Where has your experience and interest in cryptocurrency come from?
I have been in the tech space for over a decade as a business owner. I have helped build the largest professional team app network in the Americas with fully native app development and support for some of the largest Football clubs in Latin America. I have also built a large social sports gaming network that has seen great success and mass user uptake as well. I became intrigued with blockchain since its inception and started to watch blockchain as a technology take off around 2013. I started to work with blockchain and engage the technology about 4 years ago. I would say that my interest in technology has been more about the power of blockchain as a service over the value of cryptocurrency.
For BitLine in particular, we are not focused on the respective value of a coin, NFT, or Token. We are simply focused on the benefits of blockchain over current financial services technology. Over time I began to see blockchain as the eventual changing of the guard in the financial industry and any other business related to transactional verticals for that matter.
With cryptocurrency, I think more in terms of digital dollars for global transfer and payment in the form of stablecoins. NFTs, for me, are less about Bored Apes and more about instant permission access to personal identity information, medical records, titles, and other things that can provide simplified support systems with transparency to help consumers. BitLine and FinClusive together will look to take the best traits from blockchain technology to provide an amazing, secure, and fully compliant payment tool for the Casino Industry.
How important do you think this partnership will be for shaping the future of casino payments?
The casino industry is a compliance-driven industry. Our partnership with FinClusive assures a globally compliant solution that enables worldwide real-time access to the value associated with digital assets and potentially any real-world asset in the near future. BitLine took diligent steps to create a robust compliance-driven payments product while ensuring speed and convenience for both our clients and their Patrons. When you combine the strong financial and asset services behind the BitLine product and the best-in-class KYC/AML services from FinClusive, you get a powerful solution that will greatly impact the Industry.
How did the partnership with FinClusive come about?
We met through our participation in the Digital FMI Consortium that was focused on working towards a payments ecosystem in the UK including regulated stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies. We both saw the vision, acumen, and experience that each of our parties brought to the table and created a closer working relationship that eventually led to this partnership.
"If I handed you a dollar bill today, you would not be able to tell me its journey or where it is 10 years from now. With blockchain technology, it is an absolute reality to see that journey and classify the integrity of that asset"
What issues have you run into, in the past, in dealing with international anti-money laundering standards?
There are always technical challenges of course, and throwing in all things related to policy implementation and management such as BSA requirements, travel rule requirements and other regulatory nuance create a lot of recordkeeping, reporting, and continued oversight. When it comes to blockchain, each regulatory regime takes its unique approach to policy. The maturity of their respective regulations themselves may be completely different. Even the definitions and standards we need to operate from can vary, but, this is where the expertise stemming from our partnership with FinClusive comes into play. FinClusive’s founder and management team come from very deep regulatory roots while also being technology innovators, in the same way, BitLine comes from gaming and financial services but is an innovator.
Can you explain how the blockchain technology works?
From an asset perspective, BitLine conducts blockchain Know Your Transaction (KYT). We ensure that no illicit assets can be used in our environment, preventing any risk exposure to our Casino clients. The ability to walk the chain backwards and forwards also allows all wallet relationships to be examined in a way that fiat or e-money never could. If I handed you a dollar bill today, you would not be able to tell me its journey or where it is 10 years from now. With blockchain technology, it is an absolute reality to see that journey and classify the integrity of that asset.
From the transactional point of view, of course, it is well known that transactions, cross border or other, of substantial size can be accomplished in just minutes at any hour of the day, any day of the week, at costs and scale that can outperform traditional fiat payment rails.
How will this partnership improve the overall consumer experience?
Enhanced KYC/AML services working from a technical point of view work to reduce the friction for patrons. This directly translates to efficiency and speed for immediate gratification for consumers. These same processes will also increase operational safety and efficiency for Casino operators.
This heavy lift occurs under the hood and the patron has completed all of the requirements in just minutes with an ID picture using their phone and a selfie. The process works the same whether the Patron is requesting a few dollars or 7 figures. This partnership also meets the Patron where they stand and at any time making access to Casino floor liquidity at scale a reality in a way never possible before.
Is blockchain fulfilling its potential for how it can help gaming?
In the form of this product – absolutely. Nowhere is that more prevalent than in real-time international transfers of value 24/7/365 between parties. This is a huge problem and the perfect solution. In other cases, you hear a lot about blockchain technology eliminating TITO or something like that. What problem are you solving there? TITO works great and is a centralized, on-premises solution under most regulatory rules. Blockchain adds some but little overall value there. But as a whole, blockchain does deliver better transparency and removes the need for trust, gatekeepers, settlement risk, and the necessity of working-hour relationships to fund access.
