Cryptographic services are still lacking in convenience, but the crucial moment is approaching, as more and more users around the world are looking for ways to use their crypto not just as an investment tool.
Alex Bychkov CEO of Embily explains why the demand for crypto processing products is growing, what regions are most willing to crypto payments, and what crypto has in common with skateboarding.
Cryptocurrencies have been around for over 12 years. If we can talk about mass adoption of crypto as an investment instrument, then crypto is still a curiosity for everyday spending. Why?
The answer is obvious. The payment infrastructure serving cryptocurrencies is still at a low level of development. Users have to choose: either comfort with the usual fiat bank card, or decentralization with a lot of headaches.
Bitcoin was designed to allow asset owners to regain control in their own hands, but it turned out that not everyone needed this control. It is more needed when it comes to large sums, investments, while when it comes to routine expenses, users are willing to give up control because of speed and comfort. In this field, cryptocurrencies are losing a lot to the already established traditional banking infrastructure. But this is slowly changing as it turns out that there is a growing segment of users who are interested in both asset control and convenience.
What is the reason for the growth of this category of users?
One of the reasons is that more and more employees, especially in IT companies and companies working with cryptocurrencies, are getting their salaries or part of it in cryptocurrencies. If the headquarters are located in one jurisdiction, and employees live in other countries with a different currency, it is easier for a company to pay them in crypto.
Especially in the current situation, when the financial and banking links between various regions are interrupted, and payments are periodically frozen, suspended, and reach the addressee with delay or not reaching at all. Another reason is that people who have already experienced the benefits of cryptocurrencies as an investment tool want to be able to use cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.
However, many people still talk about the difficulty of using cryptocurrencies in everyday life. Do you agree with them?
I agree that the infrastructure for daily payments in cryptocurrencies is still under development, and for some users these complexes are a high barrier to entry into this space. That’s why I consider infrastructure solutions as the most interesting and promising direction for start-ups right now. It is a demand, an interest of the target group. There is room for rapid growth.
I am an avid beginner. And these types of entrepreneurs always need the most. This thirst for new experiences is like the joy of extreme sports: it’s scary, but you jump into the unknown – to get to the point. This is very familiar to me, because before moving to Singapore and establishing Embily I was obsessed with skateboarding, snowboarding, and all other types of “boarding”, I launched one of the largest distributors of extreme sports products in the local Eastern European Freestyle market. Dist.
I see a lot of similarities between extreme sports and cryptocurrencies. One of them is a big role played by the community. The community is a driving force. Its members are not just consumers; they are active. Sometimes new services at Embily are born under the influence of the active community of our users. They write us what they would like to see in the list of services, and we look at how this can be accomplished.
Which markets seem to be the most promising for crypto processing?
In my opinion, these are two main markets, American and South Asian. They are very different, but they are similar in one thing – users in these markets like to test new products. The Asian market is also interesting in terms of demographics: the population is growing rapidly here.
The share of young people is consistently high, and this is the main target group for payment products using cryptocurrencies. In the U.S. market, cryptocurrencies have gained popularity largely as a tool for trading and investing. And when a user already has a lot of different currencies in their investment portfolio, he wants to be able to easily use them in daily payments.
Now the crypto market is experiencing the consequences of the shocking phenomena associated with the collapse of the UST, which has caused a wave of financial problems among the crypto-lending platforms. Does this also threaten the security of funds on crypto card accounts?
I can’t speak for all crypto cards. But I can tell you about our product, Embily. Embily cardholders maintain full control of their coins as the coins are still stored in their own wallets. Embily crypto cards are refilled
cryptocurrencies with immediate conversion to euro with the current exchange rate. That is, euros are stored on the Embily card account, not cryptocurrencies. This is an account with the usual IBAN number. Embily serves as a bridge between the world of digital assets and a traditional financial system with its developed payment infrastructure. That’s the idea: not to build a payment infrastructure for crypto from scratch, but to use elements of the traditional financial system like bricks.
Cryptographic services are still lacking in convenience, but the crucial moment is approaching, as more and more users around the world are looking for ways to use their crypto not just as an investment tool.
Alex Bychkov CEO of Embily explains why the demand for crypto processing products is growing, what regions are most willing to crypto payments, and what crypto has in common with skateboarding.
Cryptocurrencies have been around for over 12 years. If we can talk about mass adoption of crypto as an investment instrument, then crypto is still a curiosity for everyday spending. Why?
The answer is obvious. The payment infrastructure serving cryptocurrencies is still at a low level of development. Users have to choose: either comfort with the usual fiat bank card, or decentralization with a lot of headaches.
Bitcoin was designed to allow asset owners to regain control in their own hands, but it turned out that not everyone needed this control. It is more needed when it comes to large sums, investments, while when it comes to routine expenses, users are willing to give up control because of speed and comfort. In this field, cryptocurrencies are losing a lot to the already established traditional banking infrastructure. But this is slowly changing as it turns out that there is a growing segment of users who are interested in both asset control and convenience.
What is the reason for the growth of this category of users?
One of the reasons is that more and more employees, especially in IT companies and companies working with cryptocurrencies, are getting their salaries or part of it in cryptocurrencies. If the headquarters are located in one jurisdiction, and employees live in other countries with a different currency, it is easier for a company to pay them in crypto.
Especially in the current situation, when the financial and banking links between various regions are interrupted, and payments are periodically frozen, suspended, and reach the addressee with delay or not reaching at all. Another reason is that people who have already experienced the benefits of cryptocurrencies as an investment tool want to be able to use cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.
However, many people still talk about the difficulty of using cryptocurrencies in everyday life. Do you agree with them?
I agree that the infrastructure for daily payments in cryptocurrencies is still under development, and for some users these complexes are a high barrier to entry into this space. That’s why I consider infrastructure solutions as the most interesting and promising direction for start-ups right now. It is a demand, an interest of the target group. There is room for rapid growth.
I am an avid beginner. And these types of entrepreneurs always need the most. This thirst for new experiences is like the joy of extreme sports: it’s scary, but you jump into the unknown – to get to the point. This is very familiar to me, because before moving to Singapore and establishing Embily I was obsessed with skateboarding, snowboarding, and all other types of “boarding”, I launched one of the largest distributors of extreme sports products in the local Eastern European Freestyle market. Dist.
I see a lot of similarities between extreme sports and cryptocurrencies. One of them is a big role played by the community. The community is a driving force. Its members are not just consumers; they are active. Sometimes new services at Embily are born under the influence of the active community of our users. They write us what they would like to see in the list of services, and we look at how this can be accomplished.
Which markets seem to be the most promising for crypto processing?
In my opinion, these are two main markets, American and South Asian. They are very different, but they are similar in one thing – users in these markets like to test new products. The Asian market is also interesting in terms of demographics: the population is growing rapidly here.
The share of young people is consistently high, and this is the main target group for payment products using cryptocurrencies. In the U.S. market, cryptocurrencies have gained popularity largely as a tool for trading and investing. And when a user already has a lot of different currencies in their investment portfolio, he wants to be able to easily use them in daily payments.
Now the crypto market is experiencing the consequences of the shocking phenomena associated with the collapse of the UST, which has caused a wave of financial problems among the crypto-lending platforms. Does this also threaten the security of funds on crypto card accounts?
I can’t speak for all crypto cards. But I can tell you about our product, Embily. Embily cardholders maintain full control of their coins as the coins are still stored in their own wallets. Embily crypto cards are refilled
cryptocurrencies with immediate conversion to euro with the current exchange rate. That is, euros are stored on the Embily card account, not cryptocurrencies. This is an account with the usual IBAN number. Embily serves as a bridge between the world of digital assets and a traditional financial system with its developed payment infrastructure. That’s the idea: not to build a payment infrastructure for crypto from scratch, but to use elements of the traditional financial system like bricks.
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