It’s been a long summer and we’re winding it down in style with Flexa Developer Advocate Bubby in Mexico City at ETH Mexico and Flexa Co-Founder Tyler Spalding speaking at Mainnet 2022 in NYC. You may have caught Flexa at Futurist Toronto, enabling payments at food trucks and around the conference, or at the Friends With Benefits Festival in Los Angeles. Read on to learn about new merchants added to Flexa, more on the Amp Foundation, and crypto news from around the world.

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In case you missed it…

Flexa powers payments at 2022 Futurists Conference and Friends With Benefits Festival

After powering crypto payments (including $DESK) at Consensus earlier this summer, Flexa continued the trend at Futurists Conference in Toronto and the Friends With Benefits Festival. These events introduced Flexa payments to a wider audience and gave the Flexa team a chance to study user behavior in-person to improve the user experience of digital payments. Flexa’s intrepid Developer Advocate Bubby was on hand in Toronto documenting the experience.

Flexa mentions the upcoming Amp Foundation

During an interview on the main stage at Futurist in Toronto earlier this month, Flexa Co-Founder Tyler Spalding mentioned the upcoming launch of the Amp Foundation. The Amp Foundation is the culmination of more than 18 months of dedicated effort, focusing exclusively on building out the Amp ecosystem and further enhancing Amp-specific technology. More details on the Amp Foundation launch and roadmap coming very soon.

Flexa adds new merchants

Flexa recently enabled several new merchants including restaurants and venues in Austin, Texas such as Stubb’s Bar-B-Q, boba shops (select locations of Gong Cha, TSAōCAA), and outdoor outfitter Rugged Earth Outfitters.

Chipotle includes Flexa in their “Buy the Dip” campaign

Building on the excitement of launching crypto payments via Flexa, Chipotle launched a “Buy the Dip” campaign in which they gave away over $200K worth of cryptocurrencies: Check out Flexa in their official press release.

Flexa drops first “public service announcement” video for spending crypto

In an effort to universally promote the value of spending digital currencies, Flexa released the first of four videos, featuring David Duchovney and the Zcash community. In the brief spot, David imagines what he could do with all the time he could save using digital currencies instead of legacy payments. The detail-oriented Zcash fan might spot several easter eggs including a hungry proof-of-steak Zooko.

Bubby goes to Mexico

Flexa Developer Advocate Bubby went to Mexico City to participate in the ETHMexico Hackathon to connect with other emerging builders in the space. Bubby notes that the Ethereum community in Mexico was incredibly talented and he was inspired by the creativity teams displayed in putting together the DeFi Lego blocks in novel ways.

Flexa participates in the Digital Currency Innovation Lab

The Hawaii Technology Development Corporation (HTDC) and the Hawaii Division of Financial Institutions, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (HDFI) announced that Flexa is one of 11 companies that will participate in the Digital Currency Innovation Lab (DCIL) program for another two-year cycle.

Metrics update

Current TVL of Flexa Capacity — $166.4 million

Earn rewards for staking your Amp on the Flexa network toward the apps and network transformers below:

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Did you know?

• Flexa Co-Founder, Tyler Spalding, is speaking at Mainnet 2022, taking place September 21-23 in NYC.

DeFi and payments news

The challenges ahead for China’s digital yuan

On August 1, 2022 the People’s Bank of China voted to expand its e-CNY pilot program. The program’s initial success across 23 regions and cities will face new challenges from increased technology build-out and competition from AliPay and WeChat Pay. The PBOC also faces challenges improving the e-CNY’s use and stickiness with users and merchants and is introducing deeper integrations to help improve its utility such as salary payments for small- to mid-sized firms.     

Can the Visa and Mastercard duopoly be broken?

Merchants pay over $138 billion in payment fees each year, which is their second largest expense after wages according to the National Retail Federation. The United States is home to the highest interchange fees of any major economy where costs are an order of magnitude greater than Europe and China. While the duopoly in the U.S. may seem insurmountable, the Economist reviews new entrants that can potentially shake up America’s payments landscape.

Federal Reserve opens pathway for crypto banks

The Federal Reserve has opened the pathway for novel financial institutions to access the Fed’s “master accounts,” which would give entities such as Kraken Bank and Custodia the ability to access the Fed so they would not need intermediary banks. The proposal would create a three-tiered system allowing the Fed to adapt its evaluation process depending on what type of financial institution is applying.

Tweet of the week

LifeofJacob.eth @zecspedning

There is nothing better than seeing the “crypto is useful” lightbulb flicker on in new ppl. Went to Nordstrom Rack to pick up some engagement photo attire, of course I paid with $zcash using the #spedn app! @paywithzcash #paywithflexa free2z.cash/lifeofjacob

August 20th 2022

8 Retweets42 Likes

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