By Claudio Atilano
Problem
There is currently no fast gateway to convert your fiat currency to cryptocurrency unless you do an actual peer-to-peer transaction. On top of that you have to handle the fees that the miners require to have your transaction confirmed. We want to accept fiat payments and convert these payments to IOTA with very minimal fees. This is our new direction starting 2018.
The process above takes days to process, while the process below is instant.
Porto App
Receiving fiat and cashing out on IOTA
The Porto application will be a payment receiving platform similar to Square's Cash App. Where users can send each other fiat based payments and then they can cash out in IOTA through us! Let's run a transaction example so we get an idea of the problem we are solving.
Let's say you won a $20 bet with your friend named Joe. Joe opens up his Porto App that is linked to his bank's debit card and then sends you $20 to your Porto account.
💳 Joe's Debit Card <==(Linked)==> 
You are now credited these $20 into your account and you are free to send it to other Porto accounts or cash out in IOTA. When you cash out in IOTA you are purchasing IOTA through iMarkett and we send the exchange to a public address you provide for us. The current IOTA exchange is $4.01/MIOTA. So you will receive ~ 5 MIOTA when you cash out from the Porto app to the public address you provide!
Using your IOTA to send as fiat
Now let's say that you have been HODLing IOTA for a while now and want to start using it as a form of payment. Current merchants have not been accepting IOTA as payment because it hasn't reached that point of popularity yet. Let's go back to sending some cash to Joe.
Joe has his Porto App and is willing to accept USD and not IOTA.
Your
Now $20 are credited to your Porto account.
Now $20 are credited to Joe's Porto account. Let's say Joe now wants to withdraw to his bank account.
(~2 business days to withdraw)
What about sending IOTA to each other?
We believe that you should use the official wallet to send IOTA transactions to each other. This for security reasons, we want you to own your private seed instead of us because when you own your seed you truly own your IOTA. We have chosen this route because we do not want to create an entity similar to Coinbase. We are not an exchange, we are a crypto payments facilitator. The problem this platform is solving is the exchange from fiat currency to cryptocurrency. This platform is not intended for the trading of cryptocurrencies but for the facility of crypto/fiat payments. We will not do this process for other crypto currencies such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, Litecoin, BCash, or any popular cryptocurrencies.
Focus
Our focus is on creating infrastructure to make IOTA adopted by the public. The Tangle looks at blockchain as it's precedent and has a very scalable system. IOTA is a young project that has several years to go to have all of it's technical issues resolved. Creating a new blockchain or new transactional protocol will not create adoption, it will create confusion. We look at the infrastructure built behind Bitcoin and want to provide a similar infrastructure supporting IOTA on our way to the new Machine Economy.
2018 Direction
We are currently designing the infrastructure of this application and are very excited to hear from it's potential users! We will focus on creating this application and if you subscribe to our mailing list at https://iMarkett.com you will be first to know of our developments and be able to try out the first prototype!
On January 18th & 19th our team is attending the North American Bitcoin Conference and we are excited to hear from Charlie Shrem one of the co-founders of BitInstant!
BitInstant did something similar to what we are creating here but with IOTA. We believe networking with Charlie will give us some insight on what to do to stay sustainable in the long run and to work with regulators. Charlie has been featured in the very popular documentary Banking on Bitcoin providing his point of view on Bitcoin's history and future state. We cannot wait to meet the innovators of the Bitcoin industry to gain some wisdom from them and apply it to our future endeavors.
The North American Bitcoin Conference will be happening in Miami,FL and the current price for tickets are $500
You can purchase your tickets here. Be sure to purchase them before 2018 because the price of the tickets will double to $1000!
Future Direction
We plan on working with the regulators and working by the book to prevent any illegal activities occurring on our platform and we will listen to our users for every comment and complaint you have towards the platform.
We see this application as a step forward with adoption as how Square has revolutionized fiat payments. This platform will lead to future developments. Something we have discussed about but not yet fully committed to are the following ideas.
- After creating the Porto App create ATMs where users can deposit/withdraw fiat cash to/from their Porto accounts.
- After creating these ATMs creating a debit card that connects to your Porto account and now you are free to use the dollars in your Porto account anywhere you go. These ATMs will be full nodes :)
- Create dedicated branches where you can solve your issues with an iMarkett employee and be able to exchange large quantities of money for IOTA.
There will be limitations on how many times you could exchange USD to IOTA because it will not be a trading exchange and our customers should not use the platform as a trading exchange. We will facilitate the adoption of IOTA to the general public with ease of use. Several people know that Amazon provides 2 day shipping but they don't know the logistic technicalities that are in 2 day shipping. By creating products that help users day to day that solve real problems will lead to the real adoption of a cryptocurrency.
Donations are appreciated!
Send MIOTA here: RNHTJZIHJZCIBELDMOOETJKRIVQ9AZNMUMQZKGBSYRDDGAZYEVLECLXBICTACSJXIYBDINYXERRHLZKF9OBHXH9ZV9
Send BTC here: 1Pjhx9J9FyZtkFCjmgikAD3GQrYE4o4BGj
Send ETH here: 0xc994A727B9530a515FDb99D53e4c92abfAD0a9Fa