Keep pushing for blockchain adoption

Happy second anniversary, Pundians!

The last two years have been very exciting for us, and we remain steadfast in our mission of making blockchain more accessible for everyone. From growing our payment ecosystem to hosting our own summit and even creating our own smartphone (and making the world’s first call over the blockchain!), we’re grateful that you’ve continued to support us since we launched back in 2017.

We’re gearing up for steady growth of the years ahead, but we wanted to take this opportunity to look back at all the incredible things we’ve accomplished so far, milestones that have made our community proud and our company more recognized as a thought leader in this fast evolving space.

The start

On September 27, 2017, we created a post on Bitcoin Talk Forum announcing the Pundi X project. The title revealed our simple but ambitious goal: to enable any store to buy, sell and accept cryptocurrency.

Token holders will be able to use their cryptocurrencies to purchase everyday products and services, while merchants will have an easier and more tangible way to benefit from the blockchain revolution.

That goal is made possible through the XPOS, the world’s first blockchain-powered point-of-sale device enabling any merchant to transact with cryptocurrency. Within the first few weeks of our launch, we presented several XPOS prototypes to our future partners and online supporters, which proved to be an integral factor behind the success of our token sale.

On January 21, 2018, we kicked off the public token sale of our token, the NPXS. And we reached our hard cap of 35 million USD in less than 90 minutes, thanks to the 11,788 participants.

Bringing XPOS to the world

After our token sale, we proceeded to XPOS production and work on establishing our global network of partner XPOS distributors. Since we wanted to make blockchain and cryptocurrency available even to people who weren’t familiar with the technology, we made sure to partner with retailers and organizations around the globe that have passion to educate cryptocurrency and push for real world adoption, catering to a broad base of consumers in a diverse range of situations.

In August 2018, we started shipping the first batch of XPOS units. In the following months, these XPOS units were seen in the storefronts of cafés, supermarkets, department store and even clinics, enabling consumers to purchase a variety of products and services with their crypto tokens.

XPOS also received certifications, including CE, FCC, KC, UAE’s TRA and more. These markings indicate that, from a safety and environmental protection perspective the XPOS can confidently be used by people and their communities. And it also allows a smooth, broader XPOS rollout.

As of today, we’ve shipped 5,000+ XPOS to over 25 countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Chile, South Korea, South Africa, Venezuela, Uganda, UK, USA, and more, close to 1,000 XPOS actively handled 21 million USD worth of crypto transactions in different countries.

We also spent 2018 promoting the XPOS in a variety of conferences, forums, and events held around the world — six continents, to be exact. Perhaps the biggest event of them was ULTRA Taiwan 2018, the world’s first major music festival powered by blockchain technology. In the two-day festival, over 100 XPOS devices being used by 35 merchants were processing transactions made by 30,000 attendees. That event stress-tested the XPOS solution, proving that it can handle large volumes of transactions even while outdoors.

Expanding the payment ecosystem

In 2019, we started to integrate XPOS with leading traditional POS manufacturers. The first successful integration was completed in July 2019 with VeriFone. With this integration, shops and retail outlets using the Verifone X990 with XPOS module activated will now be able to process cryptocurrency payments alongside traditional transactions.

While the XPOS remains the focal point of our payment network, we’ve also expanded that network with three major additions over the past two years.

We’ve introduced the XPASS, a physical transaction card enabling users to conveniently bring their crypto assets wherever they go. These cards can be used to transact with XPOS merchants using NFC technology. We’ve also created customized XPASS cards with our partners and distributors across the globe, from American streetwear brands, Chinese paintings to Japanese manga. Over 180,000 cards have been issued as of today.

By the end of 2018, we also soft-launched our new mobile app, the XWallet. This app serves as a digital version of the XPASS, where users can easily transact with our partner merchants through their smartphones.

The XWallet has proven to be a hit, as it reached 100,000 registered users in only three months. Since then, we have added new features to the app, such as enabling users to send and receive crypto gifts via the XWallet’s integration with Telegram. As of today, XWallet has over 400,000 registered users.

We are also one of the first blockchain projects working closely with Samsung to implement their Blockchain initiatives. In addition to NPXS being one of the 25 default token options in Samsung Blockchain Wallet for users to add into their wallet, XWallet is the first financial DApp listed on Samsung Blockchain App Store. We’ve also integrated Samsung Blockchain Wallet into XWallet, providing more options for users who want to store their tokens with control of their own private keys.

Open Platform for the Blockchain developers take advantage of Pundi X payment network

Most recently, we have also launched our decentralized asset listing program called Open Platform where developers can sign up for Open Platform and get approved to have their tokens become part of our global financial network, allowing them to be used as payment options for XPOS merchants. Since its launch in May 2019, we’ve announced 16 additions to our payment ecosystem as well as native coins of multiple blockchains, such as BNB, QTUM, XEM, as well as stable coin DAI.

Taking Blockchain beyond payments

As we continue to grow and expand our payment network, we’ve also been hard at work in developing other blockchain-powered products outside of financial services.

At the forefront of these developments is BOB, short for Blok On Blok, the world’s first fully blockchain-powered smartphone. Previously codenamed as the XPhone, BOB made history by making the world’s first blockchain-powered call in the Bali XBlockchain Summit last October 2018. Since then, it has gone through a series of design updates and improvements — including a name change — until we officially introduced it to the world as BlokOnBlok.

The creation of the blockchain-powered smartphone is only the beginning — BOB serves as the introduction of Function X to the world. In the future, we’ll be launching an ecosystem where every piece of data is decentralized — a true Blockchain Internet.

Join us to celebrate: 1 million USD worth of giveaways via XWallet

The past two years have been filled with several great and exciting experiences for the Pundi X team, and we would not have been able to achieve any of our goals without your support.

To show our gratitude, we are holding a giveaway of up to 1 million USD worth of prizes for our XWallet users. New prizes are unlocked batch by batch till Jan 21, 2020. Don’t miss it!

We have a lot in store for the next few years, such as our ambitious goal of distributing 100,000 XPOS units by 2021, the official launch of BOB to the public, and more. With the foundation we have built in the past two years, we see the Pundi X ecosystem growing even larger.

We wish everyone a happy second birthday! Again, a million thanks from the Pundi X team and thank you for being with us throughout the journey. Let’s grow strong together.

Sincerely,

Zac Cheah
CEO and Co-Founder