Nash, a fin-tech company building distributed finance solutions, held its third traditional quarterly (Q2 2019) report event in Boston on Saturday, July 27th. Nash co-founder, Fabio Canesin, presented the company’s progress over the past three months and development plans moving forward. A video presentation can be found here.

During the event, Nash revealed the official launch of its upcoming exchange MVP to be August 23rd. Other significant announcements included a partnership with credit card processor, WorldPay, and the development of a 2nd generation authentication protocol for signing transactions.

The presentation kicked off with Canesin speaking to the original team goal: to build a non-custodial technology for the masses:

“When we started Nash, we had this big goal of being the actual company that will build non-custodial technology for the masses…and the thing is, when we did that, we were 10-15 people and had about $37 million and we are going against companies that have been in the market 5-6 years, 400 people (employees) and $500 million. So how can we actually outrun and outsmart these people? I think it’s all about not embracing the cliches. It’s actually challenging the innovation inside of you. A lot of people take the perspective that blockchain itself is disruptive and what we are trying to do is actually disrupt blockchain, and I think we’ve got that.”

People & Processes

Canesin discussed the reorganization of Nash and development processes he expects will allow Nash to outpace larger, more capitalized competitors, while prioritizing security and frequently improving customer experience. Canesin outlined a change in Nash’s internal development process to produce bi-weekly PRI’s (possible release increments), or improvements on its existing software, which may result in a new version of Nash’s software every two weeks, depending on its stability. With this development strategy, Canesin hopes “to outrun the competition” while “delivering bigger innovations” moving forward.

Using the slideshow image above, Canesin then explained a shift from its previous team structure of using capability teams (left side) to timezone-bound product teams (right side) intended to empower the company to “at least double employee size before considering another reorganization” while scaling development efforts. Numbers next to product teams are the increase in employees per team over the past quarter. Canesin claimed the company has four years of runway left to fund development efforts before considering earned revenues.

Nash is hiring a number of development roles.

Exchange MVP Launch

Canesin announced that the Nash exchange MVP is ready and will launch to the public on August 23rd, 2019 with the following components:

  • Decentralized exchange (ETH/NEO cross-chain trading, “simple and advanced”)
  • Funds management tools (non-custodial BTC, ETH, and NEO wallet)
  • Fiat on/off ramps marketplace
  • Light/dark mode

Additionally, the Nash MVP will launch with support for both the European Union and the United States. It will initially be available to the following US states:

  • Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee, Uta, Illinois, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

In the current and next development sprints, Canesin claimed Nash is focused on quality assurance, which entails fixing bugs, adding missing implementations, and updating UI elements.

2nd Generation Authentication Protocol

Canesin also noted an increased focus on integrating the Bitcoin protocol and engineering a “2nd generation authentication protocol” as roadmap goals for Q3 and Q4.

Canesin explained that a misconception in the crypto space is that a private key is the only way to sign a blockchain transaction. This, Canesin said, is not true, and that the math allows the use of different protocols and methodologies to generate a valid signature.

Nash’s 2nd generation authentication protocol will use secure multi-party computation and homomorphic encryption to replace private keys with “protocols of interaction.”

Canesin cited an example of how these protocols could be applied, with one user able to share their account with another while attaching features such as spending limits.

Mobile Strategy

Canesin also revealed that on August 5th, Nash will begin the user interview process for feedback on its mobile application. The mobile app is expected to be released on August 23rd alongside the exchange with a focus on Know Your Customer (KYC) onboarding.

The following mobile app components are planned for release at undetermined dates in 2019:

  • Mobile wallet features
  • nashPay features
  • Simplified trading features

Canesin explained that, while a small percentage of people trade on mobile, Nash’s mobile app strategy is intended to enable convenient use of nashPay and, in turn, improve user retention rates.

Legal & Business

Canesin revealed that Nash is enabling global fiat on/off ramps (buying/selling cryptocurrency directly through Nash) through its partnership with WorldPay, a merchant credit card processing company. Canesin claims that WorldPay is the biggest credit card processor in the world, with a volume of over US $1 trillion last year.

Through a combination of strategic partnerships, Nash also plans to launch its nashPay service to enable users to spend cryptocurrency (crypto-to-fiat) and allow cross border fiat settlement with merchants. nashPay will start with EU support followed by the US and will offer support for new countries over time.

Canesin also claimed that Nash has increased its focus on accelerating the de-risking of its business and bolstering its legal infrastructure due to increased regulatory pressure. Currently, Nash has two subsidiaries in the US and has “started a relationship with a service company in Switzerland.” Canesin explained that while a lot of people believe Facebook’s Libra is a “gift to the crypto community” because of the exposure to two billion people, it has also brought an unforeseen increase of regulatory pressure to existing cryptocurrency businesses.

Customer & Community Experience

Canesin stated that “Nash is not only a company – it’s a community, and we are very proud of that.” He explained that any team members that are not working on engineering tasks will be focusing on building and refining the community and customer experience.

Several initiatives were outlined, with the first being the “We are Nash” program that will see community members participate in a series of videos explaining why they support Nash in their native language.

A video campaign will also be launched to support the exchange MVP launch on August 23rd. Videos will be distributed across various platforms, with a focus on YouTube due to its popularity within the cryptocurrency community.

Other upcoming community based initiatives include localization efforts in developing companies such as South America, Southeast Asia and Africa, and a customer support live chat-AI bot, of which 40% of the questions received through user testing have already been integrated.

The entire recap video can be found here:
https://youtu.be/o_esxm8LhSo

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