How to Bank on Blockchain According to Alexander Mamasidikov

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

In the last few years, banking has taken on a new face. More specifically, banking has become more democratized and accessible thanks to blockchain technology. If you follow financial news, then you would have heard of DeFi and CrossFi, systems that leverage blockchain technology to offer banking services (transfer, savings, payments, etc) to people. 

Unlike traditional banks, CrossFi and DeFi platforms offer much more privacy and thanks to being built on blockchain technology, can offer certain products and services that traditional banks cannot, such as commodity staking, liquidity farming, and so on. 

At the forefront of this movement are DeFi platforms like SushiSwap and CrossFi banks like MinePlex. In the first year of its existence, MinePlex has quickly become an industry favorite thanks to its convenient platform, reliable bank card and a slew of features. We speak to  Alexander Mamasidikov, the Co-Founder of MinePlex, about blockchain, banking, and how it feels to be in the middle of global financial disruption. 

Q: MinePlex was launched in 2020, during a global pandemic and a general shift in the financial sector. How did this influence your business model?

The pandemic was not the impetus for the creation of MinePlex. However, thanks to her, all processes have accelerated. In the banking and finance industry, problems have surfaced that previously could have been solved offline. They were not included in the online options. The pandemic changed everything. For us, as crypto enthusiasts, there were 2 main problems in the crypto market: the volatility of the cryptocurrency and the inaccessibility of financial services and cryptocurrency for everyday use. Therefore, our ambitious goal was to develop our own blockchain that will solve the problem of cryptocurrency volatility and create a new generation mobile crypto bank that will combine traditional banking services and blockchain capabilities. This is how CrossFi technology was born. To use all the advantages of cryptocurrency every day, along with fiat, anywhere in the world where there is a card reader.

During the first year of MinePlex, my team and the support of our invaluable community have done a great job: we launched our own MinePlex blockchain with two liquid tokens, staking with a yield of 20% per month in PLEX tokens, a large marketplace with payment for cryptocurrency, a unique financial instrument for commodity staking, our own purse. Conducted the first transactions on the MinePlex cryptocard in PLEX tokens, bypassing fiat. This will become a trend in the next 5 years and will finally solve the problem with the daily use of cryptocurrency in real life. We are testing our own POS terminal, which accepts MinePlex's own crypto products and products of international payment systems Mastercard, Visa, Union Pay for payments in PLEX and in currencies of countries when paying for purchases in a retail network or at cryptocurrency exchange offices. All the features of the Mastercard system will now be available to MinePlex users, thanks to the fact that we have signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the financial institution Dzing Finance Ltd. It is planned to enter the market MinePlex.Money - a payment system for internal and external services, a multi-currency wallet with 36 main currencies and a PLEX token and the mobile cryptobank MinePlex itself is our goal and the expectation of 40 million potential users.

Q: Some have said that the rise of CrossFi and DeFi were fueled by traditional banking’s inability to evolve and become more accessible. Would you agree? 

The traditional banking system is outdated. It cannot reflect the current expectations of customers: mobility, personalization, accessibility in a smartphone, digital payments, transfer speed, support for cryptocurrency, as well as the availability of services without visiting offices. That is why most of the users in developing countries are switching to cryptocurrency: it is fast, cheap and not tied to a locality. Another problem with traditional banks is that the client does not have access to their funds. The funds are not fully owned by the clients. We are faced with unilateral blocking of accounts from the bank, freezing of funds, and the inability to withdraw money immediately on demand. The goal of crypto banks and, in particular, the implementation of CrossFi technology, was to return money to the hands of the owners, no matter how surreal it sounds. The peculiarity of the cryptocurrency is its true belonging to the holder. MinePlex went even further - we allow sending tokens to work in staking without delegating funds. Only you control the funds, and no one else. If no one knows your seed phrase, you can sleep well, because not a single PLEX token in the MinePlex system will go to the left.

Q: Would you agree that it is becoming essential to bet/invest in crypto as well as fiat currency?

I believe that everyone should make responsible and balanced decisions on their own. I am for the availability of information and financial literacy for every user, both in the traditional financial sector and in the crypto market. This will allow you to make meaningful decisions: whether to invest in cryptocurrency, fiat, where to store, what to invest in. Risks and opportunities go hand in hand, you need to know how to distinguish them and make an informed decision. Nobody but you can do it.

Q: What advice would you give to someone just starting out with CrossFi or MinePlex specifically? 

Study all available information, read, ask. We regularly hold meetings with our audience, sessions, networking, and webinars. We try to do our best to improve the financial literacy of our users. This ensures smart and balanced decisions of the community, which leads to a steady stream of competent clients. Of course, blockchain is all about trust and transparency. However, you need to approach everything with your own mind.

Q: How do you think the industry can achieve a balance between cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange and as an investment tool? 

It's hard to say what will happen to the crypto market even in 6 months. The market changes every three months, so it is impossible to analyze the mood of the participants. It's even harder to talk about balance. The crypto industry is as vast as the sea. Here everyone can find for themselves what they are looking for. Make translations, invest and earn money, create your own projects or optimize existing services. It all depends on the goal. 

Q: Do you think all the emphasis on massive token runs (like the dogecoin bull run earlier this year) helps or hurts the industry? 

Any pump and dump allows units to earn and the majority to lose. That is why we were puzzled to give an alternative to users - to bring to the market a liquid token with a predicted price 7 days in advance. We created the MinePlex blockchain based on the LPoS consensus, which is based on the operation of two tokens: a non-volatile MINE with a stable price and a liquid PLEX, the value of which is tracked in the explorer and calculated according to a given mathematical algorithm. You see the price forecast, and you yourself make a decision on further actions.

Q: What do you think the industry can do to sustain its momentum outside of record-breaking bull runs?

For more than 10 years, we have seen the rise and fall of the value of bitcoin. This is its essence, because it is decentralized. Bitcoin, by its very nature, does not and cannot have regulators. He is not predictable. Nobody will do anything about it. Most cryptocurrencies live by the same principle, the price of which rises and falls. There are also stablecoins on the market, whose value is tied to the price of conventional currencies or physical goods. And there is PLEX, the first token to have a 7-day Predicted Price. I believe that it is the tool of these three that will be maximally applied at the state level, where the majority of users and owners will be, and it will flourish as much as possible. This means that the industry will develop according to this scenario.

According to analysts' forecasts, in the future, blockchain technologies will be applied at the state level; now it is used in large companies, and is being introduced into the functionality of various services. Sooner or later, cryptocurrency will hit the mainstream. For a rational approach of users, to reduce the impact of dumps and pumps, it is necessary to increase the financial literacy of the population. As a result, users will choose a more predictable or more volatile currency based on their goals. But this will be a stable and deliberate choice.

Q: Of all MinePlex’s offerings thus far, which would you say has been the best-received? 

The PLEXUS proprietary staking tool has been and remains the most requested and popular MinePlex product. However, we are bringing to market long-awaited products that will change not only the lives of our users, but the entire industry. These are, in particular, crypto cards with direct payment without conversion to fiat, a POS terminal that will provide direct access to services without intermediaries, without restrictions, without the possibility of third-party control and freezing of funds. And crypto banking itself. This is what we have been working on all year, and what everyone is here for. MinePlex is not only about the bank, it is about our belief in the blockchain and the fact that you and I can change the course of history ourselves. 

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.