Cryptocurrency exchange service ShapeShift AG has today launched an iPhone app which allows users to trade virtual currency via their phones.

Claimed to be the first app of its kind on iOS, the ShapeShift app allows users to exchange Bitcoin for other cryptocurrencies, including DogeCoin, Litecoin, Namecoin and others, vice versa, or even between obscure digital currencies currently supported by the service.

“Since inception, ShapeShift has changed what is expected of altcoin exchanges” ShapeShift Founder and Chief Executive Officer Erik Voorhees told SiliconANGLE via email. ” Having a presence on mobile is a crucial step in our roadmap for delivering the most frictionless experience possible while working at the speed of digital currency.”

Like as already available via Shapeshift’s online exchange and API, the new app allows users to trade Bitcoin with other cryptocurrencies without requiring an account, username, password, or email address. The model is claimed to provide superior consumer protection as it doesn’t warehouse sensitive private information.

The process, described as “Shifting” coins, allows a user to select the desired digital asset or coin, specifying a payout address, then experience the conversion only moments after their deposit is received.

“Most exchanges hold customer funds and extract personal information, which is an archaic and insecure model,” Voorhees added. “Mt. Gox was a teachable moment for everyone in the Bitcoin community and ShapeShift has innovated these problems out of the picture. ”

“We are both faster and more secure. This is real consumer protection—no funds or sensitive information is stored on our servers nor on the user’s phone in case it is damaged, destroyed or stolen. Digital currency has brought to humanity a more secure infrastructure, and so we build in that spirit.”

It’s an interesting idea from a pure security viewpoint and the site, while being limited by the fact that they do not exchange with or deal in fiat currency, looks well placed as interest in cryptocurrency trading continues to grow, in a not dissimilar way to how Foreign Exchange trading has grown in popularity over the last decade outside of traditional financial institutional trading.

Founded in 2014 (see our previous coverage here,) and based in Switzerland, ShapeShift has raised $791,500 to-date in a seed round from Barry Silbert, and “Bitcoin Jesus” Roger Ver.

The app can be downloaded from Apple App Store here. No word as yet as to whether an Android app may be coming.

Image credit: whitez/Flickr/CC by 2.0