Our Response to Advertising Limitations and More Against Crypto
The most profound endorsement of a cryptocurrency to date was El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin on September 7th, 2021, making it a legal currency within their borders. Jamaica, the Netherlands, China, Switzerland and the EU have all successfully conducted large-scale trials of Central-Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), however, not all countries are eager to embrace new technologies.
Around the world new laws are being proposed that will make advertising cryptocurrency projects much more difficult. Additional governments are going even further in trying to control or eliminate the entire industry. In the last few weeks we have seen governments in the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Singapore, and Spain propose restrictions on the industry’s ability to advertise their services. Indonesia and Russia went even further in proposing to outlaw the use of cryptocurrencies.
Fundamental to these limitations are how each country defines a cryptocurrency. Everest has educated many institutions and entities on the differences between a distributed computing platform for tokenized value and a cryptocurrency. For example, the Maltese Financial Services Authority VFA-2 requires Everest to have a financial services partner custody the currency used to purchase the CRDT stablecoin ensuring a 1:1 backing for the value in the Everest system. By comparison, cryptocurrencies are speculative instruments that are not backed by locked value.
Advertising relies on purchasing user attention, and can be a vital component of success for brand-recognition and service introduction. Advertising is also ridiculously expensive per person impacted, especially if competing with traditional financial services firms, international hard and soft-goods conglomerates, and the restaurant industry for wide-regional or nationwide coverage.
“The referral of a happy user is the most powerful marketing message possible. Everest is in the business of making happy customers by providing powerful, yet simple to use, financial tools customized to individual needs from a broad portfolio of traditional & DeFi services.”
— Bob Reid, CEO of Everest
Word of mouth marketing is referrals, and Everest eAgents and eTellers get compensated for referring active users of the platform. Through a simple referral code, a person can unlock earnings driven by the behavior of their friends and family on Everest. Whenever a referral purchases some token, sends a remittance, or pays a bill, the eAgent earns a piece of the transaction fee for the first year of the referral using Everest services.
Click on Settings and Share to find and use your Referral code.
Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao also has shared his thoughts on these changes in Advertising regulations and the impact upon Crypto. His take was that advertising did not have a large impact on user growth, and that it was uncommon until quite recently.
“Most of our users come from word of mouth… So, I don’t think it’s going to have a huge impact.”
— Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance
There are broader implications for these advertising bans which will delay their implementation while a whole series of questions which still remain are answered. How will the laws be enforced online, how will they be enforced in print, how will they be enforced in partnerships? In short, how broadly will they be written? Will they outlaw professional sporting arena naming rights? Sponsorship rights? Will they outlaw advertising on global platforms? Who will be tasked and budget funded to implement and enforce these new regulations?
Everest is going to continue to push to make our customers happy, and believe they will share us with their friends and family. Learn more about the Everest referral program here Referral Program Details.
