Spend AMA — July 12, 2019
Welcome all of our Spenders to our Spend AMA. Last month, the Spend team made incredible progress with our infrastructure and platform providers/partners to offer the strongest suite of products to users worldwide on the Spend App. We will start by going over our agenda of items that we have prepared for our community:
Spend Partners with Evolve Bank & Trust
Spend has partnered with Evolve Bank & Trust to offer FDIC insured USD Wallet Accounts for users with the ability for direct deposit and ACH/Wire Transfers.
Spend is proud to announce that we have partnered with Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC, to offer Spend Wallet users a full banking product directly within the Spend App. Users will have their own account and routing numbers directly within the app and will be able to initiate ACH deposits and withdraws automatically to purchase crypto and make withdraws to external linked bank accounts. Users who activate this feature in the app will also have FDIC insurance up to $250,000 for their USD wallet balance.*
*Cryptocurrency deposits are not insured by the FDIC and are high risk products that may cause financial loss.
These features for ACH and the Evolve Bank & Trust USD Wallet will first be available to Spend Preferred and Spend Black members with a phased roll out to all other users by October 2019. More details to be released shortly!
Spend Partners with Currencycloud
Spend has partnered with Currency Cloud to offer full European Banking to our EU users with instant SEPA transfers and more!
Spend is also proud to announce a partnership with Currency Cloud giving Spend access to the European market, offering clients cross-border currency storage and exchange with near perfect interchange rates. The new partnership will see Spend integrating Currencycloud’s API into its existing app to offer an additional 27 currencies from within Europe, giving Spend users more options when it comes to spending abroad. More details will be coming soon!
Spend Wallet — 2.5 Updates
All of the new banking features will be available under a “Bank” tab menu item on the Spend Wallet version 2.5. The Spend engineers have been working hard to address all open app issues and new features to ensure complete testing to have a smooth release of this product to all users. We are anticipating that this will be done by the end of this month, if not sooner.
Spend Reddit AMA
Now we will go over the questions from our community:
CryptoGoatMan asked: Why can’t withdrawals for PAX tokens be made to an external wallet address?
Answer: PAX External Withdraws are currently being tested as we are going to be integrating Paxos directly to our system for redemption and minting through our new partnership with Paxos. This should be ready within the next 30–60 days.
When will the loan feature be up and running in the US?
Answer: The loan feature is available in states that Spend has a lending license and/or is exempt. We are announcing a new partnership soon to open up lending and interest accounts for users very soon.
Is there any plans to offer interest bearing features to the list of services?
Answer: Yes, as mentioned above, we are partnering with an industry leader on this and should be announced soon.
When will we be able to order a metal black Spend Card?
Answer: We plan to have Spend Metal Black cards available by the end of the year. This is based on our time-frame for selecting the right manufacturer for these cards as we might change the design slightly.
Is there a way to be able to use the card at gas stations?
Answer: Yes, go inside and pre-pay for the transaction at the cashier. It will never work at the pump due to authorization restraints.
St Lucy asked: How do users receive referral commissions?
Answer: Referral commissions are paid in USD value of SPND to your SPND Wallet
How / when are commissions paid out?
Answer: Referral Commissions are currently paid out upon the activation of the Spend Card ordered by your referral.
Are commission payments also locked up?
Answer: Yes they are locked for 30 days.
dominicdavid7 asked: How many coins from the team / investors are locked up and until when?
Answer: 225,000,000 from the Team allocation are still locked up and 2.5M is released monthly, which the Spend team has been sending to the Cold Wallet 0x3b9c972fe0a7683c314ae5322f09d57b37239bce. None of the tokens from the Spend Team allocation have been sold. The advisor and founder allocation has 207,269,115 locked still with up to 50M being released every year for 5 years total. Over ~90% of already released tokens have been held by the founders and advisors since released within their own cold wallets.
Why do you think has SPND dropped 98% ?
Answer: Spend does not comment on the token price. SPND is not an investment or security token. SPND has been designed since the beginning to be used on the product line. Only purchase what you intend to consume.
Can you give detailed statistics about how many users you have, how many cards you’ve shipped?
Answer: As a private company with no ICO, we do not publicly release our figures.
What’s the rollout plan for other countries?
Answer: We are in North America (United States & Canada) now. We are rolling out Europe soon with a special announcement for this coming within the next month or so.
Can you give a tech roadmap on what we can expect in the future?
Answer: We try to keep our tech plans under stealth until launch, like how we did the Spend Card and Wallet. This is strictly for competitive advantage. Spend has a strong internal roadmap of new products that we will roll out in due time.
Tommy_Q asked: SPND offers a decentralized swap bridge to all erc20 projects that want to migrate to bep2. I think this is a great initiative, as it takes away hassle for Binance and allows projects do it decentralized manner, with a bridge. Instead of centrally through Binance exchange with a burn. Are there any projects using this bridge already? And if not, are there any plans to get an erc20 project on board this month as a proof of concept? Has there been any coordination with Binance?
Answer: We are speaking with numerous projects that are planning to launch on Binance Chain and Binance DEX with migrations. These will be announced when ready.
Has SPND applied for a BTCB listing on Binance DEX yet?
Answer: Yes.
What is the ETA for the loan function, and will this include interest bearing functions for the supply side?
Answer: This was answered above, but we plan to have this rolling out very soon with a new partnership announcement with an industry leader here as well.
How does the SPEND team plan to offset current inflation, aka reduce velocity to ensure value is retained in the SPND token and ecosystem? (additional to the current 250K SPND that has to be staked for cashbacks, which I btw think should be denominated in USD targets priced in SPND)
Answer: We can’t speak on price value. But the idea of inflation is that as there are more cardholders there are more tokens locked up globally.
Is there a table comparison of SPENDcard vs competitors such as: TenX, CoinBase card Crypto. com (monaco) available somewhere? I think this would be good marketing, as SPEND offers the best deal.
Answer: We do not have an official one. This would need to be a community initiative.
SPND is currently in competition on the DEX for a CEX listing. In terms of volume SPND seems to be leading the pack, which is great. However, in terms of social media efforts, it is lacking behind some of the other contenders. Does SPEND plan to utilize their social media channels more to create additional promotions and awareness to maximize the chances of winning the competition?
Answer: Spend is always planning for more awareness and engagement. There will be some roll-outs soon.
Randal2555 asked: Will There ever be direct deposit?
Answer: Yes! Very soon! Check above for updates on banking.
Can we ever get checks for the account?
Answer: This is not planned as of now. However, we will eventually allow remote check deposits.
Is there a date for more VIP info?
Answer: We are awaiting approval from the Visa card network and banking partners to implement our VIP offers to our users. Once this approval is granted, which it will be, it’s just a matter of timing, we will then enable it for our users.
Can we buy Spend Merchandise? The current “shop” on Spend.com not working.
Answer: We are re-launching our store shortly with our all new Spend Pay feature with Spendchain beta.
Can we access our account without an app? There was a wallet.spend.com but it’s down.
Answer: We do not have a web wallet at this time. Plans for re-launching this are under discussion.
Can you answer these questions on your Youtube channel with a live stream?
Answer: We will plan a future AMA that is a video soon.
Will we ever be able to get rewards auto converted to the coin of our choice in the app/wallet?
Answer: Our Reward system is paid in SPND at which you can convert to any other coin. We do not have any plans to change that at this time.
doubled1c3 asked: When will Bryan come on my dang podcast?? 🙂
Answer: Let’s get one scheduled for him, I think this is a great idea and will have the team engaged in this too.
If Bryan can’t find time to come on, can I convert this AMA to a podcast episode and just record it myself?
Answer: We can have him join your podcast soon.
Can I use AMA answers to write a blog update for Spend features on the ARK blog?
Answer: Yes!
Regarding bank accounts. I noticed your app is integrated with Plaid, allowing seamless integration of hundreds of financial institutions into your app. My bank is not Plaid compliant yet though. Another fiat onramp exchange called Vertbase integrated with Plaid and later allowed for legacy banks to integrate using the standard account/routing and verification of tiny transactions. Do you plan to implement this legacy feature so customers like me can be serviced?
Answer: Yes, we plan to allow micro-deposits, which will allow non-plaid banking. This won’t be anytime soon though, unfortunately.
If someone’s level 2 verification is delayed, what might be a reason for this? What do you recommend people do if their verification seems to take a long time?
Answer: Tier 2 delays often happen when there is an address, date of birth, social, or name discrepancy. This is from our bank processors side. If their verification seems too long, live chat typically is the best place and then if anything, a telegram moderator.
Are Preferred and Black cards operational? If so, what is the process of upgrading from a Simple card to one of those? What types of additional perks currently exist?
Answer: Yes, the Simple, Preferred and Black cards are all available and shipping for users in the United States at the moment. You can upgrade directly from the Spend App from the Simple card and choose the Spend card that best fits your needs. Additional perks include but are not limited to enhanced card and wallet rewards along with access to the upcoming Spend VIP program.
As an American customer, can I use my card in other countries, such as France? In the past, I recall weird surcharges using my legacy bank’s VISA card in other countries. Do these international VISA surcharges occur using Spend cards? Feature request: waive fees for Black cards?
Answer: Yes, the Spend card can be used globally, anywhere Visa is accepted. International fees can apply. You can find more information by visiting our website: https://www.spend.com/fees-and-limits/. We are looking into potentially reducing or waiving international fees for our higher limit cardholders, but that has not been confirmed as of yet.
Can you confirm a 1% flat fee on spending? This is the fee I noticed in the app. Very reasonable if true.
Answer: Yes, we ourselves only charge 1% flat on spending and buying/selling with fiat. We then use algorithms from our custodians to provide you the best market sale rate from your purchase with all factors of size and slippage auto-calculated. We are certainly not an exchange and can’t get the perfect rate a user will get on the exchange, but we strive to get the best we can.
Are the exchange rates within the Spend app accurate? In the past I recall using some crypto ATMs that list the exchange rate as higher than normal in order to collect their fee, which kind of obfuscates the fee for customers (shady). Are the exchange rates in the Spend App accurate to the market?
Answer: The rates you see in the app are not updated in real time as cryptocurrencies that we support are high-frequency traded and very volatile. When the transaction is actually performed or quoted (for buy/sell) you will see the best and final rate based on the moment the transaction or quote is about to be finalized. We plan to introduce a faster pricing engine this year.
Is sending virtual assets via username, email, or phone number from within the app operational?
Answers: For username sends, it is active at the moment. Phone Number and Email are under maintenance and should be available in v2.5.
If I wish to register an account as a small business can I do that? Can the app hotswap between personal and business accounts?
Answer: Spend Business should be available soon, in which case then, you will be able to.
Buying digital assets with a legacy bank’s credit or debit card. Is this operational or coming anytime soon?
Answer: Yes, very soon as discussed above.
Can you describe how Spend loan services will work? Any timetable on the feature?
Answer: These will be collateralized lending available soon through a new strategic partnership we plan to announce shortly.
There is an “Enable SPND Discounts” switch in the app. What does this switch do?
Answer: SPND Discounts means that up to 10% of the fee will be discounted when paying fees in SPND. This comes as a rebate, thereafter.
Is there a feature to set up recurring buys of digital assets within the app? If not, soon? Side request: ability to set up recurring buys using BTC or USD holdings that’s already in there, as opposed to autobuys using bank account? Every exchange that has autobuy using bank account or card has glitched out on me eventually. Seems like autobuys from within exchange holdings is a surefire reliable solution
Answer: This is in the works and should be available in the next few months
US customers like me need reporting and export functionality for tax purposes. We would need a convenient way to get data of spending activity which is essentially microsells of digital assets throughout the tax year. Does this exist? If not can you implement it before 2019 taxes are due?
Answer: We will certainly have an end of year statement for you that will show all your activity and respective prices at the time of the activity to give you all data needed for your taxes. Please keep in mind we do not give any tax advice when dealing with cryptocurrencies. These are best done with your professional tax consultant/CPA.
Where did the operating funds for the current Spend business entity come from, ICO? Private investors? What is your funding status? Do you have a good runway of funds?
Answer: Spend is a privately funded company with strong backers such as the Bharti Family (https://spend.com/company) and others. We do not plan on doing any ICO, and we have sufficient backing and capital to continue building our product line for mass adoption.
alrmshffpt asked: Is there any specific part of the Q4 roadmap?
Answer: Nothing public except Spendchain launch.
I’m curious about the specifics of this partnership.(Banks, Licenses, Exchange Listed, Large Companies)
Answer: We will announce these items as they become appropriate.
Are there any exchanges that you have applied for and applied for other than the BTCB?
Answer: We do not discuss exchange listings nor do we make any representations of listings. However, for BTCB pair this is on-chain DEX related and we have publicly applied.
I know that you have a specific partnership with Samsung. Is that right?
Answer: There is no partnership with Samsung. We have Google Pay enabled through our banking partner which can be used on Samsung devices.
Beyond_beyonce asked: 1.- So, the big question: is there any REALISTIC date for cards release in Europe? We are already in Q3, if you could provide us the month, it would be highly appreciate.
Answer: We should have an announcement on this with our new partner within the next month. We are progressing EXTREMELY well on our European program.
2.- Will cards be released in all the EU countries at once or in different stakes??
Answer: They should be released all at once in EEA.
evolalex asked: Any plans to add POS coins and allow staking through the spend app?
Answer: This is something we are discussing with a staking provider to provide within the Spend App. It is a work in progress and nothing is finalized yet.
