April 25, 2022
By Anjali Kochhar
To begin with, how was PointPay started? Like, where did the idea to start an ecosystem of crypto products that will replace traditional financial institutions come from? What’s the story?
The idea behind the company was to create an ecosystem that combines multiple products into a single blockchain-based platform: a blockchain-based bank, a crypto lending module, a native off-chain technology for instant payments, a payment system, a crypto exchange and a crypto wallet, mobile crypto banking apps, a crypto school, etc. In addition, the PointPay team aimed to create a single ecosystem where users can get all the services they need. The goal was to serve every user with internet access worldwide. In this way, we would facilitate financial freedom by providing universally accessible crypto banking services.
You mentioned that the PointPay team wants to bridge the gap between the banking and cryptocurrency worlds. How is the company doing so? How does it all work, basically?
We are not trying to compete with traditional banks. In fact, we believe that it would be beneficial for all parties if financial institutions would cooperate and achieve synergy. Banks will make greater profits if they find ways to leverage cryptocurrencies. However, this will be very difficult until governments create clear regulations for digital assets. Hopefully, most countries will adopt some form of cryptocurrencies in the near future.
A bank is a traditional company that works within the legal system of one country or several countries. But cryptocurrencies have no borders. Because PointPay is built on blockchain technology, we are able to offer banking services to any user with internet access through our innovative ecosystem. Other projects offer similar products, but not a one-stop financial solution. We are the only company in the market that combines so many products in one ecosystem.
The company offers crypto loans, a wide range of crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat payment providers, and a liquid exchange with various trading instruments. How is all this beneficial for the customers in long-term?
PointPay offers a variety of ways to earn income in the crypto space. You can invest in various cryptocurrencies or trade them daily on our liquid exchange. PointPay also provides an opportunity to take out crypto loans easily to maximize your return from trading. In addition, we offer our users the opportunity to deposit their funds into a savings account to generate interest, as well as trade PXP tokens for even higher rewards in the system.
You can get up to 6% on savings accounts for popular stablecoins. As for major cryptocurrencies, PointPay offers 4% APR for Bitcoin and 2.6% APR for Ethereum. If you stake your own PXP token, you will get a return of 20% per year. Thus, our users can grow their portfolios regardless of the market conditions.
What makes the company stand apart from other such teams in the crypto domain?
The biggest advantage of PointPay is its comprehensive ecosystem that covers all your needs. It includes a crypto bank, a cryptocurrency exchange, an investment platform, and a crypto wallet. Users can freely transfer money between different services within the ecosystem with a single account.
PointPay Cryptocurrency Bank is the most important part of our ecosystem, as it offers customers the opportunity to earn an annual return by simply stacking funds and getting instant cryptocurrency loans. But we are not just a crypto bank. We offer crypto to crypto and crypto to fiat payment options, a liquid exchange with a wide range of trading instruments, and much more.
PointPay cryptocurrency exchange is an easy-to-use platform that allows you to buy or sell any cryptocurrency quickly and at the best prices. Once you purchase digital assets, you can deposit them into your wallet and use them for payments or transfer them between your accounts at other services.
Can you detail how can customers at large get benefitted from using PointPay?
You do not need to register for each of our services individually, as you can access all of our products through a single account. Our clients get everything they need for successful crypto trading, coin lending, payments and withdrawals. The process of registering on our platform is very simple and does not take much time. We support our users at every step they take when using our services.
What are the challenges the company faces while working on its goals to become an ecosystem to replace traditional finance?
There are many exciting things happening in the cryptocurrency space, but there is still no mass market adoption. The industry still faces many challenges:
- One of the biggest challenges is the regulatory environment. Currently, there are very few regulatory frameworks adapted to cryptocurrency protocols. In fact, most regulations were created for traditional financial systems and are not suitable to a technology that eliminates the need for intermediaries and central authorities. This poses challenges for PointPay in different regions, as regulations are very complicated and tricky to navigate.
- For a company like PointPay to succeed, it is important that real people use its services for their daily banking transactions. For the majority of the population, cryptocurrencies are still a novelty and not an accepted form of payment. Therefore, we need to continue to educate people and raise awareness about cryptocurrencies before we can achieve widespread adoption.
- Finally, another major challenge is the lack of qualified resources. Cryptocurrency is still a new industry, and it’s hard to find blockchain specialists who understand business processes in finance and other industries. This creates obstacles for companies like PointPay to grow efficiently and scale operations quickly.
Can you explain the employee shifting challenge the company faced in January this year? How the company managed to come out of the crisis?
In January 2022, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all major cryptocurrencies fell by 10% or more, together with the decrease in market capitalization by $205 billion in 24 hours. Despite the price fluctuations, this did not have a major impact on PointPay’s business, as the company generates profits in various ways, such as crypto loans, cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals, etc.
PointPay has grown to 150 employees in just one year, and our employees are located in countries around the world. While there may be advantages to having people working in different time zones and cultures, there are also serious concerns. Earlier this year, PointPay faced a geopolitical incident in the form of large protests in Kazakhstan over gas prices that threatened to separate five employees from the company. The government responded with violence and there was little hope for a peaceful resolution. Fortunately, the conflict did not escalate further, but we began making contingency plans in case a similar crisis occurred in another region, such as Ukraine.
Later this year, the company has been distressed by the Russian Ukrainian war, as we have teammates living near the Donbass, in Kiev and in the Western parts of the country. Although PointPay has been distressed by the conflict, we have been able to maintain operations and try to grow despite everything.
Who are the direct competitors of PointPay yet?
On one hand, there are several crypto banks that we can consider as our competitors in this industry, such as Nexo or Celsius. However, PointPay’s service offering is not exclusively limited to crypto banking solutions. On the other hand, we compete with the major crypto exchanges that dominate the cryptocurrency trading market. We strive to provide better services to our customers by offering three trading interfaces that are suitable for customers with different skill levels. In addition, we offer one of the lowest fees and higher returns in the industry.
Although we compete with many platforms in the crypto space, we are the only platform that offers the broad range of crypto services to clients in multiple ways: buying, selling, trading and storing cryptocurrencies as well as generating passive income from crypto and much more.
What is the plan for 2022? I see adding security tools and a number of other things. Please shed some light on it.
Security has always been a top priority for PointPay. To detect threats and vulnerabilities, we use automated vulnerability scanning tools. We also conduct internal and external audits, including a smart contract audit of our token, and work to improve the security of our websites. In 2021, we introduced the 2FA by email and Google Authenticator security feature. We work with cybersecurity experts and ecosystem partners to strengthen our defenses against attacks and security breaches and ensure our users can feel safe using PointPay.
We have spent a lot of time improving our exchange platform and making it more efficient and secure for our users. This year, we plan to focus on the development of our ecosystem and adding new products. The KYC process is an important part of our plans for this year. It is crucial for us to meet regulatory requirements and prevent money laundering through our platform. At the moment, KYC is open to users above a certain threshold. However, we plan to integrate it for all PointPay customers in the coming months.
What are the long-term goals of the company?
We are committed to building a world-class financial ecosystem that provides professional, reliable, secure and convenient services that are accessible to the masses. PointPay is an ambitious project with a revolutionary goal. We want to build a platform that will completely replace traditional banks, which are currently losing their position in the financial market due to the emergence of digital technologies. The main idea of our project is to create a multifunctional crypto bank that will allow you to perform a wide range of transactions with cryptocurrencies. Next, we will launch the PointPay crypto credit card. This debit card will enable you to manage your digital assets just as you would with a bank card. This way, we will be able to increase the adoption of digital assets for day-to-day transactions.
We also want to become one of the tier 1 crypto exchanges. We have aggressive plans to achieve our goals. In addition to growing our transaction volume, we are also showing our commitment to becoming one of the leading exchanges by improving our security measures and increasing the number of services we offer. As you can see, the goal is quite ambitious! But we are sure that with the right people we can achieve it.
About the author
Anjali Kochhar covers cryptocurrency stories in India as well as globally. Having been in the field of media and journalism for over three years now, she has developed a sharp news sense and works hard to present information that goes beyond the obvious. She is an avid reader and loves writing on a wide range of subjects.
