AMA Recap of Dude’s Army x BlockBank
On Sunday, April 25th, Dude’s Army community had the great opportunity to host an AMA with BlockBank’s team, very instructive and educational. We will share with you a little bit of what this experience was like.
The Dude👨💼:
Ok! To start with a good vibe please intro yourselves and share a bit of your backgrounds.
Darren:
Hello, I’m Darren Co-Founder and COO of Blockbank.
From 2011 to 2017 — I have worked with over 100 Cryptocurrencies, ICO’s and start-ups focusing on their market strategy, branding and technical applications — and have consulted on many large-scale projects including major crypto exchanges, and bitcoin ATM companies facilitating their distribution and monetization model.
Fortunately, I have had the amazing opportunity to travel the world and speak at some of the largest blockchain conferences, educating on my vast knowledge and experiences in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
I have been mentioned and asked to provide insight to many prestigious media outlets including Bloomberg. I also hold various copyrights and trademarks in relation to cryptocurrency and blockchain terms in Canada.
Anastasija Plotnikova:
I am Anastasija, Co-Founder and Chief Legal Officer of BlockBank. I started my career years ago at the European Union law enforcement agency where I first came across bitcoin and was fascinated by the technology and potential behind it. Helped the regulator of Lithuania to draft a “crypto laws”, trying to lobby for the industry’s best interests. Was a COO of a Canadian blockhain company, where we have implemented track&trace solutions for medical cannabis. Was part of the original ETHLend/AAVE team, where I was very happy to work with Nolvia, who is now CMO of BlockBank. Consulted multiple companies on crypto regulations and efficient implementation. I know very well that legal is not the topic people are getting super excited by my job is to make it “all happen”, ensuring that users are safe, protected and the company can achieve everything that we say we will do.
Kelghe Dcruz CEO:
Hello everyone, my name is Kelghe (KELJ) I am the co-founder and CEO of BlockBank Before this, I had an education company that dealt with complex healthcare topics and was a partner in a software development company that worked with some pretty cool AI technology.
My first crypto venture was in mining back in 2013 and I was one of the first to sell tokens on ebay back those days. With my experience and the tech I had access to, I knew that crypto needed a digital advisor to help them get into this space, understand it better and then use to make decisions based on real time data. Now, with BlockBank that’s what we are aiming for, to build the banking application integrating an intelligent financial advisor.
The Dude👨💼:
What Blockbank is and why the market needs it?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
I always had very hard opinions that none of the legal systems should prevent innovation. And at BlockBank we do just that — work with trusted partners globally to bring an actual value to our users
Darren:
BlockBank consists of 4 main components, a centralized custodial wallet, a defi web 3 wallet, banking and true AI (Robo Advisory). The custodial wallet will serve many different purposes (staking, storing assets, trading through apis into cex, insuring assets, borrowing, fiat on and off ramp, off chain / on chain solution) also has aml kyc. The DeFI side of things will be a non-custodial wallet with a web 3 browser, multi asset chain support (BSC, HECO, etc) Staking in defi. The banking side will allow the users to have a fully active bank account, credit debit cards, etc consider any neo bank as a reference point. The Robo Advisor will serve as an overall financial advisor for the entire account. This will be an evolving robo advisory starting as an informational resource moving all the way to fully autonomous trading, farming etc.
Kelghe Dcruz CEO:
BlockBank is on a mission to offer AI-powered, traditional mobile banking experience with seamless crypto integration. We aim to combine the best of Defi and CeFi worlds in one place, incorporating AI technology to bring financial empowerment to clients in a very simplified manner.
Anastasija Plotnikova:
Well guys answered that :)) I will just add that from day 1 our goal was to make an application for everyday users and new comers. And continue doing so
The Dude👨💼:
Sounds great so the idea is to combine crypto wallet and banking account in one place correct?
Where will Blockbank be available at first?
Darren:
Yes, personally I am tired of using soo many applications. We thought why hasn’t someone done an all in one solution :)
Anastasija Plotnikova:
to begin with we launched in 2019 :) and the current non custodial wallet has over 40k users. So DeFi services (including just added web3) are available globally. Banking — Europe and South East Asia at first
The Dude👨💼:
Sounds great! So the wallet is ready and soon the banking integration will come in Europe and Asia. So in your side you are handling all the legal part to make sure this will be done right?
I heard there it’s necessary to have a good amount of cash to get those Bank licenses, can you comment a bit about that?
Darren:
She and Greg Murphy our new CFO who has 35 years in banking and capital markets experience
Anastasija Plotnikova:
I am overseeing the whole operation but we have engaged with top law firms in Singapore, Malaysia and Europe. The goal is to make it all happen asap. because tech is ready and we just need few licenses :) and very soon we are going to add more options to purchase crypto in the app, we have partnered with one of the great companies in space.
The Dude👨💼:
That’s great. When can we expect the banking launch?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
Via the whitelabels fairly soon, cannot say publicly just yet. So we are doing 2 things in parallel to bring it to users faster: through partners and getting our own licenses
The Dude👨💼:
About the non-custodial wallet which I will call it a DEX wallet… Users will be able to trade on Uniswap, pancake swap and others right?
Just like a normal ERC20 wallet for example.
In that case it’s already running so I guess that’s something you can already confirm.
Darren:
Absolutely as well as interact with DaPPs on Heco BSC and ETH for now we will add more as we see fit. Me being the resident degen I am very adamant on this part being multi purpose :)
BSC will be out in the coming days right now its just ERC and HECO for now
Kelghe Dcruz CEO:
Yes, we have the ERC20 wallet implemented already with direct uniswap trading. You can tap into the web3 brower we have to use the other functions.
The Dude👨💼:
Sounds great! I have seen few other projects integrating banking and defi wallets…Why Blockbank will likely succeed or coexist with a good market portion?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
To begin with, we don’t see other great projects as our competition. There is enough space and users for everyone as long as you have a good product. Other thing is, this is why crypto space is sooo fragmented, this lack of unity allows traditional banking with terrible services and fees to be ahead. What is really important and different, that we need data for our algos and AI, and our business model is different than Nexo’s or Celsius for example
The Dude👨💼:
How will the crypto-fiat bridge work out? I can sell my crypto to fiat just like that or only stable coins will be accepted? How is that going to work out?
Darren:
To start we will be doing the majors, ETH, BTC, and stables and will slowly add more as we can. Effectively it all revolves around each jurisdictional requirements for regulation. I do feel however we are coming in at a good time. We will see more and more top cryptos being given green lights in the coming years
The Dude👨💼:
Are you compliant with regulators at the places you are creating Blockbank? In other words will I be able to create a Blockbank account and be ready to download my trading data and report or ready to be reported automatically in the places you will launch it first?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
yes absolutely. Compliance is needed to protect our users first of all, especially when it comes to CeFi/Banking. For DeFi we have Zokyo for our audits and testing. When it comes to reporting, that is in works but due to a very large variations in requirements it will take some time. So basic trading info — will come much sooner.
The Dude👨💼:
Last topic before community questions
What will be token utilities in the ecosystem?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
Let me answer with a graphic :)
Darren:
@dude56 we aren’t talking about the actual real world AI :) I think this should have a small segment as well :)
This is our AI partner to which we have exclusive rights in crypto and blockchain and you can see their other partners as well unfortunately they still have or old logo but that will be fixed this week : )
The Dude👨💼:
Sounds great! Thank you. That’s a mega APY boost btw? From where is that APY coming from?
Darren:
APY is a culmination of things
1. Up to 20% BBANK APY when staking certain amounts of BBANK
2. Up to 10% Alternative assets APY when staking certain amounts of BBANK
3. Up to an additional 15% in bonus BBANK depending on the lockup period
This equates to up to 30% APY on staking with us :)
The Dude👨💼:
Tell us more about the AI robo advisory for example. Want to hear more about it
Kelghe Dcruz CEO:
Our AI assistant’s patented technology puts the analytical power equivalent of hundreds of highly skilled financial analysts in the palm of our users, levelling the playing field between retail and institutional investors.
It will monitor, gather, and provide data in real-time based on investment preferences to maximize gains and minimize unnecessary losses.
This is a feature that has been extensively used in traditional finance these last few years, especially with companies investing in ETFs, index funds and specialized trading strategies. Bringing this to crypto, and especially to a non-custodial wallet, will be game changing.
The Dude👨💼:
Since when is it being developed? For how long has it been tested in the market?
Darren:
Been in development since 2016 and has major top 100 companies using it you can see from the image above those partners are ones that use their service in traditional world
Anastasija Plotnikova:
And this the patent, I highly suggest to have a look at it: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180247648A1/en?oq=US20180247648A1
The Dude👨💼:
1- Elaborate a bit this BBANK apy? What’s is being done in the background to generate that revenue?
You will be adapting it to crypto and offering it on Blockbank
That’s amazing! Having that kind of bot running in the market in the hands of retail money will be awesome.
Darren:
Sure so we effectively use real world revenue methods and utilize those funds to ensure a stable reserve through buy backs.
Our monetization strategy effectively revolves around users being BBANK holders and receiving incentives.
And yes we are using multiple APY strategies as well as lock up periods to ensure the best APY results.
Its a little more complex than that and i don’t have the numbers on me nor did i do them myself because they went way over my head but this will be made available to the public when this mechanism is added in app :)
Anastasija Plotnikova:
BlockBank team and Skael team are already working on it, and of course we will invite active communities to test it!
Kelghe Dcruz CEO:
It’s more of your personal crypto co-pilot, not much of a trading bot.
Community Questions
Q- from Luis:
Many projects have developed their own Robot-advisers that provide these to their users based on market preferences, but when BlockBank focuses on only advising users, does that mean that its robot-adviser will provide many more reliable and guaranteed?
Darren:
In the current applications it is in now in other markets the Advisor has a 99.8% accuracy rating. Our Robo Advisor is just for lack of a better term. Its multi thread three layer AI technology that will grow and learn and evolves based on the data sources and user interactions. You can see even Google uses it right now as well as some major banks in the USA
Q2 fromAl Bianco:
I understand that BlockBank has a link with VISA/Mastercard and SEPA/SWIFT, but, BlockBank services will have their own native credit or debit card to make payments in the physical and virtual commercial world directly with BANK tokens?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
Absolutely correct. In the beginning we will have whitelabelled cards, then we will issue our native oned
Q3 from Memo:
Does BlockBank have any country fully adopted by its Platform? If not, what is the country that you would like to achieve full adoption first?
Kelghe Dcruz CEO:
We have users from all over the world. We find a lot of them come from — Asia and Europe because of the current features on the app. Like converting Crypto to Giftcards. We find alot of users use this for offramps.
Q4 from ᒍᑌᗩᑎ ᔕᗩᑎᗪOᐯᗩᒪ:
Speaking of your partners and sponsors, are there currently banks associated with BlockBank? How does BlockBank relate to traditional finance? How would you improve the role and use of user funds by banks?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
We have partners based on the jurisdictions we are expanding to: Europe and Asia + global top ups with credit cards. We relate to traditional finance in a way that fiat will be directly on the platform but see us as neo-bank. With very low fees, active support and seamless crypto/AI integration for the whole account
Q5 from Magdalena:
BlockBank offers a Robo-Advisory service, is the first time I see something like this, what is the margin of error for this type of service? How safe is it?
Darren:
99.8% accuracy in different markets proven. We will let the tech grow and evolve this is why first iteration is just information resource and will grow the interactions and abilities of the advisor as the tech learns and moves to the next level of capabilities
Q6 from Noé:
Users will have access to a credit card rewards program, will these cards work worldwide? If so, how does your project solve part of the hyperinflation problem affecting countries like Venezuela and Argentina?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
Actually we are in talks with some partners in South/Central America to find a proper solutions for that. Most probably via stable coins. The amount of troubles users are having in those countries is just insane and we are definitely targeting un banked regions
Q7 from Eberto Fuentes:
How could Blockbank bridge the gap between CeFi and DeFi and in what way will they give us that totally convenient digital banking experience for this?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
One of the biggest barriers for widespread crypto adoption is that it’s never been that simple. Users who might be interested are quickly turned off with the level of complexity. BlockBank aims to integrate the best of the DeFi and CeFi worlds while keeping it simple for the average user.
Our application was launched back in 2019 and now we are coming back with all the feedback collected from our early adopters. We are removing pain points and unnecessary complexities, creating an all-in-one application that will offer better UX and UI. Making it simple, and coupling it with our AI, will only give our users the upper hand.
Q8 from Lalepop:
Can we trust AI-ROBO’s advice? How has it been designed? I would also like to know if it has been tested?
Darren:
Yes absolutely its a patented AI technology that has a 99.8% accuracy rating in its current iterations. The biggest thing you can trust is that this technology will have no bias nor will it have any monetary gain to guide you on anything but pure facts dervided from all its data sources. This is the biggest thing im excited about no longer do you have to trust someone with their own agendas on what to buy sell hodl etc
Q9 from Lalepop:
I understand that Blockbank offers 30% APY for those who have a large amount of tokens, this is not too low a percentage compared to other platforms ? Will this 30% be fixed or can it increase in the future ?
Nolvia Serrano:
Being a BANK token holder unlocks many different features in the application as well (unlocking different levels of information from the robo advisor, exclusive offers, cash back on purchases using the card, insurance, 3rd party rewards, different banking tiers without having a monthly fee, and reduced fees). To receive the additional 10% APY in BANK this comes from users who stake other assets in our platform for specific periods of time the longer they stake the more bank bonus reward they can receive. We also have a buy back strategy.
Q10 from Lun Mei:
Right now there is a segregation of users, where the great whales use Ethereum, and the fish for BSC, Polygon and other alternative chains. Which path is BlockBank going to choose? Are you dedicated to using the Ethereum Defis or do you plan to expand your services to other blockchains as well? Can an average user with 1000 $ for example, take advantage of this product without dying in the attempt? What opportunities are there for the small fish in the ecosystem?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
The wallet already has eth and hecko chain support, bsc will be live in a few days as well as ontology. Our goal is not to discriminate a single users, BlockBank being your single portal where you can enjoy DeFi and multiple chains and then proceed to CeFi if you wish
Q11 from Rafael Nadal:
Your presale is live now, What’s your plan After presale? Are you going to lising exchanges? Can you bit share?
Nolvia Serrano:
IDO is happening April 28th. In terms of exchanges, several have approached us but can’t disclose the details. We are aiming for listing on uniswap and pancakeswap on release at the same time as we are excited to be having an IDO on ETH and BSC. We will be announcing more details soon.
Q12 from Nrick Anto:
What makes BlockBank different from other banking platforms, what does the financial empowerment of the world of Defi and Cefi offer?
Nolvia Serrano:
BlockBank stands out because we are bridging DeFi, CeFi and banking, and adding AI technology. This is revolutionary in so many ways. The ability for our users to overlay DeFi, CeFi and banking functionality with cutting-edge AI technology will provide them advanced value-added services.
Blockchain, DeFi, CeFi and AI are indeed the building blocks of the infrastructure. DeFi, offering transparency, security and freedom, is the underlying base for our crypto-related services. CeFi brings us convenience and payments, makes all processes easier and simpler. AI is what makes every user more qualified to do everyday transactions, make decisions. These three verticals are being integrated into one to offer a more complete and integral experience. And let’s not forget about banking. This is the missing piece for almost all users having major hardships trying to integrate the use of their traditional and crypto assets in everyday life.
Q13 from Sanmao:
Recently Blockbank had launched Non custodial Wallet, Can you tell us features of this update and How secure is Blockbank wallet?
Darren:
The Non-Ciustodial wallet has been around for over 2 years :) It is secure. We have had it reviewed. The new features that were added were simply a web 3 browser allowing you to interact with dapps while holding your assets in the app. We also have zero access to your private keys they are downloadable in your app only. So don’t forget to do a backup and for extra security also backup your private keys as well
Q14 from No More:
What’s the different Between traditional and blockchain banking? Is blockchain bankinh better?
Kelghe Dcruz CEO:
It comes down to transparency, banks will be more accountable. Given a lot of info will not be public due to privacy laws.. but it’s going in the right direction.
Q15 from Dan — Uniswap Knight:
Some laws are not too friendly with the concept of DeFi since regulation prevents being able to take advantage of these markets, because, for example, there is no KYC or control of capital movement. How do you deal with this situation between the FIAT ramp and the use of DeFis at BlockBank? How are you in terms of compliance?.
Darren:
So if a users wants to specifcally only use DeFI they need to do no KYC the second they would like to participate in CeFI and Banking or crypto to fiat or fiat to crypto they need to do KYC. The benefit with us will be an in wallet account with cards. If however you do not fall into those areas you still may be able to send funds from our app to your bank direct and vice versa
Q16 from Diezel Ky:
Did you make any privatesale or any whitelisting and public sale because I want to participate?
Nolvia Serrano:
BlockBank Public Sale IDO on Ignition: April 28, 2021.
BlockBank Public Sale IDO on BSCpad: April 28, 2021.
You can find out more in our telegram channel.
Q17 from Gerardo Soto:
Crypto lovers are already used to using their Cex and Dex exchange plays, and in them obtain the highest profits, how did BlockBank really manage to attract these users to its platform, when they have been working with their favorite platforms for years?
Kelghe Dcruz CEO:
They can still use their existing favorite ones, We will have a control panel within blockbank where they can access trading strategies and data to make better trading decisions.
Q18 from Paul Mark:
Can you please describe the term “Neobanking”? And How is it bridging the gap between CeFi and DeFi? Can you please describe the term “Neobanking”? And How is it bridging the gap between CeFi and DeFi?
Anastasija Plotnikova:
Neo bank is a kind of digital bank without any branches. Rather than being physically present at a specific location, neobanking is entirely online. it allows us to save costs while investing to the tech, lower fees and cover more regions
Q19 from Zerogas10:
The Blockbank application is now available on Google Playstore for Android, my question is, how does Blockbank outperform its competitors such as TrustWallet, Imtoken and Safepal? What features does Blockbank offer that competitors don’t have? How fast is the transaction at blockbank? Does blockbank support NFT? And will I be able to buy tokens in the future using a debit card? Thank you
Darren:
So in our current model
1. you can buy tokens with a credit card right now :)
2. No NFTS yet
3. The other competitors have great apps too
4. You can also sell crypto to gift cards in app right now too
We are focusing on more CeFI / DeFI / Banking for the future release with our ai advisor that will help you manage all aspects of your financial assets.
About BlockBank
BlockBank closes the gap between existing DeFi and banking by providing users with a neobanking experience. BlockBank is made for professional traders and new retail market users looking to set their personal risk tolerance levels, receive AI-based advice on trading strategies, access modern banking services, and earn a better annual percentage yield (APY) when compared to traditional banking services.
More information about BlockBank:
Website: http://blockbank.ai
Telegram: http://t.me/BlockBankApp
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BLOCKBANKapp
