In late 2009,
Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto ushered in a groundbreaking approach to money
by championing a digital payment system free from third-party intermediaries
and governmental control.
While this new
worldwide economic system has advanced significantly over a relatively short
period of time, it has yet to deliver a user-friendly approach to assist the
everyday consumer with day-to-day commerce at retail establishments.
Do cryptocurrencies
have practical use as a spending instrument? Will you be able to make purchases
at a restaurant, grocery store, retail clothier or any number of brick and
mortar storefronts with crypto anytime soon?
A rapidly growing
startup known as Crypterium proves cryptocurrencies can become an
everyday method of payments. Joined by former CEO of Visa UK Marc O’Brien,
the company is building a mobile app to “pay with crypto anywhere in the world”
converting digital tokens into spendable currency, the use of which will be as
easy as that of cash.
Left to right: Austin Kimm, COO,
Marc O’Brien, CEO, Pavel Ivanov, CTO
Want to Pay With Bitcoin? Get the App
O’Brien explains:
“Crypterium is partnering with banks to launch virtual cards that will be
attached to user’s crypto accounts in Crypterium App. Every time the consumer
makes a transaction we will execute a trade in fiat and mark their crypto
balance for a trade. You can be in a store and all of that’s done in a fraction
of a second.”
Once enabled,
users will be able to top-up their mobile phones, or shop around the world with
crypto at any spot with a near-field communication (NFC) terminal or QR code
scanning capability baked into their payment setup. Purchases can also be made
through online stores, and bills can be paid instantly. Moreover, money can be
reliably sent across borders in seconds, all for a fraction of a penny.
On top of that,
Crypterium has an incentive system. Through this system, up to 30 percent of
the transactional income generated by Crypterium will form a monthly loyalty
program fund and will be distributed among the most active users.
A Track Record of Payment Advancements
O’Brien calls
Crypterium’s promise a “Netscape moment,” in reference to the web browser that
sparked an innovative leap forward during the ’90s internet explosion. The aim
is to offer a simple tool that requires no learning curve — one that completely
mitigates the barriers preventing a crypto-fiat system of global payment.
Crypterium’s
history of building payments processing solutions dates back to 2013 when it
became the first company in Eastern Europe to release a mobile payments
solution tied to QR code scanning. In 2015, the company facilitated 300
integrations with e-commerce retail services. Two years later, it began work on
a direct interbanking debit protocol with the intent of lowering transaction
fees.
Asked about the
company’s strategic trajectory O’Brien says Crypterium will offer instant
payment of customers’ crypto and create liquidity for these payments that
doesn’t exist today. “We will overcome the timing delay and fees that exist to
exit crypto via an exchange into a bank account in fiat currency. And, for
consumer commerce, we will immediately bridge the crypto and fiat worlds and
start to facilitate crypto as an everyday medium of exchange,” he
explains.
O’Brien notes
that the fully fledged version of the app is only accessible with invitation
codes. The reason for this, he said, is that Crypterium, in an attempt to
create a flawless product, is thoroughly testing everything before providing
access to the wider audience. He said that the launch of the full version is
planned as soon as the rigorous process is fully complete.
Note: Trading and investing in digital assets is speculative and can
be high risk. Based on the shifting business and regulatory environment of such
a new industry, this content should not be considered investment or legal
advice.
This promoted article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.
