness and/or security of the key components of its application.
  • Kipi Technologies will undertake all reasonable efforts to maintain the availability and quality of its services; however, it may be the case that the Company needs to stop its operations to reasons attributable to Kipi Technologies itself or external reasons (i.e. force majeure). In any case, the Company will put in place all reasonable efforts to notify and also publicly divulge such disruptions to all Users.
  • The services, including but not limited to Bitkipi, provide a non-custodial interface, allowing Users to directly transact. This means that Kipi Technologies is not able to act as the custodian, administrator, manager, operator or any other related applicable concept, with respect to the accounts either created by Users through the services or imported by such Users to Bitkipi from external services.
  • Services provided by Kipi Technologies including Bitkipi mobile application are not services of financial nature. Kipi Technologies is not a financial intermediary nor a bank or any other actor of the financial industry. Among our services we do not provide any financial or investment advisory services. If, as a User, you decide to purchase Bitcoin with our Bitkipi Mobile App, you do that because of your own decision and your decision only and knowing that it may result in partial or complete loss of your funds.

In furtherance of the above, the Company is not able to control, authorize, reject, seize and/or censor any of the funds or the accounts held and/or managed by the Users through the Services. In other words, Kipi Technologies is not responsible and cannot be held liable by Users for any losses of funds, for the loss of access to their addresses, the improper management of secrets or private keys, Users' mistakes and/or ignorance.

For purposes of providing further clarity, once: (a) a transaction has been signed by a User using any of the Services or (b) access to funds and or addresses has been lost; there is no way back, transactions cannot be reversed, and funds cannot be recovered. Furthermore, Kipi Technologies cannot be held responsible for the functioning of Bitcoin.

Many components of the software used by Kipi Technologies in order to provide the Services, are sourced from open-source ecosystem, meaning that many independent contributors who are totally unrelated to Kipi Technologies may participate in the design, development and implementation of such components. This includes translation services.

In this sense, Kipi Technologies does not take responsibility on the contributions and/or translations produced by independent contributors nor Kipi Technologies hereby agrees to assume any potential liability arising thereof. Likewise, such contributors have not entered into an agreement, legal or business relationship with Kipi Technologies and, as such, have not undertaken any obligation or responsibility to guarantee or maintain the quality, effectiveness, accuracy and/or fitness of their contributions, nor any potential liability arising in connection therewith.

3. User Responsibilities.

Due to the characteristics of Kipi Technologies' Services, Users hereby agree that they are solely responsible for each of the following actions and, hence, will not, under any circumstances, try to hold Kipi Technologies liable for any mistakes, mismanagements, negligent conducts, deliberate errors and/or the loss of funds or the loss of access, potentially arising in connection therewith.

Users are responsible for maintaining the safety of either or all of the following: (a) seeds; (b) other keys and/or numbers relevant to the usage of Bitkipi; (c) secret numbers and/or private keys; (d) devices and (e) any other code, secret, password, key, phrase, alphanumeric word, that is associated with the usage of Bitkipi and the related capabilities of managing funds.

Users shall implement all necessary measures to keep offline backups of the above referred seed words, secrets and/or keys in multiple secure places. Kipi Technologies does not store such information on Users' behalf for security and data privacy reasons and is not a custodian of Users' funds and/or accounts. The Company is NOT and will NOT be able to recover lost funds or accounts, under any circumstances.

Importantly, Users have been made aware and hereby acknowledge that due to security reasons, the Services (including but not limited to the ones provided by Bitkipi mobile application), DO NOT allow for the export of secrets, keys and/or seeds that have been either created through the Services or imported from external sources, meaning that whenever Users intend to recover their accounts, they will always be required to do so through the usage of their offline backups or otherwise safely stored seed words and secrets.

For purpose of clarity, we list below some additional key responsibilities for the Users. Users are responsible for maintaining their mobile devices (the “Devices“), as well as their software up to date and secure, for which they shall observe the following recommendations:

  • Users shall, at all moments, install available operative system security updates.
  • Users shall not root or jailbreak their Devices.
  • Users shall not connect their Devices to untrusted devices, cables, chargers and any other untrusted hardware equipment.
  • Users of non-English versions of the Services are responsible for double-checking on the correctness and/or accuracy of the relevant translations, as language technicalities may lead to irreversible mistakes (e.g. sending funds to fraudulent addresses) or unintended utilization of the Services.

Regardless of Users' responsibilities as per this Section 3, Kipi Technologies is providing some level of support, so Users are able to submit their questions and/or concerns regarding the Services and get assistance from Kipi Technologies, who, to the extent reasonably possible, will be committed to timely provide the requested support.

4. Modification and Termination to our Services.

Kipi Technologies may constantly change, modify and improve its Services, thereby adding or removing features and offerings (software may automatically update on Users' Devices). Kipi Technologies may also temporarily or permanently suspend its Services.

Kipi Technologies maintains the unlimited right to block, ban, suspend and/or interrupt, without prior notification, the provision of its Services to specific Users, in the event that the Company detects either one or more of the following activities and/or scenarios:

  • Attempt to or successfully attack, spam or otherwise deteriorate the Services provided by Kipi Technologies,
  • Attempt to or successfully conduct fraudulent activities through the Services provided by Kipi Technologies,
  • Participate in fraudulent schemes that involve the utilization of the Services provided by Kipi Technologies,
  • Any other circumstances and/or activities reasonably deemed unsafe or dangerous as per Kipi Technologies' discretional judgement.

Kipi Technologies also conserves the unlimited right to prevent Users from using the Services to send funds to the Users who have been restricted as a consequence of being found responsible for any of the activities described herein above.

5. Update to these Terms and Conditions.

Kipi Technologies may modify these Terms and Conditions or any additional terms that apply to the Services to, for example, reflect changes to the applicable law or changes to such Services. Changes made to reflect changes arising from legal considerations, will be effective immediately. If you do not agree to the modified Terms and Conditions, you should discontinue your use of our Services.

6. Acting on Behalf of Businesses.

If you use our Services on behalf of a business, a legal entity or vehicle (a “Business“), such Business accepts these Terms and Conditions. Moreover, it will hold harmless and indemnify Kipi Technologies and its affiliates, officers, agents, and employees from any claim, suit or action arising from or related to the use of the Services or violation of these Terms and Conditions, including any liability or expense arising from claims, losses, damages, suits, judgments, litigation costs and attorneys' fees.

7. No warranty.

All Kipi Technologies' Services are provided “As Is“on a “Best Effort“basis, with all faults and as available. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Kipi Technologies, along with its representatives, officers and partners, make no (and specifically disclaims all) representations or warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including without limitation, any warranty that the Services will be uninterrupted, error-free or free of harmful components, or any implied warrant of merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement, and any warranty arising out of any course of performance, course of dealing or usage of trade. Some jurisdictions do not allow the foregoing exclusions. In such an event, such exclusion will not apply solely to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

8. Limitation of Liability.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, in no event will Kipi Technologies, its affiliates, representatives, officers, employees, suppliers or licensors be liable for: any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive, cover or consequential damages, or damages for lost accounts funds, information, virtual assets, payment obligations or content, however caused, under any theory of liability, including without limitation, contract, tort, warranty, negligence or otherwise, even if Kipi Technologies has been advised as to the possibility of such damages.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the aggregate liability of Kipi Technologies and its affiliates, representatives, officers, employees, suppliers or licensors, relating to the Services will be limited to fifty Swiss francs (CHF 50.00). The limitations and exclusions also apply if this remedy does not fully compensate you for any losses or fails of its essential purpose. Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation of incidental, consequential or other damages. In such an event, this limitation will not apply to you to the extent prohibited by law.

Users acknowledge that the foregoing limitations are an essential element of the agreement between you and Kipi Technologies and that in the absence of such limitations the terms and conditions set forth in these Terms and Conditions would be substantially different.

9. Intellectual property rights.

Kipi Technologies is the sole owner of all intellectual property rights related to the Website and Bitkipi. Any content presently displayed or made available by Kipi Technologies in the future, such as text, logos, images, music, digital downloads, and data compilations, is the property of Kipi Technologies, its affiliates or its suppliers, and is protected by Swiss and international intellectual property law. Kipi Technologies' names and logos are trademarks of Kipi Technologies. Kipi Technologies' trademarks and logos may not be used for products or services that are not offered by Kipi Technologies, or in any way that could cause confusion in the public, or in any way that disparages or discredits Kipi Technologies. Accordingly, the User agrees not to reproduce, represent, extract and use in any way any or all of Kipi Technologies' trademarks, logos, Website or Services.

10. Taxes.

It is in the sole responsibility of the User to determine whether, and to what extent, any taxes apply to any transactions he/she conducts through the usage of Bitkipi, and to withhold, collect, report and remit the correct amount of tax to the appropriate tax authorities.

11. Alternative Dispute Resolutions.

All disputes, controversies or claims (collectively, “Claims“) relating in any way to User's use of Kipi Technologies' Services, will be finally resolved through the implementation of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, including but not limited to, mediation, arbitration, conciliation and negotiation, as agreed from time to time between the Company and the respective User.

12. Applicable Law and Jurisdiction.

These Terms and Conditions and the use of Kipi Technologies' Services, the Website and the Bitkipi App will be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of Switzerland without giving effect to any choice or conflict of law provision or rule. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms and Conditions, usage of Kipi Technologies' Services, Website and Bitkipi will be resolved by the ordinary Courts in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.