For all of its advantages, most cryptocurrency isn’t particularly useful as currency. If you want to pay for something in Bitcoin, for example, you could end up waiting hours for a transaction to confirm, or paying a hefty fee just to make your transaction go through. While many crypto projects make excellent stores of value, very few of them can be used in the same way you’d use cash or a card: to quickly and conveniently make purchases.
Frustratingly, fiat currency isn’t necessarily any better, especially for international travelers. When making purchases overseas, using fiat can be as expensive, frustrating, and slow as traditional crypto. Exorbitant exchange rates and sloth-speed international wire transfers are just some of the frustrations you might encounter when trying to use your fiat currency as currency when you go abroad.
OBXcoin aims to solve those problems. It plans to become the first cryptocurrency that’s truly useful as an actual currency, and the first cryptocurrency to truly supplant fiat currency in terms of speed, affordability, and usefulness.
OBXcoin 101
OBXcoin is a currency-focused crypto currency that’s currently in presale, purchasable with a variety of cryptocurrencies on the WAVES platform. Its aim is to offer fast, feeless commerce to users all across the world.
The vision is this: you walk into any retailer, grab the goods you want, scan a QR code with your smartphone, and your payment is completed in seconds. Even more appealing: with OBXcoin, you don’t need to worry about covering transaction fees or sales taxes.
On the merchant side of things, merchants accepting OBX can avoid hefty credit card fees, but they can get even more out of the coin because merchants also have the option of purchasing an affordable merchant network node. Operating a node earns an operator transactional OBX and helps to support the OBX blockchain. Merchants accepting OBX transactions for purchases can run a staked Node (500,000 OBX/$5000), receiving new OBX daily calculated on their accepted OBX transactions. The more a Merchant receives in OBX, the higher their new coin total.
Best of all: OBX users shouldn’t have to worry about security, because in addition to the inherent security provided by blockchain technology, OBXcoin is secured by renowned cybersecurity firm Agio, which specializes in protecting digital payments.
OBXcoin is scheduled to launch on a number of exchanges in the near future, so speculative OBX investors will have easy access to multiple trading portals.
SEC Compliance
A currency that’s wildly volatile or at risk of being shut down wouldn’t be much use, so the developers have also done something else that most other crypto projects haven’t: designed their systems from the ground up to be compliant with SEC regulations by ensuring that their coin will not ever be classified as a security. OBX is completely compliant with the rules governing money transmitters and money services businesses.
That’s great news for investors and users, since they don’t need to fear any regulatory sword of Damocles bringing the project to an early end. But it’s also great news for merchant adoption, since integrating with a business they know is compliant and not as exposed to regulatory risk as most other cryptos will help make OBXcoin particularly appealing.
In fact, its focus on compliance is part of what helped cement OBXcoin’s partnership with blockchain platform Nasgo. Nasgo co-founder Eric Tippetts said of OBXcoin: “We loved what they had done from a compliance design standpoint and also how attractive this new currency is going to be for merchants around the world.”
$OBX
OBXcoin’s crypto token is traded as OBX. OBX’s primary function is as a utility coin – it’s the currency that’s sent back and forth when buyers make a purchase from sellers using the OBXcoin network. But like most crypto coins, OBX can also be purchased for its own sake and can be traded speculatively. Although the team has made it quite clear that OBX is meant to be a usable currency, not a store-of-value coin like Bitcoin, they’ve also promised that OBX will make its way to “multiple cryptocurrency exchanges.”
OBX is a pre-mined currency with 100 billion total coins to be ultimately issued, but on its introduction only 10 percent will be available for circulation. The remaining 90 percent will be held in reserve and released intermittently as the platform grows, in accordance with rules lined up in a smart contract. Needless to say, this system is set up to avoid flooding the market with new coins at the wrong time and pushing down OBX’s value.
Currently, OBX is available as part of the OBXcoin presale. It’s priced at $0.01 per coin through May 30, but purchases prior to May 15 will receive double coins, so the price is effectively $0.005/coin until May 15. OBX coins can be purchased with Bitcoin, Ethereum, WAVES, or using fiat via credit card or Paypal.
The OBXcoin Team
Investing in crypto ICOs can be a nervy proposition, but the strong team behind OBXcoin will put many investors’ minds at ease. Co-founders Linwood Mann and Greg Haskell bring with them a wealth of executive and entrepreneurial experience, and their advisory team includes experts in global sales, communications, entrepreneurship, and marketing.
Given that it’s still in pre-sale, it’s clear that OBXcoin still has quite a ways to go before attaining its goal of becoming a truly globally useful cryptocurrency. But with a strong tech platform, meaningful incentives for both customers and merchants, and an experienced team behind it, the future certainly looks bright. There’s a good chance that OBXcoin really can put the currency back in cryptocurrency.
