New Digital Wallet is designed to let you Spend Ethereum in the Real World
A new digital wallet is designed to enable users to spend Ethereum at brick and mortar businesses in the real world.
What’s even more impressive is that the SDK digital wallet from OmiseGo is intended as the basis of a full blown payment system for consumers and merchants. If OmiseGo’s plans are successful the ecosystem will include a payment gateway, virtual credit cards, physical credit cards, virtual debit cards, physical debit cards, and gift cards.
It is also designed to offer almost any payment solution a business might need including international remittance, B2B payments, supply-chain solutions, bill payment, person to person money transfer, and cash-out.
A potentially lucrative sideline will be lending; which indicates that OmiseGo intends to become a factor or offer invoice and inventory based loans. A good adjunct business for OmiseGo might be factoring; advancing cash against unpaid invoices, for gig economy workers – such as Airbnb hosts. Payfully is already providing a similar service in the United States.
Ethereum-based Rewards Points planned
What is more interesting is that OmiseGo plans to offer Ethereum based loyalty and reward points. Its website indicates that shoppers will be able to convert the points to cash, trade and redeem the points, or convert them into gift cards or cash.
They will also be able to use the points to pay for online or mobile games which might be a huge business in the future. A related use of such points will be to pay for movies, TV shows or sporting events streamed through services; such as Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX). If Netflix’s management is smart they’ll give OmiseGo a call.
Consumers will also be able to win prizes by collecting enough rewards via OmiseGo’s solutions. That sounds like a powerful incentive to use Ethereum and OmiseGo’s products. Some retailers use a similar strategy, in the United States supermarket operators; Kroger (NYSE: KR) and Safeway issue cards that allow consumers to accumulate rewards points that provide discounts on gasoline or diesel fuel.
If OmiseGo is smart its management will contact Kroger and Safeway right now. Other businesses that might get onboard are hotel operators and airlines which have been offering rewards points for decades.
Another fascinating aspect of SDK will be a cross wallet feature that enables people to share cryptocurrency payments between several different wallets. That might allow for something like PayPal’s (NASDAQ: PYPL) Venmo which is one of the fastest spreading apps around.
A Potentially Disruptive Solution
OmiseGo’s solution would be extremely disruptive if it works as advertised because it is supposed to offer real-time settlement of payments. That will enable small businesses with limited cash flows to safely adopt cryptocurrencies.
Unlike rivals such as TenX, OmiseGo has no announced plans to offer payment in multiple cryptocurrencies. There’s no word on when OmiseGo’s wallet and cards will be available, but if this company’s claims are true they will be big hits.
Watch OmiseGo closely, if it succeeds; this company might quickly become one of the world’s most valuable unicorns; particularly if it adds other cryptocurrencies – such as NEO to its’ ecosystem. Cryptocurrency investors need to watch OmiseGo as well because its’ success might greatly increase the value of Ethereum.
