Loyalty programs are essential for retailers. In a recent study, almost all consumers (94.4 percent) said they would use a mobile wallet more frequently if they could earn and redeem loyalty points with every transaction.

And in another study of restaurant apps, consumers stated that loyalty schemes are now a “must have” feature.

Today, mobile engagement company MobileBridge has announced its blockchain-based platform, Momentum, a cryptocurrency-driven loyalty program for customers and brands.

What does it do? In short, Momentum offers companies a full suite of tools to drive engagement with loyalty, while providing data-driven insights for the businesses that use it.

Momentum plans to offer a single location for consumers’ various reward and loyalty cards, including those from stores, brands, and restaurant chains, while also giving users tangible value for every action they make.

“The Momentum platform and protocol are very different from a normal loyalty program in the sense that they allow each brand to create their own cryptocurrency with immediate liquidity (without the need to feature the token on any exchange), with clear and stable intrinsic value (without the usual volatility of cryptocurrencies), and with interchangeability with any other token on the Momentum platform,” MobileBridge president and cofounder Eyal Oster told me. “This creates strong trust and allows for mass adoption and mainstream use.”

The Momentum platform lets brands use the Momentum token or launch their own branded currency. It also acts as a point of exchange, allowing users to exchange one company’s token into a Momentum token and back into a different branded coin. Imagine being able to swap a burger joint’s token for a drugstore coin so that you can use your loyalty points to buy slimming pills? It’s the American dream.

“The user will have a wallet — the Momentum wallet is the default one, yet many other wallets can use the Momentum protocol and tokens — which allows them to receive tokens, [and] exchange them to any other token on the Momentum platform, or to the Momentum token itself,” Oster said. “The user may also donate, gift, or transfer their tokens. And, of course, the user can enjoy the tokens with the brands they wish to. The wallet can also be embedded into any other app (for example hotel apps) or website.”

Blockchain technology is used throughout to ensure transparency, enable tokenization of the platform, and allow brands to control their loyalty scheme and all its policies.

“One of the biggest challenges with adoption of cryptocurrencies for loyalty purposes is that brands can’t all share the same loyalty cryptocurrencies,” Oster said. “Similar to a standard economy, each brand must control its monetary policies, as well as its fiscal policies, and that, of course, is the reason why every brand normally creates their own points system for loyalty rewards.”

According to Orbis Research, the global loyalty management market was valued at $1.94 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach $7.3 billion by the end of 2022, a compound annual growth rate of 24.73 percent. There is estimated to be $100 billion worth of unused loyalty points in North America alone. Momentum’s ability to transfer points between brands, and gift or donate loyalty value, could help to solve this problem.

“The Momentum protocol and platform can be used to drive loyalty, but also for fairly rewarding customers for data insights, attention, and for becoming socially involved,” Oster said. “Since the platform is a protocol with connector APIs, it can be connected to most loyalty programs, and [it] also allows the creation of new programs.”

Momentum is holding a total of three token sales to fund the platform and create the economy. The “Friends and Family” sale ran until March 26, the “Private Sale” ran from March 24 – April 23, and the “Public Sale” has been running since April 26 and ends on May 25, 2018.

In the below paragraph from Stewart’s article:

MobileBridge Momentum is holding an ICO in three phases to fund the platform and develop its economy. Following a successful “Friends and Family” round, Momentum’s “Private Sale” is now in progress and details of the upcoming “Public Sale” will be published on its website.

So what comes next for MobileBridge and the Momentum platform?

“The solution is being developed according to the roadmap, with many components already live and working,” Oster said. “The roadmap includes both the blockchain related-elements — token creation, smart contracts, the various exchange mechanisms, the interface to the various workflow oracles, data exchange using a bling escrow that connects to the blockchain for user data control, and the APIs — and the non-blockchain part, such as oracles for driving marketing automation, points management, workflows, gamification, geo-location, and more.”