Introduction
Cryptocurrency has undergone many changes since its advent in 2009. Since then, it has gone beyond the basic and is beginning to draw the attention of major institutions and other investors – small and large alike. The industry is already making in-roads into the digital and financial niches and the impact cannot be overemphasized.
Despite the progress made in the application of Blockchain Technology to real-life situations, there are some limitations which for years had hindered traditional financial industries and they were beginning to rear their ugly heads in the more established cryptocurrency; Bitcoin, as transactions processed dropped due to clogs on the network.
This was just one of the issues faced. Another major problem faced by traditional financial service institutions was the issue of payment methods’ availability.
Africa has for the better part of the last century and well into the 21st century been found behind in how funds and payments are processed in comparison with the rest of the world, followed by Asia and the Middle-East. It was already a difficult task for nationals of these countries in the diaspora to remit funds back to their home countries or even get funds sent to them from home. The available methods of transfer charged almost unbelievable transaction fees and others like PayPal and Payoneer among other payments processing companies made it somewhat difficult for nationals of the aforementioned areas to transfer funds as they had a segregationist approach to these regions in relation to other parts of the world.
Other available centralized payment methods either followed the slow transaction times inherent in traditional payment types or were not secure enough thereby, exposing users to fraud and possible loss of their assets.
Cryptocurrencies have tried solving these issues through its decentralized protocol and some had recorded some measure of success, but none comes close to what this new entrant is set to do.
MENAPAY
MenaPay is an ambitious project that seeks to take the place of traditional payment methods in the day-to-day living of its users using the blockchain as a leverage. For relevance to the day-to-day living of users, it must solve two major challenges – security of funds and transparency. This it intends to achieve through its cryptocurrency payment gateway that is set to run transactions at unprecedented levels never reached by any project before now.
This wonderful project was started in November 2017 to take care of the payment needs of 420 million people, cut across 18 countries in the region. It is the first Islamic-backed cryptocurrency project that is aimed at users from the Middle-East and North Africa. The acceptance of this project by many already shows that the Muslim world is becoming more aware of cryptocurrencies, its benefits and massive adoption is due to follow.
It can be recalled that some governments in North Africa were averse to the idea of having decentralized value systems and were not loath to say so. With the acceptance of this project, things are about to change.
The limitations stated above and the conservative economies of the areas in question may have been touted as disadvantages which MenaPay is set to solve based on information in its one-pager. With this unique target audience and the laying of the foundation of acceptance for the project, the sky seems to be the beginning.
What makes MenaPay unique
MENA means the Middle East and North Africa so this, in essence, is a cryptocurrency created specifically for that market. As these are the initial focal areas, the possibility of adoption by the world is quite positive, so long as adoption in MENA countries ramps up.
Back to our review. The possibility of growth is quite massive considering the laws governing the MENA countries and the general aversion to the traditional banking system. One major setback is the issue of interests on loans advanced to borrowers as this is against the Sharia Law which is in full swing in these parts. Leveraging on Blockchain though MenaPay will bridge the gap between the unbanked and storage of value.
Looking at a few benefits, we will find that this project is more people-centric than many that have been more pretenders than contenders.
The expected benefits
*The value will always be stable at $1
Volatility is a big issue with Cryptocurrencies but with MenaPay, the stability is a huge plus and you can be sure you wouldn’t lose your money as is rampant with most crypto projects. There doesn’t seem to be a better way to mitigate the risks of inflation than to invest in a project that will suffer minimal or no risk as its value it will be pegged to the Dollar.
*Own Blockchain
With its own Blockchain, transactions will be faster-processed and there shouldn’t be slow network or downtime as obtained even with the more established heavyweights – Bitcoin and Ethereum. This advantage gives it the leverage needed to become a currency with strong use-case as it can be a medium of value that will be used every day.
*Wallet integration
The project didn’t stop with having a payment gateway but intends to back it up by providing desktop and App wallets for users, a dashboard to manage all transactions for registered merchants and a user-friendly interface provided in the general language of the target area – Arabic.
*Own payment option
MenaPay wants to make sure that every transaction on its platform, asides from eliminating the middleman, also makes use of its own medium of exchange – MenaCash which is necessary for all transactions on its private Blockchain.
*Detailed Roadmap
While this may seem like a feature and not a benefit, having a clear roadmap that is being followed religiously build investor confidence and adds to the viability of any project. MenaPay does this beautifully with its clear roadmap and timeline for each stop to be reached.
It is worthy to note that after the MenaCash Transactions Test, next stop is the Mobile App Test billed for September 2018.
*Profit-sharing
MenaPay’s profit-sharing structure is second to none in the crypto industry so far as it is pegged at 75% of total revenue at any one time. For every token holder, he/she is entitled to a share of this massive windfall. If not for anything, this profit structure is a massive reason to be a part of this project.
The Team
The team is Turkish and is led by Tolga Odoglu. One very important feature for the team their identities are verifiable on popular business-centric platform LinkedIn. This is another way to establish validity as the team has shown that they are real people and not phonies. They also have a 16-man strong board with advisors to help steer the vision in the right direction.
The MPayToken
The Menapay token (MPay) is an ERC20 token as it is currently built on the Ethereum platform. Indeed, the project will build its own Blockchain for ease of use, posting of its public sales and transference of tokens to investors. As is expected the tokens will be tradeable on exchanges once they are made available for sale in its ICO in November 2018 as shown on its roadmap.
Token Information:
Ticker: MPay
Total supply: 400,000,000 MPay
Type: ERC-20
Price: 1MPay = $0.165
Soft Cap: $5m
Hard Cap: $25m
Token Allocation:
Public Contributor — 64%
Advisors and Partnership — 11%
Founders and Team — 10%
Bounty and Airdrops — 10%
Mining Reserve — 5%
Use of Funds
Marketing — 40%
Development and Infrastructure — 30%
Operations and Administrations — 15%
Business Development — 10%
Legal — 5%
Conclusion
When we look through the MenaPay project, we see that it is meeting a real and pressing need for its target market and with more adoption especially considering the spirit of solidarity in that region of the world, the mass adoption could spread like wildfire. If they can get 30 cryptocurrencies on board as stated in the website, the sky may truly be the beginning for this project.
This is a project to invest in and definitely take the plunge.
For more information on Menapay visit:
Website: https://www.menapay.io/
Onepager: https://www.menapay.io/onepager.pdf
The following provides the link to their social media sites:
• Facebook：https://www.facebook.com/menapayio
• Twitter：https://twitter.com/menapayio
• Telegram group: https://t.me/MenaPay
• Medium: https://medium.com/menapay
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menapay/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC56eU1zaQh2S8k7TB4S2RjA
Authours Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2191205
Bounty0x Username: Gtbabe
DISCLAIMER “This article was created in exchange for a potential token reward through Bounty0x”
