e-Pocket is pioneering new technology in mobile payments

E-pocket is a new platform set to transform the mobile payment market by making cryptocurrencies just as easy to earn, spend and manage as your regular Aussie dollar.

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E-pocket is a new platform set to transform the mobile payment market by making cryptocurrencies just as easy to earn, spend and manage as your regular Aussie dollar.

Much has been made of the potential for blockchain technology to revolutionise the global economy, and one Melbourne-based fintech firm is using it to bridge the great divide between digital currencies and traditional fiat money.

E-pocket is a world-first hybrid open banking platform that allows users to manage and spend traditional currencies like AUD and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum from the same digital wallet.

The platform functions like a regular mobile payment app. Users can store money or cards in their digital wallet, and pay bills, transfer funds and purchase goods and services instantly and on-the-go. The key difference is these transactions can be carried out using either fiat currencies or major cryptocurrencies.

Most mobile banking apps can facilitate transactions in either crypto or fiat currencies, but not both. This single functionality is just one of the barriers to widespread adoption of digital currencies according to e-Pocket CEO and founder Tapha Faye, who says current mobile payment systems are not user-friendly enough to go mainstream.

“People have this tunnel vision that crypto will replace the core banking system, but right now the only way you can measure the value of crypto is through fiat currency,” Mr Faye says.

“We need to design products that make the two forms of currency work together as seamlessly as possible so that people can interact with both in a friendly way.”

E-pocket has been developed around the blockchain, a distributed ledger technology that relies on a decentralised network to oversee and manage transactions securely and transparently, rather than a single entity like a bank.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are already underpinned by the blockchain, but Mr Faye saw an opportunity to develop the technology further to bridge the gap with fiat and address the efficiency and security problems that currently plague mobile payment systems.

“We wanted to give users more control over their digital assets and make them accessible for day-to-day use, like buying a coffee, shopping online or paying a bill,” he says.

“To achieve this, we had to improve the technology on top of the blockchain to increase transaction speed and efficiency, and make it easier to exchange digital currencies with fiat (and vice versa) all on the same platform.”

E-pocket’s flexible payment options allow users to choose whether they pay for goods and services using the cryptocurrency in their digital wallet, direct debit from their bank account, or via credit card.

They can also view the real-time value of their cryptocurrencies in fiat and transfer funds from one to the other instantly. The platform uses a QR-code, email address or phone number to identify the recipient, rather than long public addresses, and records all transactions so users can access all their receipts in one place.

This decentralisation of a user’s digital assets minimises the risk of malware attacks or cyber theft, and there is a password recovery system in place if a user loses their private key.

And individuals are not the only users to benefit. E-pocket also makes it much easier for businesses to operate in the mobile payment space, allowing them to accept payments in either fiat or cryptocurrencies via a QR code, or credit card for a low fixed transaction fee of 0.5 per cent. Businesses can promote their goods and services via the app, with an option to target audiences by geolocation or time, or by using push notifications.

Currently e-Pocket operates in Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica and Senegal, and has signed up more than 25,000 individual and 5,000 business users around Australia since its launch last November. Regular users are rewarded with a share of the company’s profits, and a recent tertiary partnership has placed it at the cash registers of shops and cafes on university campuses around Melbourne to tap into the millennial market.

The technology itself is more than five years in the making, but Mr Faye is hoping to have 500,000 users in its ecosystem within the next 12 months helping e-Pocket to lead “a revolution in fintech and the open banking industry”. He has also hinted at the potential for partnerships with some big names in the traditional banking sector to increase e-Pocket’s reach globally.

“I’m an early investor in crypto and a software engineer by trade, so I know we’re only seeing the beginning of what blockchain technology can do,” he says.

“I compare it to the Internet in 1993 - it’s just this big thing that’s going to change the world but nobody knows how.

“People need to think outside the box in terms of how to make sense of cryptocurrency and how to work better with it, and that’s what we’re doing with e-Pocket.”

Most mobile payment apps allow users to manage traditional currencies or cryptocurrencies, but not both. E-pocket uses blockchain technology to bridge the gap, so users can earn, exchange and spend Bitcoin and AUD all from the same digital wallet. Learn more.