Plutus Raised Over $1m in 9 Days — The Journey to Launch 1st Contactless Blockchain Payments Continues
Thank you to all participants for helping us reach over one million dollars in a flash crowdsale. The results are above expectations which will enable us to complete our platform and make Plutus Tap & Pay a reality.
Plutus app is a gateway that connects the blockchain technology with the pre-existing debit infrastructure to enable contactless payments using converted Bitcoins and Ether at millions of brick & mortar merchants all around the world.
Our vision is to make Plutus the most practical way to utilize your Bitcoin and Ethereum for spending— simply hold your phone above any merchant’s NFC reader to complete your purchase. It really couldn’t be any easier. Don’t wait years for shops and businesses to accept bitcoin, use Plutus Tap & Pay instead!
Earn Rewards for Shopping for a Zero Fee Payment Experience
The Plutus app also rewards you with tokens on the blockchain for any in‐store purchases. These tokens are called Plutons, and can be distantly compared to cash-back points or frequent flyer programs.
The purpose of the decentralised reward system is to enable practical day-to-day usage of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Plutons can be converted and used within our platform for payments just like Bitcoin and Ethereum, with the added advantage of ZERO fee transactions. No fees!
However, what makes Plutus truly unique and sets it apart from other platforms is that its liquidity is provided by a peer‐to‐peer trading network called the PlutusDEX — which runs as a autonomous gateway application (Dapp) on the Ethereum blockchain.
Did You Know? — Plutus Tap & Pay has been in the works since 2014.
We first developed the concept of combining NFC payments and Bitcoin in 2014, as mobile payments were blooming and the infrastructure to build a blockchain-based payment system first became readily available. In this timeframe, the number of NFC enabled phones in the world has almost doubled and is expected to reach over an incredible 1 billion in 2016. The next logical step was clear to us — to combine the best of both worlds and make contactless payments that unlock the value of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
What is the problem with Bitcoin merchant adoption?
Even though the Bitcoin world is growing, Bitcoin merchant adoption has so far proved to be a challenging endeavour. Merchants are hesitant to accept it, and users are unable to spend it. And because there is no widespread Bitcoin PoS infrastructure in place, merchants often reconsider continued usage.
This is why Plutus is first and foremost intended to be a practical application for Bitcoin users. Plutus is tailored for the growing number of remote employees and freelancers around the world who are rapidly adopting digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum due to its convenience, speed, and low transfer fees.
Because of the ability to walk into any store, convert Bitcoin and spend it, we believe that Plutus is the most practical app for anyone who earns in digital currencies, and has the potential to drive adoption through referrals. And as a positive side effect, Plutus may contribute to the increasing brick & mortar usage; because when consumers have more opportunities to use NFC-powered services like the Plutus app in store, it follows that both usage and awareness will grow.
Now there is no reason to wait for merchants to wake up to Bitcoin.
Exploring an Inadvertent Use Case
Even though Plutus was designed for Bitcoin users, there are several other use cases with a sizeable impact, especially when one considers the growing numbers of remote freelancers and entrepreneurs around the world who receive cross border payments.
Plutus is useful for international tourists, expats and students. Contactless balances are available in several currencies and usage is universal. For example, if you are in the UK, you can send a small amount of Bitcoin or Pluton to your GBP balance and when you arrive in the States you can charge your USD balance the same way. This makes it possible to avoid often astronomical currency exchange fees, and use the same process to Tap & Pay anywhere in the world that is NFC-enabled.
And because the decentralised nature of the reward system (explained below), users have the ability to create their own use cases for Plutons (reward token). For example, the rebate amount earned can be sent to a friend or automatically forwarded to charity or a donation account so for every payment you make, the good deed is public and recorded on the blockchain.
Plutus chose the distributed Ethereum blockchain to secure and settle trades, avoiding the need for a centralised point of exchange.
Using a third-party exchange to convert Bitcoin to fiat is always the easier option to implement, however this convenience has many caveats like placing trust in the exchange operators, as well as their servers, and their code. This would expose the Plutus payment system to essentially the same risks as the exchange itself.
This is why we have decided that we needed to develop a competitive advantage — to build an automated peer-to-peer network instead. This means that almost all of the trading process will run transparently on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. As a result, the exchange will occur programmatically between users themselves.
Building the next generation payment system
Even though it is an approachable obstacle, overcoming red tape is a necessity for any financial tool that plugs directly into the fiat network. Our primary challenge is to build the next generation digital currency app that does not hold any user funds and pushes the limits of what can be done with peer-to-peer technology.
It is critical to invest time and effort primarily into first building a scalable, self-governing and secure exchange network. This significantly reduces operational costs, saves maintenance and development time in the long run.
A major advantage is that while centralised systems can be compromised and have a single point of failure, Plutus uses blockchain technology to secure all trades and balances. By storing everything on an uncensorable ledger, entire categories of attacks are rendered harmless. Benefits such as automated accounting and notarised trades are also a welcome result.
In the end, Plutus itself only acts as a gateway between these platforms with the traditional payments system. In doing so, we aim to reduce our own footprint and automate the process through distributed computing.
Pluton Rewards & The Rebate System
For every Bitcoin conversion you make on the app, you will receive a rebate in Plutons. This starts at 3% and will reduce as the network grows, to a minimum of 0.01%. Plutons are digital tokens issued on the Ethereum blockchain with the balance tied transparently to a rebate smart contract, independent from Plutus and other centralised entities. This is an advantageous feature, as it lets users access their digital assets directly from the Plutus app and convert only what they need to spend at the point of sale, whereas bitcoin has to be deposited in advance.
You can transfer your earned Plutons to other users on the app or convert them on the DEX network the same way as Bitcoin — but the transaction is designed to instantly confirm and then reflect onto a virtual debit card balance. As well as being easily accessible from the app, Pluton conversions are completed with zero fees.
Users on the DEX will also be able to buy Plutons as well as Bitcoin and Ether directly from users redeeming the tokens on the app. They have the option to hold, trade externally or convert their digital assets into contactless balance instantly and without a conversion fee, which highlights Plutons as a preferred choice over Bitcoin and Ether within the Plutus app itself. In turn, this creates an incentive for DEX users to fuel the payment network.
A singular vision.
The Plutus team has a singular vision — creating an effortless and effective contactless payments system using the blockchain. The philosophy of the application itself is open, inclusive and committed to the network health of the blockchin ecosystem.
A public trading API will be available, and creative third-party uses of the infrastructure will be highly encouraged.
If you have any questions then please join us and our growing community to ask us anything in slack, reddit or on twitter, facebook.
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You can read one of our many previous blogs to find out more about our team, the PlutusDEX, or how Pluton, the next generation decentralised rebate system works.
Plutus Tap and Pay App — Payment Process Demo & Frequently Asked Questions
Pluton–decentralised rebate system for contactless payments
PlutusDEX–converts crypto to fiat for contactless payments
