Decentralised Club AMA Recap with Kieron Cartledge!
On the 29th of April, our very own Kieron Cartledge attended an AMA over on the Decentralised Club group! He had a lot of insight to offer on where we’re taking Baanx and was excited to share everything we’re building. For all those who could not attend the AMA, we have the recap below. Also, do make sure to attend our upcoming AMAs and Twitter Spaces for the latest updates on Baanx!
Introduction Segment
Can you start us off with a brief description about Baanx and its vision and mission?
Baanx is a crypto-as-a-service fintech platform. Our mission is to bring regulated products to unregulated crypto communities and to work with our partner communities to engage them in our services across cards, Cryptodrafts, loyalty, fiat on/off ramps, and wallets.
Bridging the fiat and crypto worlds!
Baanx operates globally, in particular the UK and Europe, with a planned launch in the US with large partner communities including Ledger, Tezos, and other clients later this year.
Can you elaborate on the features of Baanx that make it perfect for building a Fintech product?
In order to enter the fintech market, crypto companies need to receive legal approval and licences.
So Baanx has multiple agreements and partnerships with many regulated entities, as well as our own licences and registrations with various govt. bodies and entities. We will be adding to our global licences all the time and in many global jurisdictions.
☝️ We have access to a UK credit broking licence, and access to EMI (Electronic Money Institute) licences in the UK & EU.
☝️ We can officially issue crypto friendly Visa, Mastercards, and China Union Pay cards. Our wallets (cold storage) are insured to $100m through non-fault loss.
☝️ We are one of the few firms to receive approval for crypto assets under the FCA regime in the UK.
For compliance, we have a world-class team in the USA, EU, and use AI as part of the KYC/AML processes. This really breeds confidence in everyone involved.
What’s the utility of the native token and how does one acquire it?
BXX is the native token of Baanx and its ecosystem.
Currently it is available in the Baanx app, Tezos Crypto Life app and will be rolling out into other partner platforms too.
Users can buy the token on MEXC and UNISWAP. They can also HODL, sell or exchange the token, as well as earn rewards of up to 25% APY through staking. Additionally, BXX gives users the opportunity to earn special rates on Cryptodrafts across an ecosystem of Baanx partners, including Tezos, Ledger and CurrencyLife.
Can you post links to the Baanx app so we can download it and for those who would love to buy BXX?
Here we go:
You can also join the waitlist for Ledger here: https://cl-cards.com/waiting-list/
The general BXX 2022 Roadmap is available here 👇
https://medium.com/baanx-bxx/baanx-bxx-2022-roadmap-b71522066442
The BXX utility 2022 Roadmap specifically for Tezos and Ledger products is available here:
https://medium.com/baanx-bxx/bxx-2022-roadmap-in-ledger-and-tezos-8a612b511c27
You can buy it on MEXC and Uniswap too: https://www.mexc.com/exchange/BXX_USDT
Can you tell us what are your next major priorities in 2022?
Here at Baanx, we are thinking very big and ambitiously 💥
We have big partnerships coming out, such as Tezos (now live in 6 countries — you can see where on the link I sent above) and Ledger (over 250,000+ have signed up so far!), as well as new services in the making, including Cryptodraft and our unique managed service. We will be able to push many of our services and of course, crucially BXX, on critical functionality into these as well.
Firstly, take a look at our updated product roadmap if you still haven’t. There’s a lot coming 🔥:
⚡️ DeFi customers go live with physical & virtual cards.
⚡️ Partnerships with DEX’s and CEX’s.
⚡️ Baanx will launch Ledger and Tezos in the EEA and the US.
⚡️Followed up by the launch of Baanx cards, wallets and secured interest-free Cryptodrafts in the United States.
⚡️Q3-Q4 2022 expansion to Africa and LATAM.
Are there plans to enter African markets as we have a less competitive market there?
We have our partner Akoin who will be launching very, very soon! We are just in the final stages of compliance with the partners as well as testing the system. This will roll into Mawale first. We will then look at Q4 for a full roll out into Africa.
Twitter Segment
“The future of finance is promising for many, and we’re helping to build it.” How do you intend to achieve this aim? What are the features your project holds that will help attain this goal?
First of all, we have many unique features not found with other providers.
Things like automatically linking up to 5 of your crypto and stablecoin accounts directly to the spending of the card, so you never have to ‘load’ your card. We can launch cards with the top 3 schemes in the world, and we pioneered ‘free money’ with Cryptodraft, pledging your digital assets.
In addition, many crypto lenders are offshore and unregulated.
What we have found with market research is this can limit their appeal, and excludes many FinTechs from partnering and/or offering their Cryptodraft services.
Baanx has its own HQ and is based in the UK. We also have offices in Portugal as well as the USA. We also have plans to open more here in the UK as well as other EEA locations.
We recently took the 3rd largest stake ownership of a USA Bank. (Maxwell Bank is FDIC certified since 1943 for insured deposits), allowing us to securely enter the USA.
We have a number of UK and EU licences directly and via regulated partners, and can work with the growing number of financial institutions that want to offer Cryptodraft services to their corporate, retail, and family office clients in the EU, UK and now the USA.
We have a solid pipeline of over 25+ signed corporate clients we are rolling out on a regular basis.
Our current leadership team and advisors are highly experienced in banking, mobile and FinTech areas, as well as crypto. We have a team of leaders who have over 150 years of Bank and Fintech experience and background in Banking at key institutions such as BitPay, Crypto.com, Binance, CEX.io, JP Morgan, Mastercard, Thales/Gemalto, Visa, Commerzbank, and many others. 🔥
What are the main features of the project and how was it developed? Where does its core competitiveness lie? What advantages does it have that allow it to stand out in the market?
In 2014, our Founders were working across Lending, Fintech and leading Banking companies — both listed and private — with great success. However, we were always looking for something which could offer improvements to the traditional fintech and banking sector. It was here our passion for the opportunities offered by automation, blockchain, AI and digital assets originated.
Fast forward to 2018, after successful careers across UBS, Mastercard, Gemalto, Commerzbank amongst others, we realised the first step in our dream — to start a Digital Asset friendly B2B2C Fintech platform — offering key services across cards, acquiring, remittance and digital assets within mobile apps and through APIs to the open market.
We launched an ICO in 2018. However, the market conditions were very difficult for a listing, so we continued to develop the business and build the company, while also growing our client base and technology. We also raised $15m+ in equity and convertible notes over the last 3yrs.
Partners are the most important aspect to strengthening the ecosystems of all projects. Could you tell us about your project partners and the partnership strategy it has adopted?
We have 20+ clients we are working with so I won’t be able to go into all of them! So I’ll hit on some of the ones I think the community will be more interested in hearing about, and who will allow us to speak about them 😊
I’ll start with Tezos!
Tezos is one of Baanx’s earliest investors, and we’ve continued to maintain a strong relationship. Together, we have recently launched the Tezos Crypto Life App, and will soon be releasing the TCL card.
The TCL App lets users enjoy the benefits of DeFi, with the full security and convenience of traditional finance. Users can buy, sell and exchange cryptocurrencies with no hidden fees, as well as access Fixed Term Cryptodrafts. This gives them 50% of the value of their Tezos wallet (interest starting from 0%), full control of how much they want to borrow and for how long, and free withdrawal of their collateral at any time.
We will also be launching the Tezos Crypto Life Card very soon — a secure and easy-to-use cryptocard which enables quick and seamless crypto spending* and integration of up to five crypto wallets at a time.
We then have Ledger!
Highly acclaimed for their unique digital security system, we are extremely excited to be working with Ledger on their new card. 💳💳
This new and avant-garde product offers a variety of cardholder benefits, including seamless crypto spending with instant conversion to fiat at the time of purchase, up to 2% cashback and Flexible and Fixed Term Cryptodrafts. 💰
We’re also planning on launching a crypto Paycheck 💸 feature, which will be announced soon.
We then have Reef! 🐠🐠
Another exciting project we’ve been working on is the Reef card. Reef is an EVM-compatible blockchain for smart contracts that offers low fees, high scalability and an excellent user experience.
Reef’s aim is to combine their ecosystem with a debit card through unique features. Users can spend their $REEF tokens at over 40 million global merchants, and will only have their tokens converted to fiat when they use the card. 💳
Reef also aims to integrate its low fees by offering its users a free card, as well as plans to subsidise fees, create tiers and offer staking opportunities.
Where do you see Baanx in 1 year? What’s your goal by that time? Please can you share a link to your Whitepaper if any?
In all seriousness a lot can change in a year, and we hope to see positive changes and growth within that time — be it more partnerships, more product launches or more recognition.
We also hope to get one step closer to our vision of bringing the worlds of DeFi and traditional finance together.
For more details, you can find our whitepaper here:
Please introduce your team and group as it is very crucial to any investor, to know whom he/she is dealing with.
Our team has 100+ Years of International mobile and bank tech experience: mobile banking, Ripple, e-wallets, smart cards, trading software, HSMs, payments, FX, and digital security.
Each of our team members is a gem. I am proud to be a part of the Baanx team:
💎 Garth Howat — CEO and Founder
Garth founded Consumer Lending & Fintech businesses. Successful entrepreneur for the last 15 years. Financial Conduct Authority approved in the UK.
💎 Mark Evans — CCO/FCO.
Mark has over 25 years’ worth of experience in corporate/CFO positions — CommerzBank, UBS, JP Morgan.
💎 Jim Yang — CTO.
Jim spent 20+ years in development, managing development teams. FinTech, mobile, retail. Degree53, Apple.
💎 John Wu- (VP Cards)
25+ years in crypto, cards and banking. Set up Bitpay (largest crypto card program in USA) from scratch and Gemalto (now Thales)
💎 Alona Dobshynska- (Chief Product Officer)
CEX.io, E&Y and banking tech — Head of Product with over 6 years of experience at one of the top exchanges in the world.
💎 Andreas Kapsos- (Brand & Communications Director)
10+yr. In Fintech + SaaS, including being employee #11 at Revolut and Marketing Director at Plum.
Live Telegram Segment
Does Baanx platfrom provide users a safe opportunity to earn profit passively? Can we stake tokens on it?
This is a great question. The answer is YES we do. You can stake your BXX for 3, 6 or 12 months and earn up 25%. This is a great way to earn, whilst also helping to grow the ecosystem of BXX. You can stake in the Baanx app and the Tezos Crypto Life App.
I realised that the Baanx project is a Fintech Crypto-as-a-Service that combines the crypto and fiat worlds. But can fintechs around the world serve their users better than a bank? What are the best details and advantages taken from the fiat world and the crypto world to build and develop the BAANX project?
Now look, we have to work in the regulated space as we issue cards and work with the traditional finance spaces, as well as within the DeFi, CeFi and Web3 space.
I would say regulation is something that is needed to give the users the comfort that even though they are in a decentralised space, they are protected in the real world asset spaces.
We also think insuring funds is key, hence why we offer this.
We are ‘Better than a Bank’ as we are giving the users choice and freedom to choose what they do and how they do it. For example, this could be them keeping their crypto in an unregulated system, and then when they want to spend, it brings it to us and utilises this platform. We want to give money freedom to all!
We are the bridge between the two worlds.
Marketing is a central element for every successful project. What is your strategy to attract new users and investors to your project and keep them long term? What is your most trusted feature?
We work a lot with our partners, like Ledger, Reef and Tezos. We all have joint marketing strategies that we continue to develop and work on.
Specifically for BXX, our community team is ALWAYS available! They really strive to ensure that the community of BXX holders are happy and getting the answers they need. We are in the process of updating some of the material around BXX and the Baanx roadmap, and this team has been an integral part in gathering user feedback.
Once the launch of Ledger is completed, we will be rolling out an even bigger plan around BXX so you will have to stay tuned! 😜
Based from my research, Baanx was created way back in 2018. We all know that 2018 was not a very good time for crypto for it was the bear market. Could you share with us how Baanx survived that bear market and continued to what it is today?
We never gave up…
One thing that we all share here at Baanx is a deep, deep passion for the business — its users, BXX token and the dream that Baanx has.
When times were bad, we just continued to look at the end goal of what we wanted to achieve and didn’t give up…
Garth, our CEO, would drive from the top and lead by example. He still does to this day and we now have 100+ staff.
NFT technology is very prominent. Do you think you will apply NFT technology to your products in the future?
I loved NFTs! I mean, I love them now! Especially those on the Tezos and Polygon networks.
We are always looking at new ways to innovate and develop the platform. I would say NFTs are a natural progression for the Tezos Crypto Life App, although these are my personal thoughts. Not set in stone, so don’t hold me to ransom on this!
We are in talks with a few platforms who want to offer cards to their users to be able to spend earnings from NFTs, but again these are early days.
NEVER say NEVER
