TenX (PAY): A Slow Burner

“TenX has figured out how to solve one of the biggest problems for people that are involved in cryptocurrency – actually spending the currency.” – Inc.

If you’ve followed this page for a while you will know that I am bullish on cryptocurrency and the blockchain. For me it is the internet 3.0. It is the digital, decentralized revolution and almost every aspect of our lives is going to be affected in some way by it.

However, the only way we are going to truly profit from the cryptocurrency revolution is if it achieves widespread, mainstream adoption. The mere fact that you are reading this post suggests that you are an intelligent, forward-thinking individual who can understand the power of crypto, but what about regular Joe Bloggs down the road who hardly knows what Bitcoin is, let alone a blockchain? Do you think people like Joe are going to be downloading desktop wallets, trading on exchanges and lambo hunting? How do we encourage these people to get involved with cryptocurrency, when we all know that the crypto world can be confusing and difficult to navigate?

Here’s what I’m getting at: if we are going to achieve mainstream adoption, we need projects which are focused on integration with the real world, where crypto and fiat unite seamlessly to make our lives easier and overall, better.

Come in TenX (PAY).

TenX is a cryptocurrency payment company. It allows for one to use a cryptocurrency debit card and spend it at any place without having the company designate that it accepts crypto. It has partnered with VISA and MasterCard, enabling it to be used in almost 200 countries at over 36 million points of sale today.

How does it work? Let's say you need some milk for your morning coffee, so you pop down to the dairy to pick some up with your TenX card and the TenX wallet installed on your mobile. When you swipe your card into the store eftpos machine it is recognised as a valid VISA/MasterCard card and connects to the TenX network. The NZD price of the milk is converted to whichever crypto you choose on TenX’s own exchange and the corresponding amount of that coin is deducted from your mobile wallet. To pay the dairy owner, TenX converts the crypto expense back to NZD and transfers that amount to the dairy’s credit card network account, minus a 2% transaction fee. This fee is about consistent with what other credit card companies charge to businesses.

Interestingly, of that 2%, a quarter of it is collected and spread out as a monthly dividend to token holders (this will only occur if tokens are held in a dedicated wallet, not on an exchange). Additionally, all payments utilising TenX will result in a 0.1% cash back reward to the user in the form of PAY tokens. So, unlike credit cards, this means zero fees for the user on payments, including zero foreign exchange fees. There are some other small fees: ATM withdrawals are currently ~NZ$4.5, a new debit card will cost you ~NZ$20, and there is an annual fee of $15 if you spend less than US$1000 on the card per year (otherwise it is free).

Supported coins on the TenX network includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash and the ERC20 tokens (OMG, DGX, REP etc) but the system is capable of supporting most blockchain assets and the team plans to expand offerings in the future. I like this flexibility a lot. The technology which allows TenX users to switch between different coins is their COMIT network. This in itself is some pretty cool tech – it is a way of processing rapid, cheap payments across blockchains. So if you have a customer who wants to pay you in Litecoin, but you want payment in Ethereum, COMIT can help.

Team talk. The team behind TenX are not the most experienced I’ve seen, but they seem professional and transparent in their dealings with investors and they have public LinkedIn pages. This latter point seems a bit silly, but you’d be amazed at how many projects and ICOs have team members who are shrouded in secrecy, and this scares me (coughBitConnectcough). Toby Hoenish is their CEO and is a serial entrepreneur with a Masters Degree in AI. The CTO and co-founder Michael Sperk is based in Austria and is an experienced frontend engineer. The team was a part of Paypal’s incubator program, which helps startups get a head start in the FinTech world. Of note, Vitalik Buterin is listed as an investor in TenX, however I wouldn’t read too much into this as there has been no acknowledgement that this is anything along the likes of Vitalik’s involvement with OmiseGo.

When it comes to the actual product itself, New Zealanders are a bit out of luck at the mo. We can download the TenX app to check it out, but unfortunately NZ is yet to be added to the list of supported countries who can receive the TenX debit cards. The cards are currently available in Europe, and US support is expected in late 2017. My best guess is that Asia and Oceania will be added in early-mid 2018.

If widespread adoption is taken up in Japan, Korea, India etc it could be massive for TenX. However, this area of crypto is becoming quite hotly contested and new projects seem to be sprouting monthly which could threaten TenX’s rise. Monaco, Wixer, Xapo and TokenCard are the main competitors, but TenX has a number of advantages over these projects. Compared to Wixer and Xapo, TenX offers a lower fee to issue cards, no foreign exchange fee and a lower annual fee. The blockchains it operates on are multiple (rather than Bitcoin exclusively) and it can use both the VISA and MasterCard networks.

One key advantage over Monaco and TokenCard is that TenX has first mover status. It already has a working app and cards that can be requested, while the others seems to be lagging behind a little (Monaco isn’t far off). Also, I personally dislike the Monaco team as they intend to keep 60% of their coin in capital reserves – this may not be a bad thing for the price of Monaco coin as it keeps the circulating supply low, but I detest the greed! On the whole, I get the feeling the TenX project is much more polished and transparent than Monaco, so I’m putting my money on them.
I am also personally excited by the tech offered by TenX’s COMIT network. There is no doubt in my mind that in future blockchains are going to have to communicate effectively with other blockchains, rather than exist as separate entities. COMIT could one day be the go-to network for individuals companies who wish to employ inter-blockchain transactions, and that’s awesome.

So I like the project. But is it worth investment? Well, I think yes, mainly as a long term hold. In order to see decent growth TenX needs to: a) outshine its competitors; b) gain traction internationally, especially through Asia, and c) raise enough funds for a banking license. The last point is the moon point, as this will allow fiat to be used on the TenX system, which could result in much faster mainstream adoption. Regarding the potential return on investment (the 0.5% returned to TenX token holders), this is really only going to be valuable if the TenX transaction volume is immense. As there are 104,661,310 tokens in circulation, TenX’s daily transaction volume is probably going to need to be in the tens of millions in order to make it worthwhile to PAY token holders, but it’s certainly a bonus that is worth taking into consideration.

If TenX is successful, it could solve the most important problem of all cryptocurrencies: ease of integration. By assisting Joe Blogs and the masses to use crypto every single day is a step on the path to removing power from the institutions and granting it back to the individual. If we all manage to profit from this revolution and build a better life for ourselves and our families, then all the better.

TenX is currently trading at US$1.70. It is down from an all-time high of $5.60 in August. The current price is an absolute bargain for long term investment in my eyes, however I wouldn’t expect the price to shoot up in price suddenly like some other coins have been lately. PAY is pegged to the transaction volume of TenX, so this is going to be a true slow burner over a number of years.

So, what are your thoughts on TenX? Who’s investing?

Resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=IjngOjwOrew
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tenx/
https://www.tenx.tech/