Plutus is a mobile app that lets you Tap & Pay using Bitcoin at NFC-enabled terminals worldwide. Under the hood, it’s powered by a true peer-to-peer, decentralised exchange network.

In the Bitcoin community, a merchant starting to accept the digital currency is still a notable celebration that echoes throughout the community. But sadly this is still a surprisingly difficult accomplishment.

“I’ve never seen a problem that was solved by only complaining about it.” — Steve Keating

But we didn’t want to wait for merchants to catch up, which is why we developed Plutus, a way to use Bitcoins to pay almost anywhere you like.

You simply send crypto to the address displayed on the app, it’s then converted to fiat via our peer to peer exchange and within minutes you are ready to spend it in stores.

Plutus uses smart contracts on the blockchain to convert your digital currency to fiat currency before it is charged to a virtual debit card (token) secured inside the app. Once this process is completed, your mobile device is ready to manage your balance for in store or online purchases.

This even allows the users to replace their Oyster card with a Bitcoin app to travel on the Transport of London!

How it works — in 5 steps

1. You send crypto to an address displayed on the Plutus app.

2. The coins are forwarded automatically to verified traders on the decentralised exchange in exchange for an offer in USD, EUR, etc.

3. The smart contact (DEX) running on the Ethereum platform recognises that the traders have received your bitcoins, and their equivalent fiat deposit is released to your Plutus debit card balance automatically.

4. You can now use your Plutus balance to pay at any NFC-enabled POS terminal in the world.

5. The merchant always receives payment in their preferred currency through the global debit card network.

In the end, the intent of the app is to be practical. Plutus was never intended to be ‘disruptive’ (especially since it plugs into existing infrastructure). It’s simply a stepping stone towards adoption and a practical use-case that many have been asking for. Plutus doesn’t hold any user’s digital currency, as all transactions are sent to traders in accordance with the peer-to-peer philosophy of bitcoin.

Simply having a quantifiable advantage over your competition, such as being faster or cheaper often isn’t enough. Intuition tells us that these benefits should be adequate to convince people to switch platforms, but switching to a slightly better option is almost never worth the risk and cost of changing the current system.

(Unfortunately, this is something I learned the hard way with my previous project.)

Why? Because of a fascinating concept called the Prospect Theory.

Prospect Theory was first developed by Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman and brought to my attention by William Mougayar. It states that people tend to be more risk seeking in the domain of losses, and risk averse in the domain of gains. In simple terms, people seek safety and security when choosing a service, and will hesitate to switch to a newer one once they have made their decision.

We addressed this concern by going far beyond the status quo, introducing decentralisation and efficiency to the exchange of Bitcoin and fiat.

The Plutus app lets you pay at any NFC terminal in the world, but the real innovation is the decentralised exchange that powers it. The Plutus DEX connects users and traders directly in a fully peer-to-peer exchange running on the Ethereum network, eliminating various types of risk by not holding any user coins or relying on 3rd party exchange as well as creating the potential to dramatically lower fees through market pressure.

Plutus will be the first and most advanced payments application on the market, built around a decentralised technology.

Conclusion

The number of people around the world who are earning bitcoin through work, mining, trading, etc is rapidly growing. And they are well aware how difficult it is to spend them, especially considering local brick & mortar merchants. Often this is impossible. To overcome this challenge is why Plutus was first developed. With Plutus, you can spend your bitcoin without waiting for merchants to accept it! It’s an optimal use case and killer app for anyone whose income is denominated in bitcoin.