We’ve come across rebiddy – an aspiring start-up that should bring cashbacks into crypto shopping. The team is not running an ICO or releasing tokens, they focus on development of their product.

We’ve talked to Ivan Golovko, co-founder and CMO of rebiddy (Twitter, LinkedIn) and Nikita Fomichev, founder and CEO (Twitter, LinkedIn) and asked a couple of questions to understand rebiddy better before they launch.

CoinVigilance: Can you please explain in a couple of words once again how the service will work?

rebiddy: The idea of cashbacks, in general, is the following: cashback services attract users and help shops reach new customers. Therefore, shops, instead of paying to advertisement agencies for bringing new customers (running ads and so on), they pay to rebiddy. We share part of that cashback with our community, growing it even more.

It’s actually a pretty cool self-sustainable model. Not in fiat, but in crypto. Later on we will be adding more cryptocurrencies as payment options, as well as integrating with crypto-to-fiat swaps.

CV: So can you, in a way, call rebiddy a crypto coupon site?

r: Not sure if crypto coupon is the best comparison.

It’s more like a platform/service which aggregates shops and merchants and gives users a choice at a discounted rate (the discount is made possible because shops pay rebiddy).

CV: Does the customer still need to go through your site to get cryptocashback?

r: Usually, that is the idea, because a shop needs to know that a customer came to their website from rebiddy. We are thinking of making it possible to have a browser extension which will give users info on whether a certain product/shop is in the rebiddy cryptocashback ecosystem or not, so you would not have to go through the website every time.

CV: Do you plan to release a smartphone app?

r: Definitely in the future, because we want to become as user-friendly as possible 🙂

CV: With sending crypto back and forth, how will you handle the fees? Will they not eat up some of the cashback?

r: Great question! In fact, legal issues, like the absence of properly regulated crypto-to-fiat tools, is quite a barrier for new shops entering the ecosystem. Volatility is another thing. There are some existing solutions, but as we can see sooner or later as they catch up the market, regulators tend to bring them down.

Anyway, back to the question: it is our goal to make sure the service is both decentralized and also does not include too many steps. It also depends on currencies, for example, eliminating the steps in BTC transactions is crucial, while coins like NANO are more resilient to the fee impact as you are pointing it out.

This will mature as rebiddy grows, but since we start with the major currencies, we plan for payments to be done directly from user’s wallets (where they own private keys), and the crypto cashback to be available for withdrawal as soon as possible on rebiddy platform.

This also makes sure that there are not too many stops creating frictions, and also makes sure users stay with us and feel some form of attachment.

CV: You have not released a new coin or token, you have not run an ICO, as most fintech crypto startups would nowadays. I’d say this instantly sends a trust signal to the public. How will you get funding to continue work if the service gets interrupted for some reason?

r: Thank you for saying this, really appreciate it! We have a team of dedicated designers and back end developers (although pretty small right now), and we have been working in our spare time on rebiddy.

We are much more dedicated to it now, taking some risks by abandoning other opportunities, but we believe in the cause! We do not plan to make any utility token or so, but we might raise a small venture round later on. We’ll see.

CV: What stores will the first batch include? Can you share some cool names from it maybe?

r: We are making sure to have a good selection of merchants at the start. The number of existing shops accepting crypto is not that huge currently, mostly due to regulatory issues and also crypto volatility. But more and more merchants explore this payment option, which is why we feel like rebiddy will soon catch up and tackle the right market.

CV: How did you guys get into crypto in the first place?

r: Nick, the founder of rebiddy, has always been working on consumer products and exploring every possible market there is which can be disrupted: tokenization of arts, media channels, and so on. Ivan, the co-founder, got to crypto through trading but quickly pivoted towards media and later on investments, co-founding a VC and advising a number of top-projects. This diverse background is a great combination for making a product and having a different perspective on some questions, eventually making it even better.

CV: You seem like a young team. Do you have any crypto developers, companies or teams you could say you look up to?

r: The C’ team is quite experienced in marketing and product development, as well as doing some entrepreneurial things. Especially in crypto, we have quite a network of developers, media and community, which should give a great boost once we launch rebiddy.

There are a few people at least in crypto worth mentioning, like Vitalik Buterin for his strong vision, and CZ of Binance for his firm leadership and success route, and of course a bunch of other great developers. We have always been consumer- and product-dedicated, enjoying the tech industry develop, and not just blockchain.

CV: Awesome, thanks for your answers! Good luck with the product launch.