We held an AMA session about COTI bank account & debit card. For this occasion, we hosted Simplex CEO, Nimrod Lehavi, and COTI CEO, Shahaf Bar Geffen.
Here’s the full recap:
COTI:
Hello dear community!
Shahaf:
Hello everyone! Shahaf is here!
COTI:
We are super happy to have another AMA session. As recently announced, this time we are hosting Simplex CEO — Nimrod Lehavi @nimrodlehavi to talk about the COTI bank account & debit card along with Shahaf @shahafbg . We’ll mute the chat, ask a series of questions, and then open it for your questions.
Nimrod Lehavi:
Hey COTI gang 😎
COTI:
A quick reminder about our partner:
Simplex, a principal member of VISA, is an EU-licensed financial institution that enables users to buy crypto from exchanges using their credit cards in a fraud-free environment. Simplex processes credit card payments with a 100% guarantee; in case of a fraud chargeback, the merchant gets paid by Simplex. Simplex’s cutting-edge fraud prevention solution and AI technology blocks fraudulent users and allows legitimate users to complete payments with ease. This increases conversion rates and enables merchants to focus on their business growth.
Simplex was recently acquired for 300M by Nuvei, one of the world's largest global payment giants!
You can read more about Simplex on their website: https://www.simplex.com/
COTI:
COTI and Simplex are long-standing partners. Through this partnership, COTI can be purchased directly by more than 35 Fiat currencies, using Credit Cards and Debit Cards — all over the world. Furthermore, as Simplex has added Apple Pay to their payment methods, COTI can also be purchased with Apple Pay at checkout.
COTI:
Welcome @nimrodlehavi , we are happy to have you here with us! Before we start, could you please introduce yourself?
Nimrod Lehavi:
I’m Nimrod, in the industry for about a decade, started Simplex in 2013, sold recently to Nuvei, one of the largest payments companies in the world ($20B market cap)
Happy to answer your questions :)
Shahaf:
@nimrodlehavi has been preaching crypto to everyone in Israel since 2012
COTI:
Great, thanks again for joining us! Let’s start with a short interview before moving on to the questions from our/the community.
What are the benefits for COTI of incorporating bank accounts and Visa debit cards into its ecosystem?
Shahaf:
I’ll take that one. Debit cards and Bank accounts are an important component of COTI’s all-encompassing financial ecosystem, providing a seamless relationship between the Fiat world and the Crypto world.
As a design partner of Simplex, COTI is the first to list on this program, and our community will be the first to own a branded COTI Pay debit card.
By using the crypto-friendly bank account, COTI users will be able to open a bank account on their name, with an IBAN, store fiat natively in their COTI Pay wallet and globally spend their balance at any merchant that accepts VISA cards, both online or in-store.
Cards are an extension of what COTI does -> to merchants that haven’t adopted crypto yet
COTI:
Thanks Shahaf!
What does it mean to be a principal member of VISA? And how does this affect COTI? @nimrodlehavi
Nimrod Lehavi:
Principal membership enables Simplex to run VISA cards, as the COTI card program directly
so COTI card is the regular debit card, just like any other brand you know, just better looking ;)
And connected to your bank account — so you can onramp and offramp easily.
Shahaf:
It’s fair to say that it’s more sustainable, too, right?
Nimrod Lehavi:
Much more. All other cards in crypto are provided thru visa fast-track
Shahaf:
what’s that?
Nimrod Lehavi:
It means that there’s another company in the middle between you and visa. Another business dependency that you need to worry about. Another company to impose more commissions.
COTI:
Interesting. And for those who still don’t have a card, could you tell us what’s included in this first debit card rollout version?
Nimrod Lehavi:
Well, the great thing is it’s a regular card. Buy at the store, pay online, use an ATM. And you can sell crypto (if you’re not a HODLR) into your bank account that’s connected to the card.
Shahaf:
To recap it, the first version includes:
- Opening and owning a bank account with an IBAN
- Ordering COTI’s VISA debit card
- Converting crypto to fiat and spending it globally with the COTI debit card, online or in-store
- Activating the card, Receiving secure PIN, Checking balance, viewing transactions
- Withdrawing funds from an ATM, SWIFT, SEPA
- Loading the account by selling crypto, swift, SEPA, cards
COTI:
Nice. So, what are the plans for the next versions?
Shahaf:
In the next iteration, we plan for more features and benefits will be added to the cardholders, special plans according to loyalty and even uniquely designed VIP cards.
Deep integration to COTI Pay will be implemented, including a Fiat account and the ability to Sell/Buy crypto directly from your VIPER wallet bank account.
The current Debit Cards version is open for Europe (EEA) and UK residents that may order a card and spend globally. The next versions will be made available for more countries.
COTI:
Amazing, I think that everyone is waiting for the VIPER integration ⭐️
That’s awesome! Thanks for your answers @nimrodlehavi @shahafbg! We will soon open the chat for everyone.
For those who still don’t have a COTI Pay debit card, here is how to order one:
In order to open a COTI bank account, click on this link: coti.simplex.com
Once you fill in all the required sections, you will be transferred to the Debit Card page where you should fill in the delivery details.
After completing the application, your new debit card will be delivered to you within 4–7 business days (in Europe). That’s it!
Community:
When will countries other than Europe be able to receive debit cards?
Shahaf:
The card is accepted outside of Europe too
Nimrod Lehavi:
We’ve started the process with VISA. It’s a process per country so it takes a lot of effort. We’re trying to start with North America.
Community:
For Simplex CEO. Why do you ask for a bank account statement to prove the money we want to put in COTI bank account? Many people don't have a bank account and want to open now one with COTI, so we bank the unbanked. Can you explain?
The COTI viper wallet account is not enough? As we bought maybe on day one and now that’s a lot of money.
Nimrod Lehavi:
As we’re licensed as an EU EMI — a financial institution, we’re bound to regulator requirements for account opening and for the source of funds.
Community:
What are the updates for the US market, any news regarding the laws, and the possibility of owning a Viper Wallet account and an IBAN account?
Shahaf:
We had conversations with 4 different US attorneys firms and we haven’t finalized whether we’ll change our policy, just yet.
Community:
Are there any plans to add cashback? Or at least remove 0.7% transaction fees? You said that there will be very favorable conditions, but in fact the commission is higher than that of many others.
Nimrod Lehavi:
the 0.7 is the industry lowest (Binance card is 0.9) and many just pump hidden fees
Community:
How does the conversion of COTI coins directly to bank account works?
Shahaf:
that is planned for the next development iteration and we’ll share more details on it then
Community:
First of all thanks for your great work. Really making strides!
For Europeans, is the bank account covered under the government bank guarantee scheme?
Nimrod Lehavi:
Thanks 😇 and yes, it’s a 100% regular bank account, with your personal IBAN. you can move funds in and out easily, and fully insured
Community:
In the medium article, you said: “Deep integration to COTI Pay will be implemented, including a Fiat account and the ability to Sell/Buy crypto directly from the VIPER wallet bank account.” — can you give us more details? In the future, do you plan to add other coins that can be held in Viper Wallet and swap them directly in the bank account?
Shahaf:
The idea is to have a BANK tab in Viper that will connect via an API to Simplex and present your Fiat position, allowing you to top up by selling crypto or buy through the app.
Viper is not intended to be a multi-asset wallet. There are many of these out there now as it is.
Fiat + Treasury, directly from Viper, would make a powerful combo!
Community:
Are you offering a business account?
Nimrod Lehavi:
we will in a couple of months
Community:
Is it safe to give Simplex your passport picture
Shahaf:
you are not giving it to Simplex but to KYC processing providers who have built their business around proving a secure way to handle this
Community:
Can we open multiple bank accounts for more currencies? IF NOT, is something that would be possible in the future?
Nimrod Lehavi:
No, one account per user right now, but we are going to enable additional fiat currencies on the same account
Community:
When native COTI on Simplex?
Shahaf:
already there!
Community:
Sir if BTC is accepted as legal tender in more countries. Adding BTC support and ADA pay could be possible to COTI ecosystem?
Shahaf:
we do have BTC and ADA crypto gateways for merchants and users, just not on Viper
Community:
Did Simplex invest in COTI? :-)
Shahaf:
we’re not raising funds, but we would have been honored
Community:
when COTI on CVI?
Shahaf:
two sprints from now.
Community:
will there be a design contest on the VIP cards?
Shahaf:
I like it!!
Community:
Djed Q2. At Cardano summit, you said it could go live in few weeks or SO. Since then, did anything change? Could we see Djed end of October-early November going Live?
Shahaf:
Development is done on Cardano’s end so I can’t really control that. Very good people are working on it and need to be flawless. It has been released on Testnets and performed well!
We are already taking emails from hundreds of partners to set up the launch. Expect news!
Community:
Any idea if the big merchant announcement that uses AdaPay will be this month, next month, or later?
Shahaf:
When they’ll finish integration — it’ll be announced. We’re excited about it as all of you are, but we need to be patient and let them finish first
Community:
Are there plans to help countries build their CBDC?
Shahaf:
Of course… we’ll update when things are finalizing. Nothing to update until it’s done!
Community:
Payments related: How can governments benefit from COTI tech for issue stable coins or as a payment service?
Shahaf:
Governments are like enterprises in many ways. Most buy tech and do not develop it internally. We see a big rise in these requests lately.
Community:
Besides Cardano, are other projects interested in using COTI tech to issue their stable coins or have their payment system?
Shahaf:
Quite a few. We need to prioritize to make sure we remain focused on the big picture
Community:
Next time AMA would be great to have you Guys live on youtube and answer these questions from Telegram… would make a huge difference!!
Shahaf:
I like this idea.
Community:
When you guys introduce the new iterations of the cards, does that mean we will have to keep or replace the current cards that were already distributed to utilize future features?
Shahaf:
No need to change
COTI:
Thank you everyone for being with us for this AMA.
If you still don’t have a COTI Pay debit card, you can order one here: coti.simplex.com
Shahaf:
Thank you all! I will try to do a video taking some of these questions.
You are the strongest, most active community out there!!!
COTI:
We will now slowly end this AMA
A special thanks to Nimrod and congrats on the acquisition!
