Blockchain startup U.CASH has raised US$113 million and built a community-based digital-to-cash exchange marketplace
U.CASH is not your average blockchain startup. In an industry where over 30 ICOs were being launched per day, U.CASH created the world’s first Initial Bounty Offering, or “IBO”, to build a community of nearly 6,000 Telegram followers and thousands of other loyal fans. The result? Over 8 billion U.CASH tokens distributed ($113 million).
Built from a place of passion and social need, the company is a global P2P network of retail and individual converters providing cash to digital conversions within the U.CASH ecosystem. This means new financial services access for the global unbanked, under-banked, and the over-banked.
To drive a highly engaged and passionate following, U.CASH created its IBO to reward and incentivise community participation. In fact, the majority of its network access tokens were given away to users who contributed their time and skills.
To learn more, I had the chance to speak to U.CASH’s CEO, Brian Phan, on his inspiration behind the company and how the concept of an IBO was created.
Tell us a little bit about yourself
My name is Brian Phan and I am based out of Toronto, Canada. I am a blockchain pioneer, basketball aficionado, and anime nerd. I am also an entrepreneur working on multiple blockchain projects including U.CASH, a global peer-to-peer financial services platform and Bitcoin.xyz, a portal to everything Bitcoin and blockchain.
What was your inspiration behind U.CASH? How did it all begin?
Originally, U.CASH began as a company called SecuraCoin – a platform allowing retail money services businesses (MSBs) to buy and sell bitcoin out of their stores. Customers could walk in with cash and walk out with bitcoin (vice-versa). We quickly realized there was a bigger opportunity at hand.
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How is U.CASH’s IBO different than other ICOs?
With ICOs, millions are raised within seconds and many people are unable to participate. As whales control the majority of liquidity, the risk of foul play increases. Therefore, we developed the concept of the Initial Bounty Offerings (IBOs).
An IBO is a structured way to crowdsource resources, business development, marketing and user acquisition for blockchain technology ecosystems, by offering network tokens in exchange for contributions to the ecosystem. Bounties expand an organization’s reach by utilising the crowd and increasing the number of possible candidates to choose from to complete tasks or projects.
We are the first company in the world doing an IBO and have made it extremely easy to participate. Tasks as simple as opening were eligible to receive bounty rewards.
What did you want to convey by launching an IBO?
By creating a passionate community, IBO participants help spread the word about the project and some of the key issues we are trying to solve. For example, in developed nations, there is an over-dependency on centralized financial institutions. In developing countries, it can still he extremely difficult to get a bank account. This creates a situation where the vast majority of people in a region could suffer from financial illiteracy.
The ability of small entities to provide financial services has historically been hindered by high deployment, regulatory and maintenance costs, etc. Also, proper security, compliance, and reliability is dependent on expensive hardware and software modules. This means great difficulty in servicing low earning markets and the inability to provide truly global, fully accessible financial services.
Our IBO participants are literally from all over the globe, including countries that are largely unbanked. They are able to find direct value and share their story locally.
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Will all global IBO participants and countries benefit from using U.CASH?
Absolutely. We provide all users and service providers with a platform for money and digital cash equivalent (Universal Cash) management, which includes all necessary modules including distributed smart-contracts, mobile and online applications, and bank-grade security infrastructure.
U.CASH pairs this technology with a retail network of converters who provide users the means to load and unload funds from their digital wallets. This Universal Cash can then be used for many traditional financial services such as bill payments, sending funds, mobile recharges, loan repayment, prepaid cards and others.
Overall, access to this platform is available to anyone with an internet connection and users themselves can become converters and offer others access to the U.CASH network. This is what makes the project scalable across the world.
Now that your IBO has ended, what is next? Any plans to launch in Asia?
Asia is going to be a critical market for U.CASH over the next few years. The end of the IBO marks the initial rollout of our technology infrastructure, geared towards the crypto economy. Users will be able to sign up an account, complete bounties, load and unload up and from their account, convert to any (fiat) currency, and convert to bitcoin. Converters will be able to get verified and earn money by providing services to users.
Within 6 months, we will be opening out other cryptocurrencies and traditional financial services, which is when we will begin focusing on the Asian markets more heavily as there are opportunities to provide basic secure banking, remittance, and financial education services. You can find out more about our growth plan here.
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