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2/ Despite consistently dominating the top rankings for payment solutions on @defipulse, Flexa is still mostly flying under the radar. I believe there are many misconceptions of what Flexa is building and many don’t recognise the opportunity it represents.
3/ Let me make a case as to why I think @FlexaHQ is a gamechanger for #DeFi, any why I think it will provide a crucial bridge for crypto to become mainstream, in-store and globally spendable assets.
4/ Lets start with the issue at hand.
Noticed how payments as a use case for crypto are barely talked about these days? It seems as though many have given up on on the idea of using digital assets for in store payments anytime soon.
Why is that?
Noticed how payments as a use case for crypto are barely talked about these days? It seems as though many have given up on on the idea of using digital assets for in store payments anytime soon.
Why is that?
5/ While Satoshi’s vision for BTC was to be digital cash, scaling issues have lead us to adopt the new narrative of a “digital Gold”.
Equally ETH’s current gas prices and confirmation times are way too high for it to facilitate instant payments on chain.
Equally ETH’s current gas prices and confirmation times are way too high for it to facilitate instant payments on chain.
6/ Lightning Network is a big hope for a patch, but it comes with its own issues. It’s uncertain if it will be able to allow for a wide scale adoption of BTC in retail payments and merchant acceptance. And even if, it’s usecase evolves exclusively around BTC. https://twitter.com/joostjgr/status/1308414364911841281
7/ Attempts to solve the issue on-chain with millions of tx/s still require bespoke bridges for each payment asset, and the necessary traction to secure these networks in a decentralised manner remains yet another open question.
8/ Many projects are partnering with Visa to offer payments, putting the cart before the horse. Compared to these legacy solutions, digitally native rails would offer the unique opportunity to use the efficiency of cryptographic networks for payments. https://bit.ly/3ju1twW
9/ Visa payments run through a complex web of intermediaries, who are adding fees along each step. This system is heavy, outdated, susceptible to fraud, and unsuitable for the transaction of digital assets.
10/ In order to unlock crypto assets as feasible means of payment, we need an asset agnostic abstraction layer that solves the issue of network congestion and provides instant payment finality, without compromising on decentralisation.
11/ These rails would need to be compatible with current POS (point of sale) hardware, and allow for anyone to build financial products on top of the network without needing permission.
13/ Now, how does it work?
Instead of tackling the issue on chain, Flexa introduces decentralised collateral pools that provide liquidity for any transaction, bridging its confirmation time and providing payment finality as a service.
https://flexa.network/whitepaper.pdf
Instead of tackling the issue on chain, Flexa introduces decentralised collateral pools that provide liquidity for any transaction, bridging its confirmation time and providing payment finality as a service.
https://flexa.network/whitepaper.pdf
12/ Imagine applying @Uniswap liquidity pools to the concept of transactions and in-store payments. The concept of decentralised mediating liquidity that revolutionised decentralised trading UX will also unlock instant transactions finality of any digital asset.
13/ In the background, Flexa’s network takes care of clearing, asset exchange and final settlement. Meanwhile, transactions are instant and final, without needing to engage with the backend layer at all.
14/ This is new. This is unique. Most of our banking infrastructure today, including PayPal, Apple Pay and many others, are built on top of old payment rails. There was never a more opportune moment to rebuild our payment networks from scratch.
15/ compared to Visa, Flexa can save the merchant up to 3% of payment fees, by cutting out centralised clearing and verification, while making the network more secure and fraudproof. A massive incentive for merchant adoption.
16/ $AMP is the collateral token that powers the network (formerly called Flexacoin). Flexa uses it to apply liquidity to the system through designated collateral pools.
https://amptoken.org/
https://amptoken.org/
17/ Codeveloped with @Consensys the architecture of $AMP allows for delegated staking - allowing liquidity provision without give up custody of funds. This is crucial for institutional support, since custody is highly regulated topic.
https://amptoken.org/whitepaper.pdf
https://amptoken.org/whitepaper.pdf
18/ $AMP equally represents a stake in the network. Flexa’s economy captures all accrued value within the token itself. Merchant fees are used to buy back $AMP from the open market, in order to pay it out as rewards to collateral providers. Flexa itself retains no profits.
19/ Consequently the value of $AMP relates to the total payment volume of the network - all profits are funnelled back into the system. Think about this for a moment. Imagine an asset representing a stake in the global volume of visa, as opposed to its mere profits.
20/ It’s important to note, it’s not necessary to hold any $AMP in order to use the network. By using a Flexa powered wallet, you can freely pay with any of your digital assets, without needing to interact with the backend at any point. You don’t even need to know it’s there.
21/ We could further imagine $AMP to play a role in many other usecases beyond retail payments. Its design makes it attractive wherever instant transaction finality is needed, notably in the settlement of trades, lending, exchange transactions or bridging L1 with L2.
22/ The Flexa SDK is a plug and play solution for custodian, and non-custodian wallets to make your digital assets spendable in store. @Gemini already uses Flexa’s payment rail for their payment app, many more will join.
Are you starting to see the bigger picture now?
