The Flexa Network Protocol is a payment processing technology that takes advantage of the increased speed, security and lower transacting costs that are all possible through blockchain technology. As far as sharing any details for the project and their vision goes, Flexa effectively debuted their project to the public on May 14th through a long talk at Consensus 2019 – detailed timestamps in the comments.

The talk begins with some enlightening introductory information about the status quo of the retail payments landscape, to give you a sense of how unnecessarily bloated, costly and vulnerable the entire process is. I highly recommend the first portion of the talk to anyone who wants to learn about the retail payments landscape. As the talk moves on, you’re shown how Flexa drastically simplifies the existing process, saving merchants hugely on upfront costs that have been going to the existing payment processing status quo.

Currently, Flexa is in an early, limited public beta stage, having only very recently launched the Android beta app to accompany their iOS counterpart. Still, the videos of people using Flexa to spend their crypto freely at household, name-brand retailers have been growing weekly and making the rounds through Twitter. Having just received an invitation to the android beta myself, I intend to add my own video to the gallery soon. Click each of these words to see different videos of Flexa in use!

What is the use-case for the Flexa Coin, specifically?

Flexacoin, or FXC, is described as being a collateral token, in direct reference to the nature of the utility that it provides for its part within the Flexa Network Protocol. A closer look understands that this particular token mechanism and protocol is a front-end, b2b solution for retail payments. A somewhat similar comparison for FXC could be NPXS (Pundi X) in that the primary function of these tokens and projects is to serve as both the front end, and the bridge, for any and all other currencies being handled by merchants and consumers alike.

I will not be breaking down the workings of FXC as a collateral token, or the overall way in which, through this, they have arrived at what I consider to be an effective and successful solution in this presentation. It’s not especially complicated, but you should experience a few explanations and develop your own grasp on it. Like many of the truly disruptive, new technologies we learn about within the digital assets space, it may just take you a few more questions, or hearing it explained a certain way to properly get your head around it. Start with the whitepaper!

What puts Flexa ahead of the competition?

1) The SDK & staking

The Flexa SDK allows anyone to construct their own apps (like SPEDN) to suit their own purposes. Little has been revealed yet by Flexa to shed the light of any specific regarding just exactly which ways the SDK will or can be used. Perhaps a plurality of merchants would like to implement a shared, singular loyalty rewards program that applied to all of the stores in the network? It is my understanding that final development of the SDK is currently being focused on and remains a priority and a prerequisite ahead of staking.

Deferring to this graphic from the whitepaper, I would say it is reasonable to summarize Flexa’s overarching vision as: “Any app, spending any coin, over the Flexa Network, in any fiat, at any merchant.”

There is one particular point around the SDK that we do know a little bit about, and that is that any wallet can use the SDK to integrate with the Flexa Network Protocol allowing any wallet can access the Flexa network permissionlessly via staking contracts. More specifically, we know from the long Consensus 2019 talk that BRD wallet, servicing over two million users with an estimated net worth roughly six billion dollars. This is one wallet. And they have been working with Flexa, as have many other wallets.

In the most recent update from Flexa, it was indicated that staking would become a top priority following work on the SDK as well as their debut into their first market outside of the United States, which is projected to take place in early August of 2019.

You will eventually have options when it comes to which app (SPEDN, etc) you choose to stake within, because all payment platforms built on top of the Flexa Network Protocol will use $FXC. It is a design goal that this ability to build on Flexa can be so accessible that it can be used by almost anyone who wants to incorporate a crypto-to-retail payments service – from mom and pop shops to video games, in theory. And, yes. Web payments, too.

Some apps may offer higher or lower staking rewards at a given time, for one reason or another. Staking is essential to the real-time, low-fee and secure transacting, as this is the means by which liquidity is achieved. The more people staking FXC, the stronger the network and the more quickly everything can be verified. This is why you are rewarded – for participating in staking contracts.

I want to note that I value the opportunity to stake with Flexa to as a plausibly safer opportunity for those looking to stake and invest in long-term passive gains through digital assets. That is, safer than the majority of other options that exist, be it with lending services, exchanges or the many other less credible, less transparent entities with whom you don’t necessarily have a true understanding of what they’ll be doing with your money, or where it will be. Why do they want to hold on to it? Food for thought. In any case, staking is coming, and that is a very attractive perk for long-term investors. Flexa has laid the groundwork for good tokenomics, offering compelling rewards for people’s investment in an asset which itself, directly, and mechanically, performs the essential functions of the Flexa Network Protocol. You could loosely interpret this as you holding a stake in the (future) retail payments processing status quo. I believe Flexa has the potential to disrupt/consume/improve a space previously dominated by Visa and Mastercard, and that, in this way, as a prospective investor, you have what is, again, very loosely, something like an opportunity to become a part of the ‘new Visa’, setting up shop and being paid for processing (and securing) payments.

2) Size, Quality and Rate of Growth for retail partnership network

Here is a current list of partners, either formally announced or otherwise witnessed in the external SPEDN beta, or in videos of internal beta testers using the SPEDN app in these stores already:

Alamo Draft House Cinema

AMC Theaters

Barnes & Noble

Baskin Robbins

Bed Bath & Beyond

Best Buy

buybuy BABY

Caribou Coffee

Crate & Barrel

Dunkin’ Donuts

Express

GameStop

Jamba Juice

Lowe’s

Nordstrom

Nordstrom Rack

Office Depot & Office Max

One Kings Lane

Petco

Regal

Starbucks

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Think Geek

Top Golf

Ulta Beauty

Whole Foods

World Market

From the May 14th Consensus 2019 Flexa Debut Presentation:

“We think finally it’s possible to buy entertainment, buy groceries, get your morning cup of coffee or your Jamba Juice, if you will, so. And so, we specifically curated this list of merchants. Tt’s fifteen merchants to launch, and we’re expecting to see almost a hundred by the end of the year.”

“We’re really excited about the merchants that we’ve brought on board, we’re also excited about the merchants that we haven’t been able to announce yet.”

From Flexa’s July 9th Press Release:

“With that said, we’re proud to share that just over a month from now, we plan to launch Flexa in the first major market outside of the United States. We have an incredible set of brands lined up to help welcome residents of this next country to the world of instant cryptocurrency payments, and we couldn’t be more excited to share the news with you soon.”

3) Merchants wanting to trial, use & scale up their use of Flexa do not have to purchase new point of sale hardware. Customers use a free app on the Android or iOS phones they already have.



Another ace up Flexa’s sleeve is the simple, and easily overlooked fact that merchants do not have to buy any new Point of Sale hardware to use the Flexa Network Protocol. In other words, as you’ll observe in the videos of beta testers paying in stores, linked below, you can simply walk into a participating retailer, and they’ll scan a QR code from your phone. And you’re done. Compare this to a project like Pundi X – a project that I follow – but who is relying on numerous proprietary Point of Sale (XPoS) and/or wallet devices (xPhone) as integral components of their own attempt at blockchain-powered in-store payments. This means upfront costs to both Pundi X and the merchants which will always exist as a part of the process, inhibiting the ease and rate of scaling, as more and more hardware will have to be assembled, shipped and sold. Add on top of that the costs of dealing with parts and labor to maintain, troubleshoot and upgrade their hardware network.

Compare this to the ease of existing merchant locations and hardware being able to just scan a QR code off of your phone. Months ago, already.



In this way, it appears to me that Flexa may have already dominated the point of sale aspect of the race towards the future of retail payments.

4) The partnership with Gemini & the Winklevoss twins

The most pertinent understanding to form around the immediate value of the partnership with Gemini, is that Gemini is providing Flexa with this exclusive use and application of the $GUSD stablecoin. An insured, regulated, exchange-issued, US dollar backed stablecoin. To me, this single aspect of Flexa puts it, again, orders of magnitude ahead of competitors in the space. Flexacoin, and the Flexa Network Protocol is one of the most compelling ideas and feats that I have witnessed in the space so far, but this utility of the $GUSD and the Gemini exchange as solutions to liquidity and insurance, and to regulatory concerns – these solutions put Flexa so far ahead that referring to their competitors as such feels increasingly, potentially, dishonest.

Merchants don’t have to touch, let alone convert crypto. In fact, they don’t really have to learn very much about crypto, or blockchain technology. That’s not my advice, but. How much does the average merchant or consumer know about the way our payments processing technologies work, as it is, though? How much do merchants and consumers know about the technological underpinnings of point of sale terminals and processor networks and such? If you watch the videos, the clerks ringing people up don’t have any idea what someone is paying with. You can buy a cup of Coffee with some Litecoin, walk across the street and grab a book with some Bitcoin, and you’d be the only person who knew as much.

That’s the upfront, short and most important thing to understand about the partnership with Gemini and the Winklevoss Twins.

The longer, more abstract and more speculative value of the partnership takes a bit of time to really uncover and to begin to imagine, primarily due to just how much there is to learn about what Gemini and the Winklevoss twins have been up to in the last several years. This being said, as there sincerely is so much information that I’ve included in an attempt to demonstrate the overall potential value and designs I see in store for Flexa, by way of this partnership – I will not actually be speculating or speaking to all that I personally get out of having reviewed all of the following information. I leave it to you to contemplate the nature, depth and value of this partnership. Enjoy!

Image credit: Flexa Medium

Gemini & the Winklevoss twins

“In 2018, Gemini launched the Gemini dollar, dollar-pegged stablecoin, under the direct supervision of its regulator the New York Department of Financial Services. Flexa customers’ assets will also be custodied by Gemini, providing an additional layer of security and regulation.”

“Another interesting component of SPEDN is Flexa’s partnership with Gemini — hence why the wallet supports Gemini Dollars. Drawing from Gemini’s existence as an NYDFS-regulated [BitLicensed] cryptocurrency exchange, all custodial funds in SPEDN wallets are insured and deposited with Gemini’s regulated infrastructure.”

“Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is now offering support for hardware security keys via WebAuthn.

The new feature will allow customers to use a hardware wallet, MacOS TouchID, and even Windows Hello as a two-factor authentication (2FA) method when signing into a Gemini account.

The US-based exchange has claimed that it is “the world’s first crypto exchange and custodian to support the WebAuthn security protocol”.”

Last year, Gemini introduced support for Authy Push. With this feature, customers who have the Authy app installed will automatically receive a push notification that contains transaction details and requires confirmation every time they attempt a crypto withdrawal.”

“Protecting your crypto is a cornerstone of our mission to build the future of money. We have operated from day one with a security-first mentality and have focused on providing our customers with layered security features to help them protect their Gemini accounts. Simply put, trust is our product.

Today, we’re excited to raise the bar even higher by introducing support for hardware security keys via WebAuthn (“Web Authentication”). You can now use USB security keys (e.g., Yubikeys, Feitian keys, Trezor and Ledger hardware wallets, etc.), MacOS TouchID, and even Windows Hello as your two-factor authentication (2FA) method when signing into your Gemini account. Gemini is the world’s first crypto exchange and custodian to support the WebAuthn security protocol.”

“Two weeks ago, we released a self-service tool called Withdrawal Address Whitelisting. When enabled, your crypto may only be withdrawn from your Gemini account to specific crypto addresses (submitted and approved by you).”

“Authy Push, Whitelisting, and today’s announcement of WebAuthn, give you the advanced tools you need to secure your Gemini account. We will continue to strive to be the most secure place for you to buy, sell, and store your crypto today and tomorrow.”

“Increasingly compliant cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has passed a security audit conducted by ‘big four’ accounting firm Deloitte”

“Gemini founders the Winklevoss twins confirmed that they are the first cryptocurrency organization to have completed the System and Organisation Controls (SOC) 2 Type 1 examination.”

“This included a review of Gemini’s exchange application, infrastructure, and underlying customer database, as well as its institutional-grade cryptocurrency storage system that custodies the private keys of Gemini’s online and offline wallets,” the company added.

The recent audit by Deloitte, coupled with last month’s audit of the exchange’s native stablecoin, confirm Gemini’s position as one of the most compliant exchanges in the cryptocurrency space.”

“Messari’s attention to “significant and legitimate” volumes follows a report from major cryptocurrency index fund provider Bitwise Asset Management, which stated that 95 percent of volume on unregulated exchanges appears to be fake or non-economic in nature.

Messari launched a new product dubbed “Real 10 Volumes” on its OnChainFX dashboard to limit its default volume calculations to the chosen exchanges. The “Real 10” trading platforms include Binance, Bitfinex, Bitflyer, Bitstamp, Bittrex, Coinbase Pro, Gemini, itBit, Kraken, and Poloniex.”

“We believe that investors coming into cryptocurrency deserve the exact same protections as investors in more traditional markets, adhering to the same standards, practices, regulations and compliance protocols.” said Chris Roan, head of marketing at Gemini.

“Avelacom provides the financial services industry with high-performance global connectivity and IT infrastructure. Under the partnership, clients of both Gemini and Avelacom will benefit, as the deal will bring increased connectivity options to Gemini.”

“Commenting on the partnership, Aleksey Larichev, the Chief Executive Officer of Avelacom, said: “Gemini provides fundamental components to a robust, mature, and well-functioning cryptocurrency market including infrastructure for trading and custody.”

“Avelacom’s network spans across more than 20 international markets. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed specifically to support real-time applications and high-volume data streams.

Earlier this year, the company announced a similar partnership with Seed CX. As Finance Magnates reported, the main goal of the partnership is to provide Avalecom’s institutional investors with access to Seed CX’s real-time market data and order-routing solutions.”

“Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, has joined the British Telecommunications (BT) Radianz Cloud broker community, a BT press release reports on Feb. 27.

The Radianz Cloud is described in the press release as “one of the world’s largest, secure networked financial cloud communities,” comprised of thousands of institutions, exchanges, brokers and clearing and settlement houses. Now the members of this community will reportedly have access to the crypto market though Gemini.

Nick Vigier, chief information officer at Gemini, declared that joining Radianz Cloud strengthens the exchange’s institutional investor connectivity. According to Michael Woodman, managing director of BT Radianz:

“global financial institutions have very specific requirements about the performance, resilience and security of the infrastructure over which they trade.”

According to Woodman, Gemini’s membership in the network signals that it can meet the requirements of such global institutions.

According to the section of BT’s website dedicated to the service, Radianz Cloud is used in over 50 countries. An annual report published on BT’s website, claims that it registered 2.97 billion pounds (nearly $4 billion) in normalized free cash flow last year

BT — which is Britain’s largest internet and telecoms provider — already manifested its interest in blockchain technology in October 2017, when the company secured a patent for its proposed cybersecurity system for blockchain protection.”

“Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has hired former New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) chief information officer Robert Cornish to serve as its first chief technology officer.

The exchange, founded by investor-brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, announced Friday that Cornish would be in charge of Gemini’s technology team and strategy, according to a press release. Further, Cornish will be overseeing the deployment of Nasdaq’s SMARTS Market Surveillance, a benchmark for “real-time and T1” solutions for market surveillance.”

“We have championed best practices that we believe make Gemini a safe place that fosters market integrity:

Marketplace Conduct Rules — On September 21, 2017, we adopted Marketplace Conduct Rules. These rules were modeled off of the Cboe Futures Exchange, LLC (CFE) Rulebook.

Marketplace Surveillance — On April 25, 2018, we announced our partnership with Nasdaq to implement Nasdaq’s SMARTS Market Surveillance technology to monitor the Gemini marketplace. As of August 10, 2018, SMARTS has been deployed on the Gemini marketplace.

Market Surveillance Team — On April 25, 2018, we hired a Head of Market Surveillance. Since then, we have built a Market Surveillance Team that continues to grow.

Virtual Commodities Association — On March 13, 2018, we published a proposal for the Virtual Commodity Association, an industry-sponsored self-regulatory organization for virtual commodity exchanges. CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz issued a public statement in support. The initial working group held its inaugural meeting in September 2018.

This is just the beginning as we plan to continue to engage and work with regulators across the country on both the state and federal level (Gemini currently has licenses or approvals in 49 states), as well as internationally, to help shape thoughtful regulation and oversight so that consumers are afforded the same protections in the crypto market as they are in more traditional markets.”

“Their (NYSDFS) approval of Gemini as the first-ever licensed platform to support Ether trading demonstrates their commitment to being global thought leaders in financial regulation that both protects customers and fosters innovation.”

“The New York State Department of Financial Services just approved the trading of privacy-protecting cryptocurrency.

Gemini will become the first BitLicensed exchange to offer trading in Zcash.”

“According to a patent filing made public by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on May 8, 2017, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have won a patent for settling exchange-traded products (ETPs) with digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Ripple, Dogecoin and Ethereum.

ETPs are derivative-based investments that are traded on a securities exchange. An ETP is generally valued on the basis of a benchmark stock or commodity, which in the case of Winklevoss IP’s patent would be bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency. While derivative-based cryptocurrency investments already exist in the form of the bitcoin futures contract offered by CBOE and CME Group, no ETPs exist for the US cryptocurrency market yet.

The document reveals that the Winklevoss Twins first applied for the patent in December 2017 through their jointly-owned venture, Winklevoss IP.”

“As CoinDesk previously reported, the Winklevoss brothers won a patent last month for a system that settles transactions for ETPs tied to cryptocurrencies. Like the other patent, this week’s award names a variety of cryptocurrencies, from major ones like Bitcoin and Monero to more obscure ones like BBQcoin.

Publicly available data shows that this week’s patent is the seventh crypto-related patent the Winklevoss brothers have received, with the first being awarded in December of last year.”

“According to a report by BTCNewsToday, just days ago the digital currency exchange announced a new partnership with Nasdaq in an effort to monitor markets. At the same time, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman hinted at the possibility of the foundational stock exchange adopting cryptocurrencies at some point in the future, pending the stability of regulatory efforts that the industry has yet to see realized. The partnership has analysts and cryptocurrency enthusiasts wondering exactly what could be in store for Gemini and if this will be the move that cements the exchange’s place as a major player in the crypto space.”

“The partnership with Nasdaq is not the only step that Gemini has taken to set itself apart from other digital currency exchanges. Just weeks ago, the Winklevoss’ company announced a step toward large-scale volume exchange when it launched so-called block trading for its users. These large trades can now be accomplished off-book, published with a delay of several minutes in order to minimize the risks of localized volatility, which continues to be a concern for cryptocurrency traders around the world.

Earlier this year, the Winklevoss brothers also revealed plans to launch a Virtual Commodity Association, a self-regulating organization for digital currency markets that also aims toward efficiency and transparency. While the proposed plan has yet to take effect, it was met with a cautious welcome by many in the digital currency space. Supporters believe that an organization of this type would help to maintain innovation in the cryptocurrency space while also facilitating issues of liquidity and pricing, among other things.

The exact impact of the partnership between Gemini and Nasdaq remains to be seen; however, if it is successful, it may prove to be a transformative change for the cryptocurrency exchange world.”

“The Winklevoss-owned cryptocurrency exchange Gemini will apply for a broker-dealer license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), CoinDesk has learned.

This is the first step toward becoming an approved Alternative Trading System, where customers can lawfully swap digital securities.

Gemini previously partnered with the tokenized securities platform Harbor, which allows institutional investors to buy securities with Gemini’s GUSD stablecoin and to also receive dollar-denominated dividends via GUSD. It stands to reason that Gemini would also want to facilitate the trading of such securities on its own platform.

In February, Harbor CEO Joshua Stein told CoinDesk that brokers, family offices and investment banks are still “interested at a significant level” in tokens, even though the more stringent regulatory climate subdued 2017’s broader market frenzy. So far, the platform has focused on the potential for fractionalized real estate and startup equity, though it’s sole real-estate deal fell through in April.”

The exchange announced Thursday that it was hiring five employees as part of this effort. An individual familiar with the situation told CoinDesk that the team was recruited from a group of former Coinbase engineers, whom the rival crypto exchange laid off in April when it shuttered its own Chicago-based, institutional-focused engineering team.

The new Gemini employees will be focused on supporting the exchange’s primary products, including its professional trading platforms and custody solution.

Gemini co-founder and CEO Tyler Winklevoss told CoinDesk that the Chicago engineering team “has deep expertise in matching engines and marketplaces.”

While Gemini is currently a spot exchange that lists five assets (Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Zcash and Litecoin), Winklevoss said the company is looking to increase the number of order types on the platform, as well as “the way people can trade these assets.”

The exchange now has roughly 200 employees in Portland, Oregon and New York, in addition to the new Chicago branch.

In a statement, Winklevoss said Gemini has been “focused on building an institutional-grade platform … from day one.”

“[We] are continually investing in talent that will help us realize this” he said. “Chicago, one of the world’s major financial centers, is a natural place for us to be. We’re thrilled to formally expand our footprint there as interest in reliable, trustworthy, cryptocurrency trading platforms continues to grow among investors.”

“The Winklevoss twins have become the world’s first bitcoin billionaires”

“As Facebook continues to poke around at the possibility of creating its own digital currency, it’s created the possibility for the unlikeliest of reunions. According to the Financial Times, the social networking giant has held talks with the Winklevoss twins to discuss the possibility of using Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange founded by the brothers, to store and distribute the planned Facebook coin.

According to the report Facebook has also held conversations with Coinbase about the possibility of storing and converting the company’s planned coin. While Coinbase is one of the largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, Facebook reportedly has its eye on Gemini because of its close ties to regulators.”

“The firm, founded by twin financial entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, opens an office in the Loop, joining locations in Oregon and New York.”

“Gemini intends the new office as an “engineering hub,” supporting professional trading and custody as well as new product lines, according to a statement.”

″[Libra] is very positive for crypto, a company the stature of Facebook talking about crypto currencies demystifies the word and makes people feel a lot more comfortable, ” Tyler told CNBC in an exclusive interview

When asked what advice they would offer Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he and his team prepare for next week’s Senate hearing, Tyler said it comes down to cooperating with lawmakers.

“Work with regulators,” he said. “Talk with them. You know, we definitely went through the front door, and we tried to educate the regulators and shape the regulation in a thoughtful manner because if you get the regulation wrong it can stifle innovation, but the right regulation allows for innovation to flourish, and we think we have achieved that right balance with New York.”

Whether the twins, who now run cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, will use Libra is still unclear. “We’ll keep evaluating, but at Gemini we ask for permission not forgiveness and that has really been our ethos since day one,” said Cameron.”

“The brothers say they remain focused on building Gemini to better compete in what is quickly becoming a highly competitive space. Gemini recently plucked five engineers from rival Coinbase to work in a new Chicago office.

″[Our goal] is expansion, global expansion … we continue to build our mobile app and probably will be adding more assets by year end, ” said Cameron.”

“We’re definitely looking at it in earnest and we’re excited about the project,” Cameron told CoinDesk Tuesday.

Tyler added that in their view, Libra is a harbinger of cryptos to come:

“Our feeling is, this is the first of many FANG [Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google] companies to have a token project. Our prediction is in the next 24 months almost every FANG company will have a coin or be working on some sort of project.”

“Today, we ran a full-page ad in the @nytimes outlining what we think the cryptocurrency revolution needs to succeed. Revolutions that build sets of rules to ensure a better future, are the ones that last.”

Gemini Advertisement Campaign

Picture Gallery

What’s next for Flexa?

For sure in the near future:

International expansion, Staking, SDK release, Co-founder speaking at

Only slightly more speculative:

More stores, more partners, marketing, expanding beta test access and/or scope

Software Development Kit (SDK)

From May 14th, Consensus 2019:

“And this is the part where I’ll talk about how we’ve tried to build a really, really clean consumer experience, and to make this as easy as possible, and to maybe even give it a chance at catching on, but I want to caveat this by saying that we really, really hope, and the reason we’re here, is that we hope Flexa can be adopted by all kinds of apps. So you think about the way this can be adopted, and I know Tyler’s going to speak about this later, but, SPEDN is not ‘the’ Flexa app. And, in fact, it’s kind of a funny name on purpose. We chose the name SPEDN both to make some noise, and to show that we’re not taking ourselves too seriously. This is our attempt at making something cool on top of Flexa, but we really want others to make cool apps on top of Flexa as well. We want folks who understand and agree with the ethos that cryptocurrency payments are the future of payments, to.. show that! And to build something that allows you to take the cryptocurrency you earned in a.. KIN wallet and spend it directly at a merchant on our network.”

From Flexa’s July 9th Press Release:

“To have Flexa SDKs working on almost every major smartphone device and to have our launch abroad in sight is an incredible milestone for our team and our mission.”

Staking

From Flexa’s July 9th Press Release:

“Just like all Flexa payments currently being processed in the US, every payment facilitated in this next market will rely on Flexacoin (FXC) collateralization to secure unconfirmed cryptocurrency transactions and protect the network from fraud. Therefore, as we gear up for launch in Flexa’s second country, you can be sure that we’ll be sharing much more detailed information about Flexacoin staking and rewards.

But before we get to launching staking and payments for this next market, we have one more announcement to make.”

Extra Flexa Odds & Ends

Previously only listed on the relatively user unfriendly, Ethereum-centric, decentralized exchange known as IDEX, as well as a pair of extremely low-traffic exchanges, FXC has only just begun to see exposure to mainstream exchanges. I also recommend looking at the market cap, and then seeing where the project should be ranked on CoinMarketCap and elsewhere, if these websites supplied accurate data. CoinMarketCap lists Flexacoin as almost rank 1200, when, by market cap, it is already approximately rank 75 at the time of writing. FXC was only recently listed on Bittrex, as well as Switcheo. The world is beginning to notice Flexa. They’ve flown under the radar because it has not been their goal to do the opposite.

It is not a stretch to say that $FXC is still largely unknown, considering the contents of this post alone. I personally believe that $FXC has a strong chance of entering the top 50 coins by market cap by the end of August 2019, and that a top 20 finish to the year 2020, while distinctly bullish, is a modest expectation for $FXC.

—

The SPEDN app currently supports 5 cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC and GUSD (Gemini USD stablecoin.) More coins to be listed in the future. Keep in mind, I believe that we can assume all future listed coins will also be insured and custodied by Gemini. Why spend or store your BTC and LTC, or whatever future coins come to be supported, with another payment app, who doesn’t offer you, or the merchants, something so fundamental as insurance and *any* degree of regulatory headway?

—

Sarah Olsen, head of business development at Gemini, told CoinDesk the exchange company is partnering to provide security for the custodial wallet. In return, the app now provides a new way for stablecoin users to use GUSD beyond trading.

“Whether that’s a foreigner who’s coming to the U.S. and more easily able to participate in our economy or vice versa,” Olsen said, adding: “The Flexa network is going to be open source so if you’re a merchant anywhere you can integrate to use their network, even without necessarily interacting with the Flexa team directly. This is going to be the first step toward the future of how we transact value.”

Indeed, Flexa co-founder Tyler Spalding told CoinDesk the ability to spend cryptocurrency can actually boost its function as a store of value. “You need the other ecosystem to exist,” Spalding said of bitcoin’s value being tied to utility that includes, but isn’t limited to, trading.

Plus, users don’t need to have a credit card or bank account to use this mobile app. A 2017 study by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation found that 8.4 million American households were unbanked. Filter said that the eventual goal is to bring buyers and sellers closer together with a digitally native payments system. For now, Flexa’s crypto exchange partnerships manage conversion on the backend.

“We’re actually building payment rails on top of cryptocurrency instead of just trying to integrate cryptocurrency into the payment rails that already exist,” Filter said.”

“In the future, Flexa plans to add support for various exchange-issued stablecoins and other crypto assets. Until then, the focus is on partnering with exchanges and merchants to make custom on-and-off ramps via the Flexa protocol.”

“We couldn’t be prouder to join the @MessariCrypto registry, a library of token projects committed to building transparency in the digital asset ecosystem.

At Flexa, we’ve been fans of Messari’s approach to clarity and knowledge sharing for a long time now. (In fact, we reference their distribution methodology on http://flexacoin.org and in just about every FXC article we’ve ever posted.)

It’s our belief that Messari’s diligence-driven analyses and public standards of accountability help make cryptocurrency better and more accessible for everyone—now that’s a mission we can get behind.

So kudos and thanks to Messari, as well as all of the other token teams on the registry. We appreciate the opportunity to be involved!

FAQ

Why is the total supply of FXC high by comparison to most other projects?

As with other tokens whose primary function could be loosely summarized as providing liquidity between multiple currencies and transactions, such as XRP or NPXS, the total supply for such a token runs on the large side to promote deeper decentralization, and greater liquidity, meaning lowest speeds and fees, by having an abundance of stakers who can handle the dramatic scale of commerce that the Flexa network is designed to handle. Investors new to this kind of utility are often wary of the degree of adoption that would have to occur in order to raise prices meaningfully over such a high total supply. To this, I simply encourage you to contemplate the potential scale of adoption and frequency of use that awaits this token or its peers, by comparison to projects aimed at different sectors and use cases.

Who is currently providing collateral for the SPEDN app?

Gemini

Will Flexa only work with custodial wallets?

No, non-custodial wallets can also access the Flexa Network by integrating the Flexa SDK and staking $FXC in a staking contract.

More on Flexa

Advisors Circulating Supply Legal / Terms of Use

Team Token Distribution Whitepaper Website

Twitter

@FlexaHQ @Gemini @TylerWinklevoss @Winklevoss (Cameron)

Telegram Channels

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Thoughts

After spending the vast majority of the past month and a half slinging a still-endless supply of questions at Google, Twitter, and various corners of telegram, I can confidently state that my original estimations of Flexa as a uniquely, cleverly designed contender for the future of crypto-related retail payments solutions. As an investor with an existing interest in the payments space, this remained true as I began to make my way into the digital assets space. I liquidated all of my positions in the NYSE many months ago now, and have ultimately moved from having Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Shopify as four out of my five largest holdings, to holding bags of Flexa and Ripple, among others.

It didn’t happen instantly, but I’m not surprised to find myself investing in the same sectors, same philosophies, and, really, the same futures that I have always felt that I understand well. Most recently, I’ve spent the last month and a half researching Flexa, while also preparing that research to present in this way, as an experimental first attempt at seeing how the world responds to our first run at publishing collected research and opinions to the public. I’m excited for that, and to be able to finally share with the world the things I’ve been discovering while focusing so much on Flexa recently.

In my mind, Flexa is a few cuts above any and all of the many other bids at integrating digital assets with the retail payments space. Most of the attempts don’t make much sense to me, because they aren’t disruptive, and thus sacrifice the benefits of blockchain technology by staying within the bloated, obsolete payment processing networks of old. I have an interest in all of the other entrants that exist in this space with Flexa, and I keep up with several of them. At the time of writing, it is my personal assessment that they are, across the board, far less advantageous to merchants and consumers, and far less disruptive (if at all) to the existing retail payments processing environment. Flexa is the only one among them that I see delivering on the power and the potential of blockchain and related technologies.

Again, I would like to err on the side of minimalism with respect to speculation, and so I won’t be saying anything more about Flexa for the rest of this document. I will explicitly allude to the possibility of updated information packages being released in the future, to continue updating and collecting research about Flexa in the future.

I do want to communicate openly that I do know more about Flexa than I have shared here. A lot more. As do many others! There are things I can prove, things I can’t, and an absurd amount of speculation – all of which I ultimately do not share here, because simply performing large scale, messy data dumps is not a goal of ours. And, though I love that I am sharing this research and some of my thoughts with you, it is my most sincere hope and wish that nobody ever regards my research as investment advice, nor as a sole source of information. It is my goal to help some to begin their research into a project, or to add to others existing knowledge about a project. It is not my goal to do your research for you.

It is, however, my goal to share mine with others, and I am really, honestly, beamingly and toe-tappingly excited to be doing that. And I want others to know, explicitly, that there is a lot more out there to be learned from researching this project. And so much more to be revealed to us outright, still.

One of my biggest hopes in sharing this first package of research is to attract other driven, talented researchers within this space towards the collaborative research platform that we are building at Team DYOR. I really think we’re doing something cool with this idea, and that it’s just beginning. More than anything, what Team DYOR needs to grow at present is more researchers joining the fray.

I want to thank the existing contributors to Team DYOR, as well as a great many of members in the Flexa community who have offered to me their time and their expertise to add to the quality of this release. Your involvement has been tremendously helpful, and it has also been inspiring. I can’t wait to start working on new projects together.

I am Lumi.

I look forward to meeting all of you. I look forward to learning about and building this space together. I believe that ideas and information refine by coming into contact with each other. And so, I look forward.

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@TheBankOfLumi

Disclosures, and a word from Team DYOR

This research has been freely presented to the public and does not constitute financial advice. Team DYOR will never ask you to send money or furnish any of your own private information. Anyone officially representing Team DYOR will always be more than willing to furnish satisfactory authentication of their identity and affiliation.

Team DYOR seeks to inform the public while growing itself as a platform for the open and collaborative sharing of research pertaining to the emerging space of digital assets. Both the author (Lumi) and Team DYOR have no affiliation or relationship with Flexa, Gemini, the Winklevoss twins or any other individuals or entities which have either been discussed or referenced within this publication.

Our primary intention in sharing this post is to promote awareness and appreciation of fundamental analysis within this nascent space which has yet to mature into a market that fully appreciates and stabilizes itself around an established, if ever-refining consensus of standards for how fundamentals are valued.

As we are sincerely committed to the attempt to be conscientious of the exact means by which we arrive at our goals at Team DYOR, and the influence that we have on the space around us, neutrality is both a value and a permanent point of concern. Simultaneously, we cannot in good conscience spend our time researching projects that we do not fundamentally believe in as having bright futures. Nor can we in good conscience conduct ourselves in such a way that we might ever make a concerted effort to shine a spotlight on projects which we do not fundamentally believe in as having a bright future.

We consider this to be a brief introduction, only lightly touching on a few of the complex subjects which are of the utmost importance to us, especially as concerns our footprint in the space. We wish to end our communique by expressing in no uncertain terms:

Our commitment to both decency and transparency is equal to our commitment to research, education and the open sharing of information. Our long-term vision and goals are larger than what may be reasonably surmised from this article alone, but we are hard at work imagining and actualizing our own bright future.

We’ll be sharing more in the near-future, and you can reach out to us and stay in touch through the channels below.

Until next time.

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