Loopring and Banxa – Ask me anything on everything layer 2.
Banxa Head of Sales Mark O’Shaugnessy spoke with Byron from Loopring to answer some questions from our Twitter communities.
Byron Wiebe (@macro_diary), who heads up the community and communications for Loopring caught up with Banxa’s Head of Sales, Mark O’Shaugnessy, for a quick AMA last week where they discussed shared business goals, everything Layer 2, and the future of the crypto ecosystem.
Both Byron and Mark gave brief introductions for those unfamiliar with Loopring and Banxa.
Byron | Loopring
At its core, Loopring is a Layer 2 blockchain built on top of Ethereum, intending to scale crypto to millions, potentially billions, of users one day. Loopring creates the infrastructure to make scalability possible and builds the user-facing applications and products on top of the infrastructure. Their end goal is to build an entire all-in-one ecosystem so that the user can onboard into this new Layer 2 crypto-economy and never have to leave.
Mark | Banxa
Banxa is the fiat on-ramp for Web3. Banxa provides the bridge for people to move their fiat and convert it into crypto and deposit it directly into their wallet of choice. In addition, Banxa differentiates itself from other players with its multiple local payment options. We support credit cards and Apple Pay globally, but it’s our mission to build the bridge that provides people in every part of the world access to fairer and more equitable financial systems, and that needs to be outside of the traditional credit card system. We see ourselves as the bridge that enables our partners to grow and succeed further.
The questions and following discussions about the Banxa and Loopring partnership were gathered from our respective Twitter communities.
(The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Community | Question One:
What are some of the shared goals that you can divulge that you’re working on for 2022?
Mark | Banxa
Our goals and our USPs (Unique Selling Propositions) are very similar, and we are proud that these differentiate us in the market and make Banxa unique. A shared goal we have with Loopring is our local and global payments support for customers, whether they be in Australia or Europe, or in places they don’t have access to credit cards, and within financial markets that are big and important for us. We’re proud to offer the highest conversion rates. We can convert the majority of the orders that go through. We’ve got straightforward integration and API features from a partner point of view, and I know that’s important to Loopring, enabling more people to grow their confidence and competency with blockchain and crypto. Banxa on-ramps the most amount of users to layer 2 with Loopring. We’re proud of that, and it’s certainly a shared goal to keep growing and making sure that we’re able to build on that. Finally, we currently support 130 plus countries with over 50 fiat currencies from that global plan. Our shared goal is to continue onboarding as many people as possible onto Loopring and the broader Layer 2.
Community | Question Two:
I believe regulations will contribute positively to mass adoption. Many of my crypto peers don’t agree, so who is right?
Mark | Banxa
Regulation or at least certain levels of regulation can be positive. Some form of regulation provides certainty for projects and builders out there, secondly, regulation equals trust. People believe crypto not to be trustworthy and having some level of regulation builds levels of trust, particularly for those new users coming into crypto now. Trust is a significant hurdle to overcome to allow for mass adoption. Banxa wants mass adoption, we want to see the Defi Market explode, and there needs to be trust and certainty for that to happen. Banxa is a FinTech, but the regulation aspects are core to our business. Some of the more prominent reasons we focus on meeting the regulatory requirements in so many countries worldwide are; we can see that it provides stability in the marketplace in what can be a very volatile market it allows for broader adoption.
Investors are protected by regulation, which builds confidence in companies and products across the network. The confidence flows down from those high level institutional early adopters to the mom and pop investors. The lack of laws and policies is one of the things which can make crypto so exciting, and it also makes it challenging. Ensuring that it’s safe and secure helps to find that balance and helps educate and onboard new users, make them feel safe, and continue to grow.
Byron | Loopring
Agreed, from Loopring’s perspective, crypto is inevitable; retail has already shown a strong demand for crypto economies. I see regulation as being on the states (governments) and being to their advantage to regulate crypto. This will make the bridge between crypto and the traditional financial markets safer. Crypto isn’t going to be shut down; it’s not going away. To do so, every country in the world would need to agree to ban it all at once, which isn’t happening now. It is in every country’s interests to move fast, regulate, and catch up with those crypto-friendly. Those that move fast will have an advantage, and their citizens will be better off. The slow ones will fall behind in the global race in the future.
Community | Question Three:
You talk a lot about being your own bank. I have a lot of ideas for what this might mean. But in your own words, what does this mean to be “your own bank”?
Byron | Loopring
To be your own bank, we see that moving from these traditional economies into these new crypto economies. When we say be your own bank, this is everything you do in your daily life, especially your financial value-driven life. Everything from having your paycheck deposited into your wallet to spending that crypto easily in stores, not just with mainstream crypto cards like Mastercards and Visa using the traditional financial rails. Instead, going into a store, scanning a QR code and using face ID to verify your identity to pay using the crypto in your wallet. Additionally, having your savings account, your banking, and investing. These things are already happening and there is always something new being experimented like collateralized and uncollateralized personal loans available through DeFi protocol where you can access a lending pool in a trustless way. Being your own bank means that you would be able to access and live your entire financial value-driven life in these new crypto economies.
Mark | Banxa
Loopring and others like you will be the enabler for their users to be their own bank, instead of Loopring being the bank you are the vehicle for financial freedom for people using you and that is pretty exciting.
Community | Question Four:
When is there going to be an off-ramp possibility? I mean, I don’t need it, but it would be just nice to have? Great question.
Mark | Banxa
We know that having an off-ramp offering is essential to our partners and customers. So we are constantly reviewing our roadmap to prioritise which areas to concentrate on and what we can deliver. Banxa is focused on growing the Crypto ecosystem and bringing new payment methods to our partners, giving more people the chance to get involved with crypto. This aligns with our partner goals and with Loopring’s goals to help generate that mass adoption and bring users into the network. Products like the launching of Banxas’ direct fiat to NFT service are huge. You can purchase NFTs directly on Layer 1 or Layer 2 the same way you would use your local currencies to buy tokens. The same chargeback and fraud protection, no KYC required up to specific values and all utilising Banxa’s compliance systems to ensure safety and security for everyone. Off-ramp is 100% on our roadmap, but as with Loopring’s goals to let everyone be their own bank, wouldn’t it be great if you never needed to off-ramp?
Community | Question Five:
What’s your favourite thing about the community and what has surprised you about the community?
Byron | Loopring
This community is seriously something special. I’ve never interacted with a community that’s been so friendly and helpful to one another like that. One thing that especially surprised me is how passionate and creative the community is in building out the Loopring ecosystem. I truly think that with our technology, with partners like Banxa, and with this community, we can truly scale this to billions of users.
Mark | Banxa
From Banxa’s point of view, and from what I have seen so far around the team and the community is exactly that spirit, that inclusiveness, supportiveness and passion that Byron mentions, but above all, a real growth mindset as well. From a partnership point of view, it’s great for us to be in a relationship with Loopring because that’s the way we operate as well. We can see that you’ve got your eyes on the future and we want to be part of that, so thank you for partnering with us and taking us on the journey with you.
The AMA is available to listen to here and be sure to check out Banxa’s Twitter for future AMAs and updates. Available now until the 25th April 2022 23:59:00. Banxa is waiving all user spread fees on purchases made with Loopring.