What is Monaco?
Monaco is a digital currency that is out to redefine the way money is moved, invested and spent. Monaco, abbreviated as MCO, has since rebranded to Crypto.com. the vision behind this project is to make cryptocurrency easily available in any and all wallets.
Upon rebranding to Crypto.com, Monaco consumer services such as MCO Wallet App, MCO Visa Card and the MCO Token were all rebranded to MCO.
In order to achieve the desired goals, Crypto.com aims to democratize blockchain technology as we know it, by coming up with an intuitive, beautiful and simple GUI that allows users access to financial services that they can relate to, and use on a daily basis. In so doing, Crypto.com is looking to add value into people’s lives, by providing cryptographic solutions to everyday problems, and leaving a lasting impact in their lives.
What is the problem that Monaco Solves?
Visa has been a constant in the financial markets for a very long time. However, even with the convenience that Visa brings to users and transactions, there is still so much that needs to be done. Most, if not all of the banks that offer Visa services charge very high fees for using their services. This has been prohibitive, and a lot of people only use their cards if they have run out of options. This makes it so inconveniencing.
There is also the problem of use across borders. If the Visa charges are very high, using your card in a different country will even attract higher fees. These are some of the challenges that people are suffering, which Crypto.com sets out to provide solutions for. Those who have to convert currency in their accounts when conducting transactions across borders are the worst hit, given that the banks take a sizeable markup for this.
How does Monaco Solve the problem?
There are several problems that have often been associated with the digital finance market. Those who use cards from time to time have experienced so many such challenges, especially the exorbitant fees they have to pay.
What Crypto.com is doing is building a platform that is defensible, outstanding and will help users solve some of these challenges. In the long run, Crypto.com should help redefine the financial services market and improve the lives of the customers. How is this possible? It all lies in the strategy path laid for Crypto.com.
MCO as a platform involves the use of the MCO Wallet App. Through this app, users are able to purchase, exchange, send and even keep track of cryptocurrency. Other than the app, the MCO Visa Card is another important part of this project. Through this card, users are able to send cryptocurrency in the normal fiduciary world, just as they would any other currency in their accounts.
Crypto.com is heavily leveraged upon the MCO platform. With this in mind, the project is building an investment product that is innovative (Crypto Invest). Through Crypto Invest, users are in a good position to purchase cryptocurrency for whichever reason they please.
The MCO platform also features Crypto Credit, a project through which users get the credit that they can spend on their MCO Visa Card. To use this credit, the user has to provide collateral. This is no different from any other credit facility that you might come across in the normal financial markets today. However, instead of putting up your car or home as collateral, Crypto.com allows you to deposit cryptocurrency.
This is a real game changer, especially given the fact that a lot of cryptocurrency projects have been actively exploring the option of introducing blockchain loans, given the benefits that are inherent to lenders and borrowers.
The aim of this strategy is to make use of the MCO Visa Card and the MCO Wallet App as the main distribution channels upon which Crypto.com will be accessible to users. By design, accessing credit facilities and the need to use Visa cards to pay for different items are some of the things that are common in the financial market today, and by launching Crypto.com under this pretext, it is the right stepping stone to success.
There are plans to keep reinvesting and innovating these two key products so that they can add more value to the lives of customers, and make them more attractive too.
What makes Monaco better than the competitors?
There are lots of crypto projects that compete against one another in different dimensions, and then there is Crypto.com, that is out to fight against established honchos like Visa. There is a lot of controversy around this. First, Crypto.com being a blockchain project, has been considered as a sellout, especially by those who are diehard crypto fans and users. The reason behind this is because essentially, Satoshi intended to have Visa replaced by cryptocurrency, not integrated into it.
But, this is where Crypto.com beats the competition. They are bringing the best of two worlds. It is no doubt that Visa already has an established system. Visa also enjoys an unprecedented market dominance. Therefore, a project that is full of promise like Crypto.com stands to gain so much by partnering with Visa, instead of waging an all-out war against Visa.
Besides, there are people who are fiercely loyal to Visa, and who might not be privy to cryptocurrency or relevant information. For such individuals, Crypto.com bridges the gap between the conventional fiduciary world and cryptocurrency. Therefore, this will go a long way in making blockchain projects and access to cryptocurrency more user-friendly, even to those who have little or no understanding of cryptocurrency.
Fees
This project is backed by cryptocurrency. Therefore, the cards are free from some of the bottlenecks that are associated with fiat currency, especially when conducting transactions across borders. What this means for users, is that they are free to use their cards wherever they are for shopping or anything else.
By default, the cards are designed to pick the currency of the country you are carrying out your transaction from. Therefore, if you are in Japan, your card will transact in JPY, and when you find yourself in the US, for example, it will automatically make transactions in USD.
Other than this convenience, it is also important to note that the fees that are incurred in the process are also low. All transactions are carried out at the rate that Crypto.com will receive as your institutional trader. This makes things easier, and cheaper for you. If you compare this with the experience of using debit and credit cards across banks in different parts of the world, you will notice that your bank will always levy a percentage on their exchange rate, or you might notice an unnecessary transaction fee.
Cash Back
The cash back feature is an innovative concept that was introduced for the cardholders. You have a 2% cashback and the rewards are credited to your account as MCO tokens. Therefore, you cannot automatically tell the value of the reward, because it will depend on the value of the token at the time. Other than that, the value of your rewards might increase or shrink depending on how Crypto.com as a company is performing.
Strategic Management
It is very easy to look at some of the technical aspects of a project like Crypto.com and address them as the pillars upon which this project beats the competition, without looking at the element of management. Why is management important? Many are the projects that we have seen, which had some major promise but disappeared a few months or years down the line. This is where management comes in handy.
The team at Crypto.com has worked hard to grow it into a full-fledged and serious operation since the ICO. Contrary to what other projects do, the management team at Crypto.com are very communicative and responsive on social media. They also participate in discussions within different forums where they are members.
This is a good way to maintain investor and user confidence in the project. If there are any challenges the project is struggling through, they always discuss this. It is such a level of transparency that has a lot of people interested and heavily invested in the Crypto.com project, unlike other projects that are often shrouded in mystery.
How can Monaco be categorized?
This is a digital currency. The Crypto.com token is a cryptocurrency just like any other. However, what sets it apart from most of the peers is the presence of the MCO card, which is already a revolutionary product in the development line.
What’s Monaco’s vision on Security?
Some of the biggest challenges that competitors and any other project that deals with Visa cards experience are compliance and regulation. It gets even worse for those who are setting up cryptocurrency projects. What Crypto.com have done, however, is to work with partners who share a long-term vision as Crypto.com.
With this in mind, the project introduced a Visa compliant card. Other than that, some of the partners that they have brought on board are well-established in the industry, and this has not just helped in adoption, but also boost the security of the card platform.
Physical cards are produced by Gernalto. Gernalto is a recognized name in the industry, given that this is the company that has been manufacturing and producing Visa cards for so many companies in the past.
With respect to security, there is a need to establish clear and credible AML and KYC guidelines. Towards this end, Crypto.com partners with Thomson Reuters World-Check. For ID verification purposes and any other identity concerns, Jumio was brought on board. All processing transactions for the cards will be done with the help of a level-one PCI DSS-complaint card processor.
Examples of Monaco use cases/applications
The Monaco Card is an innovative approach to making Monaco easily accessible to users all over the world, and in different case scenarios. The following are some of the use cases where Monaco comes in handy:
Account Funding
For someone who wants to spend Bitcoins or Ether, Monaco is one of the most convenient and affordable means available. Users can load their Monaco cards with BTC or ETH in real-time and have funds accessible immediately. To make things easier, Monaco is also designed in such a way that you the card automatically tops up if the funds go below a set threshold.
When using the card for a transaction, the system automatically checks whether the available balance is sufficient, and only converts the amounts needed to complete the transaction. Transactions that are done with the Monaco Card enforce the best exchange rates. This is different from what banks and credit card companies usually do. They charge you cross-border fees when you are using foreign currency. However, with the Monaco Card, things are cheaper.
Cross-border Trips
One of the best things about using Monaco is that there are more than 30 million merchant locations all over the world through which you can use the card. Your card, therefore, is considered a local currency card. There are no mark-ups when using the card, no cross-border fees, or worries you need to be concerned about.
Online Shopping
Other than the convenience of using the Monaco Card for shopping online, you can also save a lot of money when using the card.
Bill Payment
The Monaco Card allows you to split bills with friends or family members where necessary. Upon doing that, you can easily reimburse them through a simple swipe, and through a Touch ID authorization.
Remittances
For those who work abroad and wish to send money back to their folks at home, it is up to 8 times cheaper to do that through Monaco than using the normal bank accounts and affiliated cards. Compared to the likes of MoneyGram and Western Union, Monaco offers the best rate for global remittances, allowing users to save up to 25% on transfers. Besides, Monaco is the future.
Company Payments
If you run a business, it is easier to make payments to suppliers, merchants, and contractors through Monaco, especially if you use foreign currency. Monaco has some of the best inter-bank exchange rates in the market, beating most banks and remittance companies.
Resources
https://crypto.com/en/about.html
https://medium.com/@crypto.com