Founders of crypto protection service Wallet Nation believe the upside of the crypto crash is that the industry is now much more focused on the ‘real world’ uses for blockchain and digital currencies.
Wallet Nation, a soon to be launched crypto payments protection service, designed to make crypto payments more protective for users than traditional payments, recently talked to Stockhead about the current climate of crypto, and the opportunities it presents for a platform like Wallet Nation.
“People outside the crypto community are often very surprised that I am so positive about crypto at the moment,” said Angela Clark, cofounder of Wallet Nation.
The ex-Beem It CEO is working with Australian inventor Ric Richardson on the new service, which they say is going to make paying for goods and services with crypto safer and more secure than even traditional payments.
“Ric thought long and hard about why crypto hasn’t yet achieved its promise as a medium of exchange. Blockchain technology offers so many advantages as better financial infrastructure than the global spaghetti of legacy domestic and international payment rails, but has some downsides as well – particularly around protection for users when things go wrong,” said Angela Clark.
The crypto bodyguard
Angela and Ric both believe that if crypto payments came with the same or better protection for consumers as TradFi payments there would be an explosion in usage.
“We see a lot more value for businesses and society in crypto as a medium of exchange, than as a speculative instrument,” said Ric Richardson, the company’s co-founder.
According to Clark and Richardson, businesses also see the potential of crypto as a form of payment with 75% of US merchants planning to accept crypto or stablecoins within the next two years (Survey: Deloitte June 2022).
The service Wallet Nation offers allows crypto to be directly transferred on the blockchain and access to the other party held until agreement has been satisfied.
“After the coin has left the sender’s wallet, in most instances the parties will resolve transfer of control between themselves but because of our unique design, there is also a dispute resolution and chargeback mechanism, just like in traditional payments, even though we never have any custody of coins,” Richardson explained.
Online marketplaces
90% percent of crypto owners – in a survey Wallet Nation conducted across the UK, USA and Australia- said they’d use this kind of protection product, with the No.1 use case in all markets being for buying and selling in online marketplaces.
“Interestingly protection for gifting and sending cryptocurrency to friends and family came in second which was something we weren’t expecting. But there are so many tragic stories around key loss or incorrect wallet addresses and this is an easy way to eliminate that risk, so it makes sense,” said Clark.
Wallet Nation sees protection and redress in crypto payments as something that everyone should have access to and so the service is designed to work on any blockchain and can be integrated into any wallet.
Ric and Angela believe there is no reason crypto payments can’t be safer and more protective than traditional payments, and with none of the cost merchants and businesses are paying to use traditional payment rails.
“The crypto crash is getting us back to basic in crypto but if we get the basics right, the amount of value we can unlock for everyone in the world is, at the risk of hyperbole, extraordinary,” said Clark.
This article was developed in collaboration with Wallet Nation, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.