Being built on the blockchain to offer increased security, diversity of assets and wealth growth opportunities, ChangeX could be considered a DeFi project. And it is, to an extent. In reality, it’s much more than that.
DeFi is just one of our core offerings — it is what powers the ecosystem, what makes your money work for you; it’s what brings security and trust, because the blockchain never goes out of business.
But what expands ChangeX’s scope further beyond is not crypto or DeFi — it’s banking. Good old traditional banking, just like you know it — secure, reliable, and omnipresent, because the infrastructure of the global economy relies heavily on it. So let’s talk banking then. And let’s begin with SEPA — what is it, and how it fits into the ChangeX vision.
SEPA — unlocking Europe and beyond
SEPA, short for the Single European Payment Area, is an EU-wide system that enables fast, secure, and cashless payments to anywhere in the European Union and in some non-EU countries as well. The big deal about SEPA is that these transactions occur just like regular national payments, eliminating the difference between cross-border payments and domestic ones. These payments are reliable, efficient, and secure, and the legal framework they are based on comes from the European Central Bank.
The currency of the SEPA system is, of course, the Euro (EUR). Transactions take no more than one working day for electronic payment orders, and two working days for paper-based payments. The system consists of 36 countries in total, and any two parties in SEPA can order transactions to each other.
As such, by merely gaining access to SEPA on a business level, ChangeX will be able to offer cross-border EUR transactions (and more) to its users in any of the 36 countries involved. By the way, they are the following:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland, and also Switzerland, Monaco, and Britain.
Do you call one of these home? Great, because, come Q1 2023 and after we get our Electronic Money Institution license, ChangeX will be able to begin issuing SEPA IBANs to its users right there in their non-custodial wallets. That’s because, under SEPA, each bank account must be identified by an IBAN (International Bank Account Number).
But wait, what are the benefits of having a SEPA IBAN anyway? Glad you asked:
- Cash withdrawals are cheaper in any of the listed 36 countries
- EUR transactions are fast and standardized
- You can use your credit, debit, or payment card to easily and securely make purchases within the Eurozone
- You have access to easy mobile and online banking
Now take all of the above — fast and secure payments, standardized transactions, debit card payments, mobile banking — and fuse them together. What you get is ChangeX, but with a DeFi twist. It all lives together in the same app — your bank account, your crypto, and a DeFi core that will enable you to put your money to work.
These three sides of the same coin (magic!) will seamlessly work together and produce new kinds of synergies, unlocking disruptive opportunities to manage your personal finance.
You’ll be able to get your salary in your crypto wallet, convert some EUR to CHANGE, stake it for a few months for returns that no normal bank would ever give you in 10 years, and then, once you’re happy with the numbers, pop out your ChangeX Debit Card and spend it on whatever you want. Convert them back to EUR or don’t — it doesn’t matter, because the card lets you spend both.
Maybe you want to put your EUR into a leveraged staking position to get even more out of it? Or lend it. Or convert it to a stablecoin and earn on that.
Right from within the app, you’ll be able to order payments to any other SEPA IBAN in the 36 countries listed above; you’ll be able to pay for services with crypto or EUR interchangeably, and much, much more. Cashback on debit card payments will be a standard offering, but more exclusive benefits will be offered in tiers.
CHANGE, as you can guess, is the key to getting more out of your non-custodial wallet and, consequently, out of your bank account, but these are matters of the future. Near future, that is.
The days of app switching and account juggling are numbered. One wallet, one bank — one single app to manage, diversify, and grow your personal wealth. Mic drop.
Thank you for reading. We hope you found this article helpful.
The ChangeX Team
