If you've ever tried to use a cashback app before, you know that most of them are more trouble than they're worth. Many of them offer payouts infrequently, in archaic formats like mailed checks. They often require you to jump through hoops like scanning receipts, or shopping at particular retailers because your favorite shops aren't included. They do very little to reward you when you introduce friends and family to the app, meaning that to get big rewards you typically need to spend big.

Fluz Fluz is a cash-back app that aims to solve all of those problems – with the power and security of the blockchain available to those who want it.

What is Fluz Fluz

Fluz Fluz describes itself as a “Global Cash-Back Rewards Co-Op.” It's essentially a cashback app that empowers users to build communities, and helps them monetize those communities by partnering with retailers. Fluz Fluz has customers, and retailers want customers, so it's a mutually beneficial relationship, and Fluz Fluz's users get rewarded in the form of cash-back or crypto payments when they or someone in their community makes a purchase.

Let's say, for example, that you're a Fluz Fluz user and you visit a participating retailer to make a purchase. Maybe you're going to Subway to buy a sandwich, to Staples to buy a desk chair, or to Starbucks to buy a coffee (all of these retailers are announced Fluz Fluz partners). When you spend, you'll receive a percentage of the total purchase amount as a cashback reward, but other members of your community, like the person who invited you to join, and the person who invited them to join, get a small reward as well.

Users can choose to be paid in Fluz points and cash out in fiat currency, which is what the company expects most mainstream users will do. But crypto fans and security-conscious users can also choose to be paid with one of Fluz Fluz's crypto coins, Fluzcoin, which can be held, managed, and cashed out for other crypto like Bitcoin or Ether via the Fluz Fluz app's built-in wallet. Fluzcoin is a third-gen cryptocurrency that allows for free and instant transfers, based on JP Morgan's Quorum tech.

If that's not enough crypto for you, Fluz Fluz also has another crypto coin, FLUZ, which is an ERC-20 token. It isn't used for cash back purposes since transaction fees on the Ethereum network can be high, but holding FLUZ unlocks premier seats in the Fluz Fluz co-op. These premier seats will have access to the fastest-growth in passive income generation. 10,000 FLUZ tokens unlock a Tier 2 seat, and 20,000 FLUZ tokens unlock a Tier 1 seat. Fluz expects that these limited-number premier seats will be highly sought after digital assets.

Is This a Pyramid Scheme/MLM? No.

When you read about payouts going to the user who invited you and the user who invited them, it's natural to think about pyramid schemes, Ponzi schemes, and multi-level marketing schemes (MLM). But while some aspects operate via a similar structure, Fluz Fluz is none of those things.

A detailed explanation of why is below, but here's the short version: Fluz Fluz users can't lose money, because there's no investment in the first place. It's a cash-back app that generates revenue from real purchases made at real retailers all over the globe. You do not have to invest anything or purchase anything from Fluz Fluz to earn cash back rewards, you only need to make the regular everyday purchases you are already making from your favorite stores. No change in shopping habits is necessary, and the app is completely free to download.

Pyramid schemes rely on continually adding new members to the “bottom”, and people “lower” in the pyramid can never earn more than people above them. New Fluz Fluz users can earn more than older users, and they can build larger communities than older users. There's also a hard cap on the size community any single user can have, which a user who joins at any time could eventually reach. And if Fluz Fluz stopped adding new users, all users would still be able to continue earning money in perpetuity so long as people were still using the app for purchases at participating retailers.

Ponzi schemes rely on incoming cash from new members to pay back the “investments” of older members, meaning that like Pyramid schemes, they need to keep adding new members quickly to stay afloat. Fluz Fluz doesn't rely on constantly adding new members, and revenue is generated when users buy products they actually want from retailers, not by making any kind of investment. You can't lose money on Fluz Fluz,and even the newest people joining the consumer community will make money as most of the cashback they generate will be kept by them.

Multi-level marketing schemes rely on selling you expensive junk, which you're then meant to sell to your family and friends. That means that to join, you've often got to spend thousands to buy inventory, then awkwardly pitch your friends and family to sell your overpriced junk, often ending up with hundreds or thousands of dollars in inventory you simply can't sell (and ruined relationships to boot). Fluz Fluz requires none of that. There's no inventory to buy, no cost to other users you sign up, and no buy-in or investment to lose. It is not even necessary to influence others to join, as people who download the app without an invite code will be “auto-filled” fairly and evenly into the global community, enabling you to earn rewards from people you don't even know.

Real Product, Real Team

Fluz Fluz's aim is to become a truly global cash-back giant, and it's already well on the way. Unlike most crypto projects, it already has an app up and running on both iOS and Android, with a five-star review average as of this writing. There's still work to be done – at the moment, the app is focused on Colombia as a testbed, thus it's available only in Spanish, for example – but that's already more than most ICOs have to offer, and that's just the beginning.

Having achieved success with the test-app (50,000 users in Colombia with little marketing effort), Fluz Fluz is now setting its sights on the US, and has partnered with high-end app developer Scandiweb to beef up its app for the US market. It has also already announced a long list of retail partners across the world, and it is impressive. It covers virtually everything, from digital services like Hulu to restaurants and grocery stores like Chipotle and Whole Foods to retailers ranging from Best Buy to Cabela's, and so much more. Seriously, check out this chart of just some of the partners Fluz Fluz already has on board:

But perhaps the strongest selling point for Fluz Fluz is its leadership. The company was founded by Stefan Krautwald and Maurice Harary, both experienced tech entrepreneurs who bring years of C-suite executive experience to the table. And Fluz Fluz's advisory team includes a plethora of experienced, connected pros, including investor and entrepreneur Keith Teare, who was one of the founders of TechCrunch. And if you're interested in learning more, members of that team are regularly available on Telegram to answer any questions you might have.