“Blockchain is the only solution for financial inclusion” – Alexi Lane, Founder and CEO at Everex.io
Take a deep dive into this conversation with Mr. Alexi Lane, fintech, blockchain and payments technology entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Everex.io, a Stablecoin backed virtual card with instant settlements for internet merchants. Powered by blockchain technology Everex was the first company to introduce the application of Stablecoins in low-cost instant payment settlements for online payments and cross-border money transfers in 2016.
Watch full interview hereS1 E3 Fintech Leadership Series: Alexi Lane, Founder and CEO at Everex.io
During the interview Alexi mentioned that when the blockchain was still a buzzword, he would think how to use it to solve real-world problems. This brought the first project for Everex – the digitalization of gold on the blockchain. After a few modifications, the team pivoted the project and revamped it to tackle the problems on the payment system across the globe. @2:23.
Alexi said that he is confident that stablecoin will be beneficial for financial inclusion. Everex is the first company to test the stablecoins on ethereum. @3:40
He emphasized that regulation and innovation don’t belong on the same page. This is the biggest problem for working in such a regulated space especially fintech.@5:30
Remittance has a very tiny margin. To break-even, either Everex has to increase volume, which brings in huge compliance cost or change its model. Increasing volume includes increase the cost. Looking at this, the management is moving the business model towards payments based system rather than remittance. @8:08
The main motive for the merchants and businessmen to adopt is that they will have faster payments and it will in turn help businesses. This will improve the whole economy. @10:40
Alexi mentioned that the traditional legacy system is slow and expensive because it has to cover both the markets with money before making a cross country payments. Just like SWIFT, technology used for interbanking blockchain-based products can be used by everyone to get the money faster and easier. @13:11
Everex technology can be best modeled if it is used behind the card payments and the customer doesn’t even know he is using our system which is block chain based. This is the main challenge for Everex and to make it happen, Alexi and his team are working hard and have to invest a lot in further. @17:00
Alexi, while concluding, gave a simple advice to young entrepreneurs that they should seriously consider before moving into the fintech system since we are working in a very regulated space. The advice to young people is to also look upon new startup space such as AI/VR and other tech-related systems. @18:13