Crypto is becoming more mainstream
I’ve always been fascinated by technology and problem solving from a young age. I got my first computer when I was six years old and at 12yrs, I got my first Mac as I was an ardent gamer and I became hooked on coding. My career began as a freelance indie games developer in Greece back in the late 2000’s where I developed games for the App Store. I then went on to study Computer Science in Athens. By this point, I had developed over 200 games so left university early to move to London and continue my career in this field.
I first encountered crypto when I was paid for a gaming job in Bitcoin. I was instantly intrigued and saw it as a revolutionary technology which could have a lasting impact on the global financial system. I invested my first Bitcoin and very quickly saw the price increase. I then started brokering full time as I found I could make much more profit doing this than developing games so I devoted all of my time and energy into this exciting digital community.
One of the issues that I found working as a broker was that a lot of people would come to me and ask “how should I spend my cryptocurrency?”. Basically they couldn’t see a use case for it. I knew that cryptocurrencies were going to become mainstream eventually and that’s when the concept of tap came to my mind – it was all about solving those problems like “how do you hold and spend your cryptocurrencies?”.
Being regulated is a huge part of the tap story. Tap is the world’s first truly unified crypto ALT banking app and is currently the only company in Europe offering a Prepaid MasterCard. We are fully regulated to trade and hold customers’ crypto assets, by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission, and offer e-money services throughout the UK and Europe. We also now facilitate funding of tap account wallets with a debit card for instant loading directly from the tap Hub.
I established tap as a means to access digital assets in an easier way since mainstream banks are very wary of crypto, and could not provide retail services for their crypto clients. Following the recent announcement by US officials that US banks can custody crypto assets on behalf of their clients, It now feels like the traditional financial providers are finally waking up to crypto and its possibilities. We have been offering regulated custody of crypto assets for over six months and have always intended to be at the forefront of the evolution of regulated crypto. We are confident that our next moves will be similarly followed by traditional financial providers in another six to 12 months when they start offering DeFi products.
A new political action committee for the cryptocurrency world has also been launched earlier this year. It was designed to provide legitimacy and clarity for fintech. HODLpac is a key step in the maturation of the industry. It is time that crypto investors, entrepreneurs, and promoters start playing in the regulatory shark tank, because crypto is going mainstream.
Here are the main elements helping crypto transition into mainstream:
1. Enrichment
The key driver for crypto popularity during its nascent years was the basic desire of people to get rich. People who purchased Bitcoins during the early years made huge fortunes. It wasn’t just Bitcoin, but even investors who risked and leveraged an opportunity in early initial coin offerings such as EOS, Tezos (XTZ), and Ether (ETH) have seen over 1,000% returns.
2. Redefining payments
Major players in the financial markets, such as JPMorgan Chase and other banks have recognised distributed ledger technology as the main driver for system enhancement.
In fact, many firms, businesses and global brands may start utilising cryptocurrencies to pay for services. This would eliminate middlemen, reducing costs and securing cheaper services for end users.
With a massive rise in the use of mobile phones, it is estimated that 50% of the world’s population will switch to non-cash transactions by 2030.
3. Alternative for fiat currencies
I believe, as the number of people using various cryptocurrencies increase, demand for fiat could go down. We are already seeing this trend in countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe. The key reason is that more people are beginning to believe that cryptocurrencies are a reliable store of value across borders. Moreover, considering the ongoing pandemic, we can expect an even faster rate of adoption.
4. New world gaming
Crypto casinos and gaming have started using crypto. Cryptocurrency and gaming work well together, as new companies are finding multiple areas to unify the two. Contrary to regulatory bodies, crypto is considered a much-needed evolution as it provides several benefits for the gaming industry. Gaming involves people who are advanced in technology, which makes it a perfect testing ground for the latest developments in the blockchain field.
With my gaming background, I can see the revolution that crypto can make in the gaming sector by tokenizing game elements
5. Growing interest of Governmental and Economic agencies
Cryptocurrencies are becoming a subject of interest for governments and banks globally. As a result, it is now witnessing a potential to disrupt current monetary models. Discussions on the introduction of regulations by economic institutions coupled with the increase of interest by investors as well as platforms operating on decentralised frameworks will make its adoption inevitable. Treasuries and central banks are even mulling the possibility of establishing a national central reserve of cryptocurrencies. I believe that the UK and a number of other countries could take a vital role in exploring central bank digital currencies, considering the wide-ranging opportunities they could bring.
At present, the world is in the earliest stages of fintech development, trying to bridge the gap between traditional finance and crypto.
Taking into regard high demand in both technology use cases and digital assets, crypto is the future. Though we have over a decade of history, the best is yet to come, in my opinion. What we’re witnessing now is crypto gaining long-overdue recognition by regulators, authorities, businesses and even the financial industry, which includes some of the most prominent and respected banking institutions.
One of the challenges with the current crypto systems is that it requires significant technical support. Additionally, tracking and managing crypto is difficult for new users who aren’t sure how to manage their assets. I believe streamlining this process to ensure simplicity while purchasing crypto, saving and storing crypto, and managing it, especially for less tech-savvy individuals, could yield greater adoption.
The coming five years will certainly be the beginning of crypto’s mass adoption, though a lot has to be done for the two worlds — traditional banking and crypto — to coexist without friction.
Tap.global is paving the path to facilitate this transitioning economy by combining modern banking with crypto trading through their multi-coin e-wallet. The tap app users in the EEA have the option of adding the tap Prepaid Mastercard that is linked to the user’s account and the user can choose any crypto asset or cash balance held to fund the purchase with their tap Prepaid Mastercard, in an easy and seamless manner.
I would like to conclude by saying that 2020 will be the year of adoption – I have no doubt about it. Given that time and cost of processing a crypto transaction has been a major challenge, we at tap are are working to make payments fast, cost effective and suitable for day-to-day transactions. We are continually upgrading and looking at how we can improve our product to ensure we stay the leading unified crypto ALT banking app.
Arsen Torosian, Founder & CEO of tap
Arsen started software development at the age of 14yrs. From the age of 16yrs, he moved into app development focusing on iOS, and built a successful app development company from the ground up. In 2012, one of his developed apps became a top three downloaded game in the USA and won a 2012 Hack Battle by TNW. Arsen then took a keen interest in cryptocurrencies and became a broker and trader of Bitcoin. He sold his successful brokering company shortly before starting the Tap project.
Tap Global Ltd.
Tap Global Ltd (tap) is a Gibraltar company providing clients with real time trading of crypto assets utilising multiple exchanges from one APP. The multi crypto and Fiat wallet structure of tap coupled with bespoke designed proprietary middleware solution allows TAP to facilitate trades efficiently and seamlessly. tap officially launched to the public in February 2020.
For further information please visit: https://www.tap.global/
Whitepaper: https://www.tap.global/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/TapGlobal-Whitepaper-7.pdf
www.linkedin.com/company/tapglobal/