Q1 2020 progress report
Dear Pundians,
Thank you for your time to participate in our Q1 2020 video progress report.
Here’s the agenda that Zac covered:
- COVID-19 Impact
- Q1 Results
- Relief plans for merchants
- Strategy and outlook
- Development in progress
COVID-19 Impact
The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected everyone globally, businesses and the financial markets. Governments are trying to mitigate the impact, and Wall Street just had one of its worst quarters in history.
One of the immediate actions which Pundi X and Function X have done is to institute a work-from-home policy for all employees. Our team in Shenzhen has been working from home since late January, and the rest of our team members located around the world has been doing the same since March.
Working remotely has always been part of our DNA for us since we have nine offices and over 100 employees around the world. We assure you that the work-from-home policy will not affect our delivery or output and we will continue to maintain the highest standard in our work.
BOB Delivery to Take Place Post Second Half of 2020
With the COVID-19 situation, we are expecting our production factory to slowly resume work. We will take the advice from the local government to see how we could proceed. Delivery for BOB will be delayed but rest assured our production partners are doing the best they can to scale up the production process.
Offline retail challenges
The stay-home and social distancing measures are affecting physical retail shops. It has also affected over 70% of transactions on the XPOS. We’re taking measures to bring things online.
During this period, we realized that the decision makers are looking even more seriously into the rollout of digital currency. In fact, we have received notices from several governments that they are exploring digital currency implementation.
The current climate could be a strong factor for governments to see how the digital currency movement could be explored further. This might speed up the adoption of digital currency and cryptocurrency.
Q1 Results
XWallet User Growth
The usage of XWallet has been growing. We like to thank you all for the support shown and the feedback given which has helped to improve the features in XWallet.
During our Carnival campaign, we introduced the “Crypto Gift” feature and we have seen communities creating different groups in social media (with their friends and families) to send and receive crypto easily through this feature. We are happy to see the continous activities of “Crypto Gift” and looking forward to see more use cases around it.
Our XWallet is experiencing fast growth and is reaching close to 800,000 registered users. Here’s a breakdown of countries in Q1 2020 for “Most Active Users” and “Most Downloads”:
In terms of transaction numbers in our XPOS ecosystem, our Q1 2020 transaction is lower this quarter, around ⅔ compared to the previous quarter due to the current COVID-19 climate which has seen a decline in physical retail businesses.
Token Removal in Q1 2020
- The NPXS removal amount is 14,462,405.43 (14.4 Million)
- The NPXSXEM removal amount is 8,063,151.2 (8 Million)
- In sum, we will remove 22,525,556 (22.5 Million) NPXS and NPXSXEM permanently from the total supply on April 11, 2020.
The 22.5 million token removal is a 90% decrease from the last quarter, due to the allocation of the transaction fee to our XPOS merchants, and the ending of token removal for the conversion of NPXS/ NPXSXEM to FX.
DApps
We have also started to look at online channels to drive more transactions and cryptocurrency utilization through the XWallet.
Crypto IDR is a DApp on XWallet which people can use to convert cryptocurrency into Indonesian fiat currency (IDR). It is available now for the Indonesia market.
- Crypto Bull
Crypto Bull is a new Defi DApp in XWallet, offering protection of users’ principal and a risk-free way to grow their crypto assets.
Here’s how it works.
There are different plans in Crypto Bull for you to purchase that can help to grow your crypto assets. Upon a completion of a purchased plan, if the buying price in the plan becomes lower than what you have paid for, you will automatically get your funds back. If the buying price goes higher upon completion of a plan, you will get the tokens you intend to buy. As a start, we will launch the plans for users to buy NPXS, NPXSXEM or FX with BTC, ETH or USDT.
To illustrate how Crypto Bull works, see the below example:
Assuming a plan is offering the buying price of 1 NPXS = 1 USDT and this offer has a time period of 7 days. Bob buys the plan and paid 10 USDT for 10 NPXS.
After 7 days, if the price of NPXS has decreased to 1 NPXS = 0.9 USDT, Bob will receive back his 10 USDT.
Or after 7 days, if the price of NPXS has increased to 1 NPXS = 1.1 USDT, Bob will receive the 10 NPXS instead.
Crypto Bull may sound similar to options but it is different as per the below:
1. User will get the tokens instead of the ‘right’ itself.
2. Auto execution — the system will pick the higher value option for users.
3. We are offering the purchase of digital tokens with contractual protection.
Crypto Bull is already available for testing with some of our selected community members who were whitelisted and is scheduled for public launch in 2 weeks.
COVID-19 Relief Plan for Merchants
XPOS Relief Plan
- 50 XPOS giveaways
To help with combating the COVID-19 situation, we are announcing 50 XPOS giveaways for those who have physical retail storefronts and embracing crypto adoptions. With XPOS, they will have the opportunity to make extra revenue when handling crypto transactions.
- XPOS Handy at 45% discount
Starting from now until 30 April 2020, 50 units of the Handy will also be available at a special price of $149 each (the retail price is US$270).
This offer is available to all. We will announce the details for this offer soon.
MakerDao Plan
Together with MakerDao, we have also launched the Crypto Merchant program. 100 XPOS terminals are available for free in Brazil.
For more information, go to: Pundi X and MakerDAO launch the Crypto Merchant program in LATAM markets
Strategy and Outlook
WorldPay makes crypto sales possible with accepting credit card payments on XPOS
We have successfully ported the XPOS platform on the PAX A921 model to facilitate credit card transactions with the support of World Pay, the leading U.S. merchant acquirer which has generated the most transaction processing volume in 2019 for the US market.
This collaboration is being led by one of our most dedicated XPOS official distributors, BTC King. He has enable the feature of accepting credit cards alongsie crypto sale transactions on the XPOS a reality. We undergoing more testing currently to ensure the user experience is smooth.
We like to take this opportunity to thank our distributors (some of them who Zac has the pleasure to meet in person and others who we hope to connect with soon), for their local knowledge, expertise and the faith in pushing crypto adoption. Our distributors remain one of our core pillars and we will continue to support them and together, we look forward to deploy more XPOS to the world.
Online Channels
In Q1 2020, we have also launched XPOS® on the NewEgg Commerce platform in the US as well as activated the e-commerce feature in the Pundi X Brazil site for Brazilian merchants to easily purchase XPASS cards with crypto pre-loaded.
On the Pundi X Venezuela site, Venezuelan users can easily transfer their fiat currency through bank accounts to acquire cryptocurrency.
We look forward to providing more localised e-commerce solutions to cater to demands of the local markets.
Find XWallet and NPXS on New Samsung Devices
More Samsung mobile devices are supporting the Blockchain Keystore and Samsung Blockchain Wallet, including the Galaxy A90 and Galaxy A71. This year, new flagship devices like Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy S20 series will come with the Blockchain Keystore and Samsung Blockchain Wallet. This means that you will be able to find XWallet and NPXS on more Samsung mobile devices.
Compliance
At Pundi X, we’ve also looked into how we can better comply with the evolving local regulations in the markets which we operate in. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the commencement of the Payment Services Act (PS Act) to enhance the regulatory framework for payment services in Singapore, strengthen consumer protection and promote confidence in the use of e-payments, including cryptocurrency payments. We are in the process of applying the relevant licenses for providing account issuance and digital payment token services in Singapore. We’ve received an exemption from MAS to operate both services (account issuance and digital payment token) till 28 July 2020 while we undergo our application process.
For more information, see: Compliance: update on license applications and exemption granted
Partnership with Schools for Blockchain Research and Development
In late February, the European University Cyprus and Pundi X 365, our European entity focusing on blockchain enterprise solution, signed an MoU under the witness of President of the Parliament of the Republic of Cyprus to explore the best and most productive way of using Blockchain technology that can be adopted by the Cyprus-based companies. These include healthcare, legal framework, financial technology (fintech), education technology (ed-tech), shipping, registry, accreditation, charity and more.
The co-operation also aims to issue postgraduate and professional certifications in the field of blockchain technology and to participate in EU programs to implement blockchain technology.
Development in progress
One of the objectives for Function X is to build and empower any transaction that can benefit from being decentralized. Below contains more details of our progress on Function X.
Function X testnet will be launched in Q2 2020
- Function X Explorer: We intend to take XPOS transaction on chain anonymously.
- Function Cloud: It’s intended to allow enterprises to easily tap into the power of blockchain
As mentioned in Hash Out articles, Function X is the hub (the parent chain) and will be connected to different chains. For example, a bank is looking to build a private chain environment. This private chain can be built with the Function X platform called Function X Cloud. And through a simple procedure, the bank (or any company) can create the chain, nodes, consensus model and tokens on the cloud in a fully decentralized way. It’s still a work-in-progress but it’s slowly taking shape and we can’t wait to open it up for testing.
For more details of how Function X works, visit our Function X: Hash Out January, February, and March. We would like to invite our community members to participate as validators and build the ecosystem together. Both the explorer and cloud platform will be on the testnet.
Lastly, please stay safe, healthy and remain vigilant.
We hope this pandemic will end soon. When the time comes, we will be ready to push for greater adoption.
For full video session, you can watch it at https://youtu.be/lQkZYd1txFE
