Blockchain for the People: How to Break Down Entry Barriers to Digital Money

Last weekend, leading experts of the Blockchain industry got together at Coinsbank networking event on the Turkish Riviera to discuss current issues in the sector. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Ronny Boesing, CEO of Coinsbank, described the event as a platform which was designed to connect people with the aim of changing the world with the Blockchain.

The theme for this year’s Blockchain Party was “by connecting people bringing Blockchain tech to mainstream adoption.” Attendees from the US, UK, Finland, Germany, India, Latvia, Ukraine, Argentina, Russia, Serbia and Turkey were trying to answer one very tricky question: “What are the ways to break down entry barriers to digital money?”

Coinsbank: Revolutionize the way people exchange value

Boesing sees Coinsbank as the “new bank on the block” offering safer systems to its clients. The platform that started from Bitcoin trading operations has evolved more and more into a traditional bank with Blockchain benefits added as a layer on the top. As their biggest concern seems to be about customers feeling more secure and at ease with digital money, they are currently introducing a new type of safe wallet with multi-signature hardware.

The access to this wallet is similar to a bank’s deposit box: the client can be sure that no one else except him or her is able to get hold of the funds. In order to make any kind of operation two keys are needed to be used - one retained by the customer and the other by the bank. Without a user key no external party is able to compromise its security.

The bank is also planning to offer loans to customers as well in case the client experiences shortage of funds for developing businesses, personal money needs, unforeseen expenditure and urgency funding. Safe cryptocurrency wallet can be used as a guarantee for a credit line in fiat currency without any exchange.

Boesing concludes that through these two initiatives (Safe wallet and lending possibilities) they are building Coinsbank into a personalized bank on the Blockchain. In other expected future developments, Coinsbank is working to add Live Support product functionality as well as corporate solutions.

QIWI: Enable consumers and merchants to use and accept electronic payments

One of the speakers at Coinsbank Blockchain, leading provider of next generation payment services in Russia and the CIS QIWI suggests that the best way to break the entry barriers to digital money should be by enabling relevant payment services across physical, online and mobile channels.

The company has already deployed over 16.2 mln virtual wallets, over 164,000 kiosks and terminals, and enabled merchants to accept over RUB 67 bln cash and electronic payments monthly from over 60 mln consumers using its network at least once a month. 

“QIWI is thoroughly involved in developing and testing Blockchain projects and ideas that can be directly applied to its core payment market,” says Sergey Solonin, QIWI's chief executive officer. “QIWI is working closely with national regulators and domestic financial institutions in order to familiarize the market with these technologies. At the moment, we are at the stage of international integration. The capabilities of distributed and shared-ledger inspired technologies are very exciting for us and can help us upgrade and improve the technologies underlying our core business.”

At the moment, QIWI is working to assess the possibilities provided by the Blockchain and digital currencies, understand the market and its drivers, probe and test different products, seek business cases and drive them, and last but not least explain to the regulators that crypto is not a danger but possibility, which is one of the reasons why QIWI has recently joined R3 consortium.

Genesis Mining: Proof-Of-Work is the suitable solution

The Bitcoin mining company which was founded in 2013 Genesis Mining believes that what is needed for breaking down barriers to cryptocurrency mainstream adoption is first of all security and a trustful consensus system.

“Mining is the best consensus system for public Blockchains so far,” says Marco Streng, CEO Genesis Mining. “Miners protect the Blockchain and thus enable a reliable transaction network. They are rewarded with freshly generated currency units.”

It is important to understand that digital currencies are a self-serving network, and the underlying Blockchain tech depends on the use case. “Specific characteristics, like censorship resistance and decentralized trust come with certain costs, but also create an innovative industry space,” continues Streng. “For Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, the primary function is to be used as a currency or a store of value. These values (user payments) are validated by a network of nodes (miners) and logged into the ledger. Exchanges serve as gateway to the world market.”

Not so long ago, Genesis Mining has successfully settled the first peer-to-peer Bitcoin transaction in space with the help of a weather balloon. The company and its team stated that the project was designed and launched to demonstrate Bitcoin’s endless potential and its capability to process transactions literally anywhere in the world, including space.

The next Coinsbank Blockchain Party will be held on a cruise ship in the end of May 2017.