In the heart of Slovenia lies BTC City, one of the largest and most popular European business, shopping, recreational, leisure and cultural centres with over 10,000 brands, 3,000 companies, 450 stores and 70 bars and restaurants.
It is visited by more than 21 million people yearly. All this diversity makes it perfect for Eligma's testing grounds. For a little taste, check out this video. BTC City is already home to multiple blockchain companies and indeed worthy of the name Bitcoin City.
Testing will start in April with the aim to gain as much data as possible before launching Eligma on a larger scale. The first implemented feature will be the EliPay system. It will enable payments with cryptocurrencies even in physical stores that don’t support them yet. Hopefully, this will help bring cryptocurrencies into everyday and offline use.
The EliPay system will consist of two parts – a POS system and a mobile wallet.
POS systems are being developed as web-based applications for newer operating systems that can be used on tablet and desktop devices.
Mobile wallets enable the use of all the basic features, like storage of different cryptocurrencies and tokens, transferring funds, paying at POS systems etc.
They also offer some additional features that will help us collect more detailed and accurate user data:
- List of BTC City stores;
- Store details (opening hours, type of store, contact information etc.);
- Navigation to the store;
- Discounts for mobile app users;
- Special deals for visitors of BTC City.
The use of third party mobile wallet solutions will be possible, however only the EliPay mobile wallet will eliminate transaction fees, which will make it very attractive for the end users.
Paying with cryptocurrencies
The process will be devised in a way that will be simple for the users and will not interfere with their shopping habits. Shoppers will install the mobile wallet on their smartphone (the iOS version is already available, and the Android version will be ready in a few months) and deposit cryptocurrencies (currently Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are accepted, with more cryptocurrencies coming soon).
They will choose the products they want to purchase and take them to the register. The retailer will then give them the option to pay with fiat or cryptocurrencies. If shoppers choose the latter, a QR-code will be generated on the POS system. Shoppers will simply scan the QR-code, thus confirming their purchase. An appropriate amount of the chosen cryptocurrency will be taken from their account and deposited on the retailer’s account and with that the purchase process will be complete.
EliPay will then be able to exchange the funds on the retailer’s behalf to fiat currencies, if the retailer chooses to do so. The system will connect to a crypto exchange using an API, exchange the funds and deposit the fiat currency back to the retailer’s account. Most of the funds will be kept in a safe cold storage with only a small amount deposited on the crypto exchange for ongoing transactions. In this way the users’ funds will be secure at all times.
Loyalty program
The next step will be to introduce the ELI crypto token. This will enable the creation of a unified loyalty program, in which all the retailers in BTC City will be able to participate. Shoppers will be able to earn ELI tokens with one retailer and spend them with another. The final goal is to unite all BTC City stores under one roof. In this way they will be able to benefit from a central warehouse and only use their stores as showrooms.
After the testing phase is done, Eligma’s team should have enough data to be able to expand confidently to other markets, starting with the United Kingdom.
Check it out https://www.eligma.io