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NetCents Technology Issues a Letter to the Shareholders

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Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – April 20, 2020) – NetCents Technology Inc. (CSE: NC) (FSE: 26N) (OTCQB: NTTCF) (“NetCents” or the “Company“), a disruptive cryptocurrency payments technologies Company, is pleased to issue a letter to the shareholders from the CEO, Clayton Moore.

Dear Fellow Shareholders,

To find a silver lining in these horrible circumstances, I have chosen to take some of this “stay at home” time to Pause, Reflect, and Plan.

It is in these times of economic uncertainty that companies can gain ground before becoming the economic powerhouses of tomorrow. There is precedent for tech companies to rise and thrive from the wreckage of a crash. What would ultimately become General Electric started amid the stock crash of the 1870s, Hewlett-Packard during the great depression, and the 2008 recession teed up tech’s long boom, giving birth to Square, Stripe, Uber, Airbnb, Slack, and Pinterest.

2008 may have been one of the most difficult financial times in recent memory for the American and global economies. However, the years following the financial crisis were amongst the best for start-up investments. The companies that were founded and grew when the economy was struggling, together make up the most lucrative start-ups since the dot-com boom days – today’s unicorns.

And this is where we find ourselves today, on the precipice of another great recession/depression. But from this economic uncertainty, we will witness the development of tomorrow’s Apples and Amazons. But this time, it won’t just be tech start-ups that reshape the future, it will be companies that fundamentally shift the global financial infrastructure as it is the fundamental flaws within this infrastructure that exacerbate recessions. Today is no exception.

“Too big to fail banks” that rely on taxpayer bailouts to survive, have time and time again, made the same mistakes. The great depression was caused by the Federal Reserve System[1] , and much of the economic damage was caused directly by bank runs fueled by a fundamental lack of trust within the banking system. The global financial crisis that began in 2007 centered around market-liquidity failures brought on by the banking industry. The cost of cleaning up a systematic banking crisis can be huge, with fiscal costs averaging 13% of GDP and economic output losses averaging 20% of GDP for crises from 1970 to 2007[2].

This time, however, we do not need to be destined to repeat the mistakes of the past. We now have new tools available to us to shape a different future, one that puts the control back into the hands of the individual-a future where people control access to their funds that eliminates the bank liquidity issues of the past.

The answer is cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain have already begun reshaping and altering future financial infrastructure. In 2016, at a time of political uncertainty, we saw cryptocurrency jump into public consciousness and dramatically break onto the public stage. During this first foray into the world economic stage, cryptocurrency filled the role of asset and began laying the framework towards becoming a currency.

Over the past few years, the initial hype around cryptocurrency died off, and the market stabilized. Facebook, with its launch of Libra, attempted to create a cryptocurrency for the masses, and we’ve witnessed the first foray of banks into the sector. During this time, companies, like NetCents, have been building the financial platforms that will power the future, leveraging blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Today, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in cryptocurrency, a shift from an asset to actual currency, the building blocks for the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Unfortunately, it has taken another time of crisis. However, this time, the crisis affects a far broader group of people, and the current uncertainty of the traditional financial infrastructure is of growing concern.

This is our reality today-the uncertainty around the future of the global economy and the existing financial infrastructure. In times like these, the last thing that people need to be worried about is whether or not their finances are secure and if they will continue to have access to them. With this, we see a massive uptick in interest in leveraging cryptocurrency as a transactional currency-a groundswell of momentum.

As unfortunate and challenging as today is, this is where cryptocurrency shines. Unlike traditional fiat currencies, cryptocurrency never closes or takes banking holidays. Whether its value has increased or decreased against the dollar, it never stops moving and, more importantly, being accessible. This confidence and security are priceless at times like these.

The understanding of, and value, of cryptocurrency, is finally being recognized for its intended purpose and not a tool for speculation, which is what it has been up until this moment.

Regardless of whether today ‘s financial infrastructure wavers in the short term, these structural issues will not disappear, and this new momentum will continue as we move forward. Thankfully, the alternative exists, and companies, like NetCents, have been working to solve these problems.

To reflect on NetCents and the achievements of the past year:

NetCents has transitioned from a company building its technology to a company selling its technology. Our sales staff took on a growth initiative early last year that has been very successful. Since launching these efforts in 2019, NetCents consistently achieved record double-digit month over month processing volume growth. We are proud of our sales initiative and expect this growth to continue. An essential part of our sales strategy has been to focus on our relationships developed from years of experience in the traditional payment space. Our efforts have strategically positioned NetCents for mass adoption as more and more merchants become interested in accepting cryptocurrency for payments. We have positioned ourselves to be the default solution for these market participants. This unique approach provides what we think is a clear advantage over other solutions; we have earned the credibility to be the incumbent in the payment space for cryptocurrency.

So in effect, if you question whether we can prosper in a challenging market environment and become a “unicorn” – the answer is: We already have. We have thrived in what we internally call the “Cryptocurrency Winter” where (beginning in 2018) Bitcoin fell from a high of $20,000 to a few thousand dollars. We used that time (when any cryptocurrency technology was out of favour) to develop a leading position in the cryptocurrency transaction market and now have a scenario where we can take advantage of what we have created.

NetCents is building a complete financial services company providing services for individuals and companies

– not just for crypto speculation –

  1. We are providing exchange services combined with the payment platform allowing digital touchless consumer payments in retail environments and e-commerce payment technology.

  2. We are providing credit card products.

  3. We are providing merchant processing to retailers.

  4. We are providing a commercial banking infrastructure for global banks that wish to service their clientele that desire to deposit and trade cryptocurrency.

  5. We are providing invoicing and payment technology to SaaS and PaaS companies (Software-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service).

  6. We have recently begun working on our first “fixed-income” product with Link Global – creating investment opportunities that pay periodic income payments far exceeding “bank” savings products.

*Each of these verticals represents hundreds of billions in transactions (and a couple are in the trillions)

Digital Currencies going Mainstream

Now, I am going to throw some more lingo at you – Central Bank Digital Currencies – (CBDC) the reason I mention it is because in a few versions of the US stimulus bills included legislation approving the creation of a digital dollar, and the establishment of digital dollar wallets. This legislation was introduced to create an additional way to pay stimulus money to the masses that is faster and cheaper than mailing checks to tens of millions of recipients. Unfortunately, the final version of the legislation didn’t include this piece. However, I believe that we will see it again in stimulus legislation that will be introduced in the coming weeks or months. We have prepared our platform to offer the USD digital wallet to US chartered and global banks to meet the requirements that Congress has established for this USD digital reserve currency. We think it is the ultimate endorsement of cryptocurrency that the US government, reserve currency for the world, is now embracing cryptocurrency.

NetCents stands to benefit more from cryptocurrency becoming mainstream – than a bull market in Bitcoin, that is for sure.

I hereby offer my services to the United States as a creator of a Central Bank Digital Currency Task Force to assist the US Government in implementing the processes and technologies to meet their needs.

Plan

As I have already relayed, we just launched many of the business lines explained above. We will be staffing these businesses internally – but will tap into our growing advisory board globally to open the doors of banks and potential partners around the world. I believe that our advisory board will be instrumental in the tidal change that is about to begin, whereby all of the global commercial banks will start to receive and manage cryptocurrency for their clients. We will be offering our white label service for those products to allow these banks to seamlessly provide these services without having to develop and manage them internally.

Conclusion

To connect all of these dots – we have created a strong position in our main business line, and are now embarking on multiple additional revenue streams – that all meet similar criteria:

  • High Margin

  • Scalable – with limited headcount required to generate significant market share

  • Meeting unmet demand for financial products that we are uniquely qualified to provide

Net Cents has been the #4 performing stock in the Canadian Stock Exchange year to date – why? Because we have been disclosing our roadmap, and people realize that we are perfectly positioned to execute based on the hard work we have been doing for 36 months.

We are building out NetCents to have attractive revenue streams based on the adoption of digital currencies worldwide – we make attractive margins on every transaction and aren’t dependent on any specific underlying cryptocurrency to make money – we will make more money as more and more wallets are created. More business clients elect to use our systems. We are confident that we have positioned the Company for success, and that success just might be coming a little more quickly because of many converging world events.

Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.

Thanks for your time.

Clayton Moore, Founder & CEO

About NetCents

NetCents Technology Inc, the transactional hub for all cryptocurrency payments, equips forward-thinking businesses with the technology to seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency processing into their payment model without taking on the risk or volatility of the crypto market. NetCents Technology is registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) with FINTRAC.

For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.net-cents.com or contact Sonja Bakgaard, Investor Relations: [email protected].

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

NetCents Technology Inc.

“Clayton Moore”

Clayton Moore, CEO, Founder and Director

NetCents Technology Inc.

1000 – 1021 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC, V6E 0C3

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements”. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “projects”, “potential” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will”, “would”, “may”, “could” or “should” occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates, and opinions of the Company’s management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management’s beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

[1] https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great_depression

[2] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0027950108099838

Fintech

How to identify authenticity in crypto influencer channels

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Modern brands stake on influencer marketing, with 76% of users making a purchase after seeing a product on social media.The cryptocurrency industry is no exception to this trend. However, promoting crypto products through influencer marketing can be particularly challenging. Crypto influencers pose a significant risk to a brand’s reputation and ROI due to rampant scams. Approximately 80% of channels provide fake statistics, including followers counts and engagement metrics. Additionally, this niche is characterized by high CPMs, which can increase the risk of financial loss for brands.

In this article Nadia Bubennnikova, Head of agency Famesters, will explore the most important things to look for in crypto channels to find the perfect match for influencer marketing collaborations.

 

  1. Comments 

There are several levels related to this point.

 

LEVEL 1

Analyze approximately 10 of the channel’s latest videos, looking through the comments to ensure they are not purchased from dubious sources. For example, such comments as “Yes sir, great video!”; “Thanks!”; “Love you man!”; “Quality content”, and others most certainly are bot-generated and should be avoided.

Just to compare: 

LEVEL 2

Don’t rush to conclude that you’ve discovered the perfect crypto channel just because you’ve come across some logical comments that align with the video’s topic. This may seem controversial, but it’s important to dive deeper. When you encounter a channel with logical comments, ensure that they are unique and not duplicated under the description box. Some creators are smarter than just buying comments from the first link that Google shows you when you search “buy YouTube comments”. They generate topics, provide multiple examples, or upload lists of examples, all produced by AI. You can either manually review the comments or use a script to parse all the YouTube comments into an Excel file. Then, add a formula to highlight any duplicates.

LEVEL 3

It is also a must to check the names of the profiles that leave the comments: most of the bot-generated comments are easy to track: they will all have the usernames made of random symbols and numbers, random first and last name combinations, “Habibi”, etc. No profile pictures on all comments is also a red flag.

 

LEVEL 4

Another important factor to consider when assessing comment authenticity is the posting date. If all the comments were posted on the same day, it’s likely that the traffic was purchased.

 

2. Average views number per video

This is indeed one of the key metrics to consider when selecting an influencer for collaboration, regardless of the product type. What specific factors should we focus on?

First & foremost: the views dynamics on the channel. The most desirable type of YouTube channel in terms of views is one that maintains stable viewership across all of its videos. This stability serves as proof of an active and loyal audience genuinely interested in the creator’s content, unlike channels where views vary significantly from one video to another.

Many unauthentic crypto channels not only buy YouTube comments but also invest in increasing video views to create the impression of stability. So, what exactly should we look at in terms of views? Firstly, calculate the average number of views based on the ten latest videos. Then, compare this figure to the views of the most recent videos posted within the past week. If you notice that these new videos have nearly the same number of views as those posted a month or two ago, it’s a clear red flag. Typically, a YouTube channel experiences lower views on new videos, with the number increasing organically each day as the audience engages with the content. If you see a video posted just three days ago already garnering 30k views, matching the total views of older videos, it’s a sign of fraudulent traffic purchased to create the illusion of view stability.

 

3. Influencer’s channel statistics

The primary statistics of interest are region and demographic split, and sometimes the device types of the viewers.

LEVEL 1

When reviewing the shared statistics, the first step is to request a video screencast instead of a simple screenshot. This is because it takes more time to organically edit a video than a screenshot, making it harder to manipulate the statistics. If the creator refuses, step two (if only screenshots are provided) is to download them and check the file’s properties on your computer. Look for details such as whether it was created with Adobe Photoshop or the color profile, typically Adobe RGB, to determine if the screenshot has been edited.

LEVEL 2

After confirming the authenticity of the stats screenshot, it’s crucial to analyze the data. For instance, if you’re examining a channel conducted in Spanish with all videos filmed in the same language, it would raise concerns to find a significant audience from countries like India or Turkey. This discrepancy, where the audience doesn’t align with regions known for speaking the language, is a red flag.

If we’re considering an English-language crypto channel, it typically suggests an international audience, as English’s global use for quality educational content on niche topics like crypto. However, certain considerations apply. For instance, if an English-speaking channel shows a significant percentage of Polish viewers (15% to 30%) without any mention of the Polish language, it could indicate fake followers and views. However, if the channel’s creator is Polish, occasionally posts videos in Polish alongside English, and receives Polish comments, it’s important not to rush to conclusions.

Example of statistics

 

Wrapping up

These are the main factors to consider when selecting an influencer to promote your crypto product. Once you’ve launched the campaign, there are also some markers to show which creators did bring the authentic traffic and which used some tools to create the illusion of an active and engaged audience. While this may seem obvious, it’s still worth mentioning. After the video is posted, allow 5-7 days for it to accumulate a basic number of views, then check performance metrics such as views, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), signups, and conversion rate (CR) from clicks to signups.

If you overlooked some red flags when selecting crypto channels for your launch, you might find the following outcomes: channels with high views numbers and high CTRs, demonstrating the real interest of the audience, yet with remarkably low conversion rates. In the worst-case scenario, you might witness thousands of clicks resulting in zero to just a few signups. While this might suggest technical issues in other industries, in crypto campaigns it indicates that the creator engaged in the campaign not only bought fake views and comments but also link clicks. And this happens more often than you may realize.

Summing up, choosing the right crypto creator to promote your product is indeed a tricky job that requires a lot of resources to be put into the search process. 

Author Nadia Bubennikova, Head of agency  at Famesters

Author

Nadia Bubennikova, Head of agency at Famesters

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Fintech

Central banks and the FinTech sector unite to change global payments space

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The BIS, along with seven leading central banks and a cohort of private financial firms, has embarked on an ambitious venture known as Project Agorá.

Named after the Greek word for “marketplace,” this initiative stands at the forefront of exploring the potential of tokenisation to significantly enhance the operational efficiency of the monetary system worldwide.

Central to this pioneering project are the Bank of France (on behalf of the Eurosystem), the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. These institutions have joined forces under the banner of Project Agorá, in partnership with an extensive assembly of private financial entities convened by the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

At the heart of Project Agorá is the pursuit of integrating tokenised commercial bank deposits with tokenised wholesale central bank money within a unified, public-private programmable financial platform. By harnessing the advanced capabilities of smart contracts and programmability, the project aspires to unlock new transactional possibilities that were previously infeasible or impractical, thereby fostering novel opportunities that could benefit businesses and consumers alike.

The collaborative effort seeks to address and surmount a variety of structural inefficiencies that currently plague cross-border payments. These challenges include disparate legal, regulatory, and technical standards; varying operating hours and time zones; and the heightened complexity associated with conducting financial integrity checks (such as anti-money laundering and customer verification procedures), which are often redundantly executed across multiple stages of a single transaction due to the involvement of several intermediaries.

As a beacon of experimental and exploratory projects, the BIS Innovation Hub is committed to delivering public goods to the global central banking community through initiatives like Project Agorá. In line with this mission, the BIS will soon issue a call for expressions of interest from private financial institutions eager to contribute to this ground-breaking project. The IIF will facilitate the involvement of private sector participants, extending an invitation to regulated financial institutions representing each of the seven aforementioned currencies to partake in this transformative endeavour.

Source: fintech.globa

The post Central banks and the FinTech sector unite to change global payments space appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.

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TD Bank inks multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud

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TD Bank has inked a multi-year deal with Google Cloud as it looks to streamline the development and deployment of new products and services.

The deal will see the Canadian banking group integrate the vendor’s cloud services into a wider portion of its technology solutions portfolio, a move which TD expects will enable it “to respond quickly to changing customer expectations by rolling out new features, updates, or entirely new financial products at an accelerated pace”.

This marks an expansion of the already established relationship between TD Bank and Google Cloud after the group previously adopted the vendor’s Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for TD Securities Automated Trading (TDSAT), the Chicago-based subsidiary of its investment banking unit, TD Securities.

TDSAT uses GKE for process automation and quantitative modelling across fixed income markets, resulting in the development of a “data-driven research platform” capable of processing large research workloads in trading.

Dan Bosman, SVP and CIO of TD Securities, claims the infrastructure has so far supported TDSAT with “compute-intensive quantitative analysis” while expanding the subsidiary’s “trading volumes and portfolio size”.

TD’s new partnership with Google Cloud will see the group attempt to replicate the same level of success across its entire portfolio.

Source: fintechfutures.com

The post TD Bank inks multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.

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