Use ApeCoin logo/branding for issuing Visa Cards for Ape Community Fans

kblockchainbabe · October 16, 2023, 3:30pm

PROPOSAL NAME:

PROPOSAL CATEGORY:

Brand Decision

TEAM DESCRIPTION:

My name is Yang Lan and I am the co-founder of Fiat24. I am based in Switzerland along with my entire team, and crossed over from TradFi into DeFi over 5 years ago. Our mission is to reimagine banking and legacy systems directly on the blockchain in order to optimize speed, settlement times, transparency, and scalability. My co-founders bring years of experience from the TradFi sector, specifically from banking and traditional payments. The Fiat24 team is a dedicated set of professionals, with our internal developers, compliance, and business development members working closely together from our HQ in Zurich.

ABSTRACT:

Fiat24 is the first regulated and licensed Swiss bank that is exclusively built on a public blockchain (Arbitrum). To commemorate this, we issued a co-branded Visa card with the Arbitrum Foundation featuring an Arbinaut for their community.

We propose to release (at zero cost) an ApeCoin Visa Debit Card to have collectors both inside and outside of the Yuga ecosystem enjoy and show their support for ApeCoin. The unique part of the Fiat24 Visa card is that all transactions are booked on the blockchain instead of on servers; this marks the milestone for mass adoption of Web3 and surrounding technologies.

BENEFIT TO APECOIN ECOSYSTEM:

The core benefit to the ApeCoin ecosystem is the ability to bridge the digital with real-world utility, in the form of a Visa debit card which reflects the brand identity while offering a practical and necessary tool for the Web3 world.

Getting to hold an ApeCoin designed Visa card with which to spend crypto will also act as a way to bring further visibility to the project, allowing card holders to engage in interesting discussions with new people.

KEY TERMS:

Fiat24 - the name of our dApp

Fiat24 Card - the name of our Visa debit card

PLATFORMS & TECHNOLOGIES:

Fiat24 is a Swiss off-shore bank account that is accessible within any non-custodial wallet. New users must mint a Fiat24 NFT (https://opensea.io/collection/fiat24account) in order to open an account.

The account is free of charge for eligible users, and the Visa card can be added into Apple Pay and Google Pay.

STEPS TO IMPLEMENT & TIMELINE:

All that is needed is an affirmative vote on this AIP in order to implement the artwork which has been prepared. The card will then be made publicly available for activation within 2 weeks of AIP approval. This proposal has zero cost to the ApeCoin community.

We desire (optional) that the APE community can help us to promote the new card in their social media channels (i.e. X) and to hold an AMA to explain the functionalities and purpose for the initiative.

OVERALL COST:

There is no cost to implement this proposal.

loowl · October 16, 2023, 3:53pm

Hi, @kblockchainbabe!

Like the idea. Especially part of the design. It’s sick.

But I have a few questions:

What will be the cardholder’s name? As I understand, it has to exist to make any payments. In that case, do we need to provide our IRL names?
Will be there a physical card itself? Or only virtual ones? If there are physical cards, to what countries can they be delivered and what are the prices of shipping?
What networks/tokens does it support?
You mentioned dApp - is it like mobile banking? Or something different? In case of at least freezing the card after losing it.
How payments are going to proceed? Will it be an instantaneous conversion from crypto to fiat (in that case, what are the rates/fees) or Customer could convert crypto to fiat via dApp?

Zazanibo · October 16, 2023, 4:18pm

I like the design plus there are no costs, I’m in favor

AllCityBAYC · October 16, 2023, 7:09pm

Hi Yang,

Thank you for showing interest in ApeCoin and taking the time to submit this proposal.

At first glance everything looks pretty frictionless but I am curious about a few things that would help get me caught up with Fiat24 and the advancements Switzerland has made with crypto regulation and important initiatives like IBAN.

For now, here are ApeCoin related questions:

Will ApeCoinDAO have a say on how the ApeCoin branding will be displayed?
How many partner projects do you envision co-branding credit cards with in the next 12 months — and with who?
Who is Fiat24s target market for these? Do you expect any meaningful portion of production getting into the hands of normies outside of Web3, and how many can we expect in circulation once the program is completed?
Given that you’re built on Arbitrum, I’d love to see some sort of accompanying release, minor partnership announcement or some sort of logical connection between them and ApeCoin. This could be something small, but logical enough to give the collaboration a clear reason to exist outside of a semi-random marketing campaign that we don’t have a lot to do with.
Seeing as this is a no-cost proposal and given the opportunities available at ApeCoinDAO, was there ever any thought put into creating ApeCoin-specific promotions that the DAO could have funded to help improve Fiat24s visibility and improve the program’s overall impact?

That’s all I got… Good luck with your AIP and feel free to reach out anytime to bounce ideas around or swap feedback. Also worth noting that we get super excited everytime a proposal comes in from outside of our immediate ecosystem, like this.

ALL CITY
ApeCoinDAO
Governance Working Group
Steward

bigbull · October 17, 2023, 3:56am

I see you need the NFT. I checked and there is 16.8K quantity. How is this managed? Can you just add more NFTs to the collection. Can you explain what function this NFT plays with regard to the credit card?

Chris.Admin · October 17, 2023, 4:30am

Hi @kblockchainbabe,

Thank you for taking the time to write up your Idea. We should bring to your attention that AIP-291 recently enabled community members like you seeking use of the ApeCoin IP to directly request a TradeMark Agreement without needing to go through the AIP process.

We recommend heading over to the Process for Requesting a Trademark Agreement page, where you’ll be provided with the simple steps for requesting ApeCoin IP usage.

We hope you find this resource useful. Feel free to reach out with any questions, and should you choose to withdraw your AIP Idea given this update please let us know.

Best,
@Facilitators

Rubinato · October 17, 2023, 4:56am

A very good initiative, at no cost to the DAO, in my eyes very good.
But I had the same doubts as @loowl .
I wanted to know how the conversion from fiat currency to the APE token and vice versa would be done.
Shipping costs to each country as well.
Would you only use 2 currencies, $APE and FIAT, or would there also be another one for this conversion and expenses?

I really liked it, Att.

vspandexe · October 17, 2023, 9:14am

The idea is very cool, thanks for that! I, too, like the commentators above, am concerned about the moment in which countries this physical card will be available. Will there be a restriction on which banks/payment systems it will work with? NFT can only be purchased from the secondary market? Why can’t I mint it?

kblockchainbabe · October 17, 2023, 11:33am

Thanks @loowl for your feedback! Glad you like this design.

To answer your questions:

What will be the cardholder’s name? As I understand, it has to exist to make any payments. In that case, do we need to provide our IRL names?
Yes, in fact, users open a Swiss offshore bank account with us. The card is associated with the account, and so, accoridng to regulations, we must do a thorough KYC on our clients. Your name remains confidentially with us and won’t be publicly visible.
Will be there a physical card itself? Or only virtual ones? If there are physical cards, to what countries can they be delivered and what are the prices of shipping?
We plan to offer virtual cards only, but our virtual cards are eligible for Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay. You can also do online payments with it. If the community wishes to have a physical card, we can also provide a physical card and send it to his/her registered address.
What networks/tokens does it support?
We are built on Arbitrum. The liquidity is provided by Uniswap, meaning that whatever token on Arbitrum (as long as there is a pool on Uniswap), we can accept it an convert it into fiat money (USD, EUR, CHF).
You mentioned dApp - is it like mobile banking? Or something different? In case of at least freezing the card after losing it.
Since we are built on protocol, our dApp resembles an e-banking portal. We us an NFT instead of passwords/logins to represent client account ownership (both legally and technically). We can freeze the card, yes. You can visit app.fiat24.com to take a look and get started.

How payments are going to proceed? Will it be an instantaneous conversion from crypto to fiat (in that case, what are the rates/fees) or Customer could convert crypto to fiat via dApp?
Users can convert crypto in our dApp and top up their card instantly.

loowl · October 17, 2023, 11:56am

Thanks for so detailed answer, @kblockchainbabe!

I’m totally for this AIP but have some more points that need to be clarified:

Because of liquidity provided by Uniswap, are there any defensive mechanisms against popular DEX attacks (e.g. “sandwich attack”)? It’s quite important if You are going to provide bank services IRL with a connection to crypto.

In my opinion, You have to place the main focus on physical cards because of idea of this AIP is to provide a design for a banking card. It’s much cooler to do it for IRL stuff instead of an Apple/Google/Samsung Pay card on the screen of a laptop/smartphone.

kblockchainbabe · October 17, 2023, 11:58am

Thanks a lot for your interest! Happy to answer your questions.

Will ApeCoinDAO have a say on how the ApeCoin branding will be displayed?
Yes, we will allow community members to vote on a design they like best. We have made several proposals and will open it up for people to vote on in a separate thread.
How many partner projects do you envision co-branding credit cards with in the next 12 months — and with who?
For NFT projects, we envision only partnering with 2. ApeCoin first (the biggest NFT community), and Uniswap (our liquidity provider).
Who is Fiat24s target market for these? Do you expect any meaningful portion of production getting into the hands of normies outside of Web3, and how many can we expect in circulation once the program is completed?
*Fiat24 is designed for DeFi degens. *
Because our e-banking is a dApp and we use an NFT to identify our clients, users need gas fees in order to operate their account. We don’t think that Web2 people will be able to use DeFi and dApps for a while more to come, until AA wallets become popular.
Given that you’re built on Arbitrum, I’d love to see some sort of accompanying release, minor partnership announcement or some sort of logical connection between them and ApeCoin. This could be something small, but logical enough to give the collaboration a clear reason to exist outside of a semi-random marketing campaign that we don’t have a lot to do with.
Thanks for this feedback. Given the fact that the Ape NFT is the most prominent one in the space, we feel that it makes sense that we should show the NFT holders that an NFT can also have utility. Holding an Ape NFT continues to have even more potential.
In our ecosystem, the Fiat24 NFT plays a central role. It doesn’t only represent the legal ownership of the account, but is technically the access key to our services. There are many parameters stored in the NFT which are relevant for the banking services (eg monthly trading volumes, etc).
Seeing as this is a no-cost proposal and given the opportunities available at ApeCoinDAO, was there ever any thought put into creating ApeCoin-specific promotions that the DAO could have funded to help improve Fiat24s visibility and improve the program’s overall impact?
We don’t necessarily seek money, but we are grateful if the DAO can help us promote a real-world use case of blockchain technology (specifically a utility NFT).

kblockchainbabe · October 17, 2023, 12:02pm

Hi @bigbull thanks for taking a look!

The Fiat24 NFT plays a central role, being the client identifier and access key to our e-banking. There are many parameters stored inside the NFT, which are relevant for using our services. But different to collectible NFTs, they are a utility NFT. We hope that we can show the unleashed power of NFTs to the Web3 community.
There is no limit to the amount of NFTs that can be created, but we have no intention to sell them. They are free to mint.

kblockchainbabe · October 17, 2023, 12:06pm

hey @Rubinato thanks for taking the time to share your feedback!

I wanted to know how the conversion from fiat currency to the APE token and vice versa would be done.
Shipping costs to each country as well.
Fiat24 is booked only on Arbitrum for the time being. We can convert any Arbitrum-based token int fiat money, used to top-up the Fiat24 account. Since APE is booked on L1, users need to sell the APE to USDC and bridge the L1 USDC to Arbitrum USDC, in order to top-up their account. The card will be virtual, but you can add it into your Apple Pay/Google Pay, so there is no shipping cost.

Would you only use 2 currencies, $APE and FIAT, or would there also be another one for this conversion and expenses?
We only have fiat money on our balance sheet, as long as crypto assets come in, it will be instantly converted into fiat money.

kblockchainbabe · October 17, 2023, 12:10pm

@vspandexe thanks for your feedback! We are able to open Swiss offshore accounts for people in more than 80 countries. Currently, the Visa card is available for 27 EU countries, but we are expanding our coverage. We expect that by the time the AIP will be approved, we will also be able to cover most countries in the world. The card can be used with merchants who accept Visa worldwide. The NFT is free to mint. Visit our website to get one. The OpenSea market is for people who minted it for free and then listed it for re-selling (it is not our activity).

kblockchainbabe · October 17, 2023, 12:16pm

To all Community Members:

We have designed 6 cards in 4 different categories.

Card 1: only ApeCoin logo. The ApeCoin DAO has full power to vote.
Cards 2 and 3: with real Apes. We have approval from NFT holders to be able to use these designs.
Cards 4 and 5: is the most representative design of Yuga Labs. If you like it and vote for it, please advise us where we could get approval from Yuga Labs to be able to use these.
Card 6: a modified Captain Curtis Ape. We believe that it does not infringe the IP ownership so we massively altered the original look.

Please vote and let us know which one you like the most.

CR · October 17, 2023, 12:47pm

Love the design, would vote for #4, or #1

Land · October 17, 2023, 1:09pm

Can we spend L1 USDC directly with this card?

Fiat24 · October 17, 2023, 1:23pm

For no. 4, we do need the approval from Yoga Labs. Does anyone know how can we get their O.K. for using the design?

Fiat24 · October 17, 2023, 1:25pm

Right now, you would need to bridge the L1 assets to Arbitrum. We will support more chains in 2024.

vspandexe · October 17, 2023, 1:29pm

Thank you for your reply! If I may, I will give a little advice (I hope it will be useful). Binance, Ledger and others who have their own cards allow them to be used in banks of a limited number of countries (for example, I live in Kazakhstan and cannot use any of the cards offered). If you cover these countries first, you will get the greatest profit.