Under the leadership of Bish Smeir, Vow has created an innovative solution to stablecoins called vcurrencies. Unlike traditional stablecoins that are backed by money in a bank account, vcurrencies are supported by independent promises made by numerous merchants. These vcurrencies exist within an ecosystem that enhances local and global commerce and encourages the use of blockchain-based assets for commerce.
Vcurrencies are already in use in the background of reward programs in 11 countries, where they have collectively processed 8.5 million historical transactions to date in advance of a public launch. In this article, we will delve deeper into Vow’s innovative new approach to stability and explore the benefits of its fast-growing commerce ecosystem.
What are Vcurrencies and How Do They Work?
Vow’s mission is to decentralize currency issuance and establish itself as a universal bridge for merchant crypto acceptance all over the world. Vcurrencies are fixed-value discount tokens that merchants issue in place of their usual reward “promises”.
Instead of $1 worth of gift cards, cashback, or discounts, merchants reward their customers with $1 of vcurrencies instead. Customers then collect their vcurrencies and exchange them for a fixed discount on merchants’ goods or services at any time in the future. As a result of being accepted against merchant goods and services, vcurrencies have equivalent utility. This means they mirror local fiat equivalents in all respects when a customer is purchasing from a given merchant.
Because it is merchants that issue vcurrencies to their customers, they stand behind it to protect the integrity of their brand. This also plays into the uniqueness of vcurrencies compared to traditional stablecoins, as there is no central company, government, private party, or asset used to support the tokens’ value at any time, and consumers receive them completely free.
The Vow Platform
Vow’s “platform” exists as an ecosystem of merchants and customers, allowing those customers to spend their tokenized rewards at a wide choice of merchants, effectively establishing a localized currency. This means it is not e-money, nor is it classifiable as a stablecoin, as it does not profess to carry any intrinsic value. It is a discount on goods and services.
In addition to vcurrencies themselves, the heart of Vow’s platform is a free-floating, limited-supply ERC777 cryptocurrency called VOW, which merchants will need to purchase to mint new vcurrencies. VOW’s value is directly reflective of the ecosystem’s adoption rate.
Benefits of Vcurrencies and the Vow Ecosystem
Vcurrencies, VOW, and the wider Vow ecosystem are destined to be critical tools for more mainstream cryptocurrency and blockchain-based technology adoption for several reasons:
1. The ecosystem gives businesses the ability to create a new pool of liquidity, which not only makes it easier for local commerce to occur but also supercharges industries that have historically struggled with liquidity.
2. Vcurrencies are not backed by a single entity or asset. They are backed by independent merchant promises, ensuring that they are not subject to the volatility and speculation that stablecoins have faced.
3. The use of vcurrencies incentivizes merchants to adopt blockchain-based assets as a way to enhance their customer loyalty programs.
4. The Vow platform can help bring about financial inclusion, especially for people who do not have access to traditional banking services, by providing them with a new way to save and spend their rewards.
5. The Vow ecosystem creates a localized currency that is not dependent on a central authority. This means it is resistant to the economic, political, and regulatory forces that affect traditional currencies.
Conclusion
Vow’s innovative new approach to stability through vcurrencies and the Vow ecosystem is a game-changer for the cryptocurrency industry. It addresses the need for an effective and efficient liquidity bridge between cryptocurrencies and merchants, which will help drive mainstream adoption of blockchain-based assets.
By relying on independent merchant promises to support vcurrencies, Vow has created a decentralized, secure, and stable alternative to traditional stablecoins. With its rapidly expanding commerce ecosystem, Vow, under the leadership of Bish Smeir, is positioned to become a global bridge for merchant crypto acceptance.
