Unocoin Teams Up with Purse.io to Turn Mechanical Turk into Rupees

India-based Bitcoin Exchange Unocoin has partnered with Purse.io to complete the cycle from Mechanical Turk to Indian rupees.

Purse.io, launched last year, is a Bitcoin startup that enables the exchange of Amazon gift card credit and bitcoins at advantageous prices. It claims to help you save 20% on Amazon items by purchasing with bitcoin.

Mechanical Turk is an initiative by Amazon, launched initially for internal purposes in 2005, to use human intelligence (i.e. manual work) for tasks that cannot be performed by computers. It has since expanded into a global crowdsourcing marketplace, connecting "requestors" with workers (a.k.a. providers, or Turkers) to fulfill such tasks.

Most Turkers are based outside the U.S., making for an awkward choice of payment options: either a USD check in the mail, or an instant Amazon gift card balance. Purse.io can convert this balance into bitcoin, and Unocoin, based in India where many of the workers are located, would have these converted to Indian rupees.

The exchange with Purse.io takes roughly two days.