Pundi X and DigitalBits announce partnership

0:19could you please start by giving a short overview of your companies and the solutions that you're providing in the industry starting with Malcolm on Pondi yes okuni axe is a two year old startup company we established ourselves as a blockchain specialist you know developing point of sale devices back in 2017 point of sale devices our flagship product today it

0:42helps customers or consumers and merchants transact over the blockchain and physical point of sale stores so what we're doing is really helping adoption for mass use of cryptocurrencies and digital currencies such as stable coins and as a blockchain technology provider we also have developed this past year a blockchain phone it's the first-ever blotching

1:07phone in the industry and we have our own watching Network as well under test that at this moment and will be going live this year in 2020 with that you know that's very exciting and Michael if you could give a little bit of background on digital bits that would be great yeah that's great we're really focused along the same vision as plenty of actually focus on

1:27math skill adoption how do we really Drive into mainstream society and really utilize the benefits of the blockchain technology so the main category that we're focused on is branded currencies how do we bring branded currencies into blockchain and create the ability for people to use the assets that they've already earned and this could be loyalty points reward points service credits

1:47gift cards and so forth and now we're seeing a big shift into something called branded stable coins so we're really set up as a protocol and network layer of blockchain to support the creation the movement and trade of these assets on the network and really support a consumer digital assets sphere and drive masc options so yeah so it's like a very complimentary FET working with on the X

2:10that's great and now on November 5th the announcement came out that the digital bits token was listed on the Ponte X POS system and congratulations to both companies on that Malcolm if you could touch on you know how what does this mean for Pontiacs moving forward and how do you see digital bits fitting into the ecosystem yeah I mean like I mentioned

2:33earlier I mean our whole goal is for opening up channels to make it very easy for the masses of layman person you know to be able to transact over the counter using these alternative payment methods partnering up with digit digit of its was great for it to open Jack's first and foremost we have now a huge market in North America with Canada with what

2:55we think is one of the biggest and most Prime project like industry in Canada with the Joe Pitts so just opening that market up for us is really huge we're based in Singapore so what we're doing is really creating strategic partnerships all over the world and digital bits targeting enterprise big brands is a huge factor for us to be able to scale our business that's

3:21great and can you elaborate a little bit more on how this affects the end user and the overall adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain into the mainstream industry where people that aren't currently using cryptocurrencies are now becoming more you know engrained in this technology yeah I think for us being able to create foundation core platforms and partnering up with

3:44companies like digital bits who are growing their brand in Canada who are partnering themselves with large enterprise brands is a huge first step in terms of first of all most education to the end-user and consumers right we are these are trusted relationships that are leveraged to be able to produce and commit to providing you know what people need in the real world I mean I

4:08think right now education is the first step moving towards adoption and these large brands and digital Brits are targeting it is a first step towards that and this isn't something that happens every day right I believe there's a limited amount of coins that are integrated into the Pontiac system could you give a little bit of background on you know how many

4:27are listed and how integrated are the POS systems into retailers throughout North America already yeah absolutely at the current time this in-state today we have 18 different digital assets that are listed on the ecosystem that we develop the projects that echo system consists of our parent cell device our mobile wallet as well as our NFC cards so one of the things we've done this

4:53year this past year is open up our platform platform through something called open platform where blockchain companies can you know contact us directly through our website what we're able to do there is vet a different of watching projects to find out whether or not there's a suitable or nice energy for us to list our token and project in our Nicola system and the digital bits

5:15is one of those so I mean it's not like we're very selective but you know in this industry of very nice very very early stages we're very critical about the projects and tokens we do list so today we have 18 that's great and Michael now what does this mean on the digital bit side now that you've finalized the initialization of an integration for the POS system how is

5:39this going to help with the enterprise adoption for crypto currencies through your company yes it's quite simple it's it's just more access more access to mainstream more access to what people are ready familiar with and that's something that we was really core to our beliefs it's not changing learn behavior it's doing things that people already do on pontiac's I think understands I

5:59righted their core especially with their X pass card it's something that people can physically feel physically feel like they're spending so it's really that's really what we're focused on so we want to not just shift the way people do things overnight you know we obviously love the fact that we can drive to this token economy but what do we do now to

6:17create that and that's really ultimately where we believe we can lend that land that value strategically with pontiac's introducing more brands to be a part of this ship turning that vision creating those branded currencies on chain and then by default having more off-ramps into mainstream society having more access points with the digital bits and obviously the pontiac's platform so

6:39that's really core to our belief we don't stray away from things that are confusing people I think that's been done a lot already in the blockchain world and we want to kind of bring it back to simple basic use and really share that vision with enterprise because it's it's a little bit more easier to obviously adopt and management it's something that they've already been

6:57accustomed to so that's really our core belief yeah okay that's great and speaking of off ramps and on ramps how how comfortable are the enterprise brands and just general brands where you're making branded crypto currencies so they want to keep the token reward system inside of crypto currencies or do they are they really keen on having those off ramps into Fiat

7:20and as Pontiacs help with that yeah absolutely it's it's it's it's interesting because we're obviously educating the core benefits to incentivizing the consumers with real value I think in recent years or in the past years people have been D incentivize a bit confused around all these point systems have been confused about how they actually redeem value

7:42from the things that they've done with these brands and by further incentivizing people to feel like it's real cash at the end of the day brings back that perceived value and we're really kind of focused on driving that because indirectly that's what drives frettin loyalty there's a whole host of other benefits that come with that especially from a blockchain

8:00technology perspective portability security and marketing intelligence to the brand so we're able to kind of share that experience but also really support what the consumers are looking for and make sure that it's it's a higher incentive ultimately so you know this is something that it hasn't been difficult and the first kind of insight of us driving this is some things we've done

8:23we've done events in the past with loyalty live for example was done in Chicago and it was really fundamental to see legacy brands and enterprises and people of 25 years experience really come to those events and understand what we're doing so you know sharing that message and encouraging people to adopt this new wave this it's been it's been it's been great and they've also really

8:45kind of looked at who is done this before or who is intending to do it and that's driving some level of competition too so it's nice to see that's cray and loyalty points have been around for so long now and there seemed to be some early adopters that are starting to move to this next era and all of digital currencies did you see when you're at that conference you know is it starting

9:07to rub off on all of these companies because it seems every company can have loyalty points pretty much so how warm welcome are they to jumping on to a platform like digital bits it's it's taking some time to penetrate the education around it but once you do it starts to click they're starting to see that these are traditional systems have inherent issues

9:32in friction inherent issues in customer engagement and also inherent issues in intelligence to who the consumer actually is so something that we really determined and that's why we think 2020 is gonna be a pretty big year for this is direct to consumer brands are really taking off and they're putting a large pressure on what's called consumer packaged goods Brent's friends that

9:52don't really connect with the consumers and through the deployment of some of these branded currencies and specific sometimes a branded stable coin they're able to create that direct connection they're able to actually re-engage with that client which has they didn't have previously those type of limitations in technology so we're starting to see that

10:11they're becoming more aware that they start to need to evolve with the times and it's it's it's doing really well it's it's nice and there's a lot of research reports now that have been issued from some of these major royalty companies in North America that expose and show that benefits blotching and that we've been featuring a few of those so it's it's also really nice that it's

10:31now starting to mature as an industry where we're not just talking about technical constraints around you talking about a real fundamental use cases that's great and Malcolm there's been a few iterations of the Pondy POS system as well and it seems to be getting better and better what are your guys's plans for 2020 on making it even easier to get cryptocurrencies into the hands of

10:54retailers and consumers and maybe even have them using it without even knowing the difference between you know you're paying with your credit card you're paying with the X pass you know I think you both hit some pretty interesting points there that are critical for the adoption point of a point of view I think regarding the education part and working with the

11:16larger brands in terms of different verticals that are very important for this industry such as loyalty points remittance and just just general payments whether it's goods and services over there or even just you know being able to transact without there having to even know you know that hey this is cryptocurrency or blockchain you know like you said Ashton I mean behind the

11:36scenes this is a very technical very difficult the technology to explain to the layperson but if we make it really easy to use I think that's the key point is abuse and just emulating existing payment solutions like credit card devices on the countertop but being able to you know transact into digital currencies or cryptocurrencies then look we've done our job you know so I mean

11:58Behance seems it should be very seamless right so with merchants what we're doing with them or I'm boarding let's say for instance is partnering up with local distribution and being able to support the merchants for onboarding is even post sales so you know once they do have a device in their hand you know it's very easy for them in terms of plug and

12:17play to use operate and very little training to be able to use them and take transactions of over the blockchain so that's one of the things we're doing as well as we're creating strategic partnerships and integrating with large manufacturers of huayna cell devices already such as VeriFone and Ingenico which are going to top four point-of-sale hardware device

12:40manufacturers worldwide so in terms of scaling and getting our technology out there and blockchain base transactions partnering up with these large peninsula manufacturers is a key strategic decision for us because you already have existing distribution so again you'll have folks on the ground in the field being able to work with their existing clientele through these and who large

13:03manufacturers to be able to use expose platform and doing digital currency transactions you know on our ecosystem so that's that's a couple of the things that we're doing I think also what's really interesting with blockchain and cryptocurrency industry is the openness and I think that tunity to create different commercial models as well as offering potentially

13:26lower fees to the merchants to incentivize them to engage with us and deal in digital currencies and stable coins as well as with consumers you know making it very easy for them I think is really key at this stage moving forward in 2020 that's awesome and I think that this partnership with digital bits is a great move forward into the North American markets which are fully

13:50ingrained in all of these POS systems and it seems that this integrating into the cryptocurrencies are the next step so Michael what do you see as your strategic business goals moving into 2020 yeah just similar to what we just touched on is really focused on propelling brands sharing and educating what the benefits are to blockchain branded currencies and really focusing

14:17on various various small medium and large sized businesses because we see this as a massive shift that's just shifting in adoption and we started to see that if we can we can start to move the first movers we have the willing followers and then we have the unwilling followers and then that's that's the shift in any type of mature cycle in an industry and innovation and if we can

14:38start doing the things that we've been consistent at for the past two years moving into 2020 we'll definitely be in the right position to support the industry of branded currencies and you know really looking forward to making this you know propel blockchain in the right space and just like Malcolm said it's about making things simple we don't even need to say the word this is a

14:57cryptocurrency and then of the day people just want to use and spend the things that they have and they've earned and we want to make that happen so it's it's a pretty exciting year and I think that the industries the right point for it so I think so as well and if people are looking to learn more information about digital bits and follow along with

15:13this what's the best way for them to learn more yeah you could just check us out on digital bits package of bits org on Twitter you can check out our telegram or just write directly to our website's digit bit Co it just I've definitely stay tuned for the next few weeks you have some pretty exciting updates to come and this could be a pretty good kickoff to the year so we're

15:34pretty excited that's very exciting and Malcolm how can people follow along with plenty x's updates for 2020 as well yeah absolutely I mean like those watching companies we do have our social media channels that you can follow so in Tallaght telegram Twitter foodie XCOM our main domain as well as our sister company function xio which represents our proprietary actually open

15:57blockchain network that's going to be launched on the main that totally this year sometime in q2 q3 potentially so they can find a lot about the blockchain phone Bob for short there as well awesome thank you so much gentleman I'll leave the links to both of your companies in the description box below that's all the time that we have for the interview today but it's been a pleasure

16:16speaking with you both I'm really excited for to see how this partnership flourishes throughout 2020 and all the best to you both for the rest of this year thanks moms question