Plutus raised over $1m in 9 days — the journey to launch 1st contactless blockchain payments continues

Plutus app is a gateway that connects the blockchain technology with pre-existing debit infrastructure to enable contactless payments with Bitcoin and Ethereum at millions of brick & mortar merchants all around the world.

London-based start-up Plutus Tap & Pay has been dubbed „one of the most anticipated Bitcoin projects in 2016” by cryptocurrency news outlets, and plans to make contactless payments with Bitcoin and Ethereum easy and accessible. Additionally, Plutus was chosen as one of the top 100 innovative start-ups at PIONEERS500, as well as one of the top 3 at the Visa Contactless Intelligence Conference in the category Next Generation Ecosystems.

Over a thousand people rushed to participate to what was probably the shortest 9 day crowdfunding round to raise over $1 million USD in digital currencies, and over 4532 members have already signed up to prepare for the launch of Plutus.it. „The response from our community was swift and tremendous,” says Plutus CCO Filip Martinka.

„We first developed the concept of combining NFC payments and Bitcoin in 2014, as mobile payments were blooming and the infrastructure to build a blockchain-based payment system first became readily available. In this timeframe, the number of NFC enabled phones in the world has almost doubled and is expected to reach over an incredible 1 billion in 2016. The next logical step was clear to us — to combine the best of both worlds and make contactless payments with Bitcoin and Ethereum a reality.”, the company says.

Even though the Bitcoin world is growing, Bitcoin merchant adoption has so far proved to be a challenging endeavor. Merchants are hesitant to accept it, and users are unable to spend it. And because there is no widespread Bitcoin PoS infrastructure in place, merchants often reconsider continued usage.

„This is why Plutus is first and foremost intended to be a practical application for Bitcoin users.”, according to the company’s blog.

Plutus Tap & Pay is an upcoming Android-only mobile app which lets users make Bitcoin and Ethereum contactless (NFC) payments at any existing merchant with a compatible device. This means that it removes what is commonly seen as the largest barrier to the usage of digital currencies – merchant adoption. Customers no longer have to wait for merchants to accept Bitcoin and Ethereum directly.

However, the unique advantage of Plutus is behind the scenes – the PlutusDEX. While Plutus Tap & Pay already has a working proof-of-concept, the crowdfund has now secured development of the PlutusDEX – a peer-to-peer exchange which will provide native liquidity for the app itself through decentralized smart contracts while offering traders zero fees.

Instead of using an existing exchange and their additional risks and fees, or engaging in the high costs it requires to run one, Plutus.it will enable users to trade among themselves as well as enable other exchanges to plug into the network. Traders escrow fiat, users send digital currencies, and the PlutusDEX handles the rest.

„Whenever you make a deposit with Bitcoin or Ethereum, you will also gain a reward in Plutons from the network automatically. We created this model to incentivise users as well as expand our feature-set in the future. Plutons exist autonomously on the Ethereum blockchain and are sufficiently rare to create an advantage for early adopters,” added Plutus CEO and Founder Danial Daychopan, an experienced entrepreneur in the cryptocurrency payments sector.

Everyone who participated in the crowdsale has thereby secured a balance of Plutons, payment tokens which are equivalent to Bitcoin and Ethereum within the Plutus payment network, with the added advantage of faster transactions and more importantly, zero fees on the Plutus app.

Even though Plutus was designed for Bitcoin users, there are several other use cases with a sizeable impact, especially when one considers the growing numbers of remote freelancers and entrepreneurs around the world who receive cross border payments.

„Plutus is useful for international tourists, expats and students. Contactless balances are available in several currencies and usage is universal. For example, if you are in the UK, you can send a small amount of Bitcoin or Pluton to your GBP balance and when you arrive in the States you can charge your USD balance the same way. This makes it possible to avoid often astronomical currency exchange fees, and use the same process to Tap & Pay anywhere in the world that is NFC-enabled.”, according to Plutus.

In addition to raising over $1 million USD and building a growing user base of thousands of members, Plutus has also attracted former senior business manager Bertrand Dezard from VISA and Braintree / Paypal to join its team as CPO (chief payments officer), as well as Tobias Sommer, former VP of various teams at Evercore, who spent 5 years at Morgan Stanley as an analyst, another five years investing into European Buyouts for Arcapita, and now acts as COO at Plutus.