Interview with the Prestige Networx team

FYIcryptoz
Sep 2, 2018 · 6 min read

Tom Bowen (and the rest of the team), thanks for having the interview with me, to start things off, could you tell a bit about yourself and how Prestige Networx was born?

“I have been in various industries in my long career starting off as a Tax specialist and forensics accountant for an International Law Firm based in Washington D.C. to opening the first Apple personal computer retail store the DC area then various executive level positions (VP Sales, VP Marketing) with several very successful tech companies, Epson, AST, Gravis, Virtual i/o, Qwick Media before returning to accounting.”

“In returning to accounting I was engaged by a group that owned several entertainment businesses here in Las Vegas. Coming in from the outside I was surprised at the level of abuse participants in the adult industry received at the hands of banks and payment processors. These businesses would have their credit card processing accounts closed without warning even after years in business together. These businesses pay higher fees on a credit card payment than a bar down the street using the same customer credit card.”

“Depending on the nature of the entertainment people tend to be shy about being associated with certain industries and would prefer not to have a credit card record of their activities and cash is not always possible (online transactions).”

“Credit Cards customers accept a lack of privacy regarding their transactions on everyday purchase, gas, food, or hotels but no one wants to have their account hacked and their data stolen. The adult industry is personal by definition and to have the customer’s name and information exposed like the Ashley Madison hack or the guy whose wife asked him why he had so many credit card charges to a book store when he doesn’t even read is a real concern.”

“Another major problem is the way banks and the system treated the workers, by denying certain services (bank account, credit cards, etc) regards of their jobs they still deserve to be treated fairly. Why Prestige Networx because there needs to be an alternative financial service company who puts the needs of the systems stakeholders above the interest of the banks and corporations. Using NEO blockchain technology and smart contracts we can build a better payment system to fulfill the needs of the merchants, customers, workers and related parties. While this may seem a little naïve so was the concept of selling books online in 1994.”


What is Prestige Networx in a nutshell and which problem will it solve?

“Prestige is a Payment Processing platform (accepting payment from one party and delivering to a second or third party) by using Blockchain technology we save the parties money, increase security and privacy all in real time. Too many businesses fall into the category of “High Risk” according the banks so they pay more to process the same credit cards as other favoured merchants but more important the High Risk merchants are at a high risk of having their account closed by the banks without notice, effectively stopping their business. With Prestige they pay less and are not under risk of being closed, assuming they are not a criminal organisation.”

Adult entertainment is a $100 billion dollar industry that suffers from an immense payment problem. The current financial system discriminates against the adult entertainment and several other industries by deeming them “High Risk” and flagging them for closer scrutiny.


Which solution will Prestige Networx provide and how will this benefit multiple parties?

“We will start with payment processing and move into other financial services such as debit cards, accounts, exchanges and small loans. By lowering the cost and providing access to business that find they are not favored by banks and other financial institutions or penalized by these same institutions we can allow them to compete better and grow their business without a penalty for their type of business.”


Why did the team choose blockchain technology and how does it beat traditional technologies in the field?

“Blockchain technology offers the perfect platform for an alternative payment processing by design, the distributed ledger prevents hackers for stealing all the names and information of the users (remember the Equifax hack) where 143 millions customers information was taken, also, Blockchain makes it hard to change data after the fact, but more important is the level of privacy Blockchain offers to the users vs traditional credit card transactions.”


The team also values anonymity in transactions, still the transactions will be stored on the NEO blockchain. How will this be achieved and are you not worried this will cause interference with regulators?

“NEO was chosen due to the transaction speed advantage over other platforms. Yes, it does provide a level of anonymity we see as important we are not trying to hide transaction for illegal purpose as some tokens offer. We offer faster process speeds and security than other blockchain technologies. “


I’m always curious why projects specifically chose the NEO platform, is there any reasoning behind this?

“NEO was designed as a processing platform and that is mainly why we went with NEO plus it does not use miners.”

This is an interesting one: could you explain what the WebCam Model Case Study is and which purpose it serves?

“Webcamming can be broken down it many different categories from self-help, coaching, adult entertainment, and educational. Anyone with a computer, a web camera can do webcamming and while some are free many are pay per view such as the adult sites. This is a very big business with billions in revenue each year. Many webcammer have a problem processing credit cards because it is considered a high risk account, some of it is related to the number of charge backs where a customer will order a show then after the show will contact the bank and claim they did not order the show. This is the banks excuse, but the facts tell a different picture it seems to be more about content than any high number of charge backs. Clients do worry about privacy having an adult site show up on the monthly credit card statement is a problem for some.”

“For the workers (cammers) getting paid late are real problems but not getting paid at all is a real risk.”

“Our payment system will allow clients to use PXCX (our tokens) to pay for their show and not have a name appear up on their credit card statement or any other paper statement, for the workers or the site owners the idea to cut their processing cost in half and get paid immediately (with Smart Contracts) without risk of a charge back or being cut off by a bank is very compelling.”

“Prestige makes money off the lower fees for merchants because our cost are lower and more secure than traditional credit card processing companies.”

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