TWITTER SPACES RECAP: FLUID FINANCE AFRICA SERIES 2 Understanding Fluid Finance (The Revolutionary New Approach to Banking)
The 2nd Twitter Spaces session with the theme: UNDERSTANDING FLUID FINANCE: A Revolutionary New Approach to Banking was held on the 26th of October, 2022 with over 300 community members tuned in.
Key speakers in attendance were:
Jessica Walker — Chief Marketing Officer, Fluid Finance
Chioma Okeke — Head of African Community
Oluchukwu Collins — Host
Etieno Udofia — Social Media Manager, Africa
Josh Nnanna — Regional Head, Uganda
Seth Agudey— Outreach Manager, Ghana
Lulu Shante — Regional Head, Tanzania
Aaron Gachanja— Regional Head, Kenya
Catch up on all the important details of this session.
1ST SEGMENT — INTRODUCTION
COLLINS: Welcome back to another series of Understanding Fluid Finance. We’d pick up where we left off in the previous series. The purpose of this podcast is to familiarize ourselves with what Fluid Finance is and the problems it solves in the ecosystem.
We have quite a number of speakers with us today, including our special guest, Jessica Walker, who will briefly introduce themselves.
2ND SEGMENT — DEFINED QUESTIONS
COLLINS: So, we start off with our special guest, Jessica. Please introduce yourself and tell us what you do for Fluid Finance.
Jessica: Yes, absolutely. Thank you guys for organising, and Chioma, thank you for bringing everyone together. It’s awesome to see you all tuning in. So, my name is Jessica. I am the Chief Marketing Officer at Fluid Finance. Before joining Fluid Finance, I was very big into Forex as a broadcast journalist and also into cryptocurrency. So I’ve been in the crypto space since 2015 and I’ve been really lucky to have worked for some amazing companies like CoinMarketCap as a social media specialist and also Bitpanda, which is a really big exchange based out of Europe.
I actually had the pleasure of meeting Fluid Finance’s CEO, Robert Sharratt, around two years ago. We actually met doing an interview for YouTube and everyone really loved hearing about Robert and his passion, so we remained in touch and we have always been keeping up with what he’s been working on at Fluid Finance. We later met in Croatia about a year ago, and he offered me the position of Chief Marketing Officer.
So, what I do is I build teams in different communities and I help with the product’s growth within the company by just formulating driving users to help people that would really find Fluid Finance useful, helping it get into the hands of the users, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with such an amazing team so far.
Everyone that works at Fluid Finance is so smart and so dedicated; our users too, as well as the community. The way they give feedback on the product is so awesome. So it’s such an honour for me to be able to work with the amazing people that I do and also to hear feedback about how Fluid is really helping improve people’s lives in that way. So, thank you guys for having me. It’s great to see you all here.
COLLINS: Thank you, Jessica, for making the time to be here with us. As the Chief Marketing Officer, is there any special package that Africans should be expecting soon?
JESSICA: That’s a really good question. So, just recently, and you guys might be familiar, we had some really good news when it comes to our top-ups for our Nigerian users. So, even if you haven’t completed your identity verification, you can now top up by card. And we are working on adding more top-up options because we really do believe that it’s so important that you guys are able to access Fluid wherever you are in the world, whether you’re on the road or you’re busy, to make it as quick and as time-sensitive as possible for you guys as well.
There are a lot of exciting things that we’re working on behind the scenes as well. We do have some really nice giveaways that we’ll be releasing as of next week. So, for people to top up using fluid, we have a new referral program. If you top up as little as $1.00, you could be in with a chance of winning some pretty impressive price gains of 100 DUSD in your Fluid account.
So, all I can say now for today is to make sure to follow Fluid Finance on Twitter so you’ll keep up to date with all of these giveaways because we would hate to see you miss out. These are some really attractive offerings to give back to our amazing users that we’ve seen over the last few months across our African communities.
COLLINS: Thank you so much, Jessica. We would take a question from a community member, which would be directed to Jessica.
AARON: My question is based on the marketing strategy. What do you think is really suitable for us on the African continent to carry on with our marketing strategy? What do you have in mind for the African continent?
JESSICA: Thank you for the question, Aaron. And I think it’s a really, really good one. I think one thing that we have already found and been really impressed with in the African community and the regions is actually the marketing strength that has come from people trying out the product, people trying Fluid Finance, people liking how it works and liking the benefits that the application offers and telling their friends. This is something that has been tried and tested, and it’s an affiliate marketing style, and because we are a live working product, it’s really valuable for you, our users, to see how things work. So what we’re doing now is we’re working on a larger scale, and I think some of our amazing regional managers can also give a little bit more information about this.
I know Chioma has been working particularly hard on reaching out to people that have a large following that are also really respected in the finance, cryptocurrency, and business industries, whether it’s on Twitter or YouTube, to also get them to try Fluid Finance, because if they try Fluid Finance and they like it, and they tell their network, if they tweet about it, if they make a YouTube video, then more and more people will find out about it.
We’re also really excited that next year we’re putting a lot of resources into attending some regional events near you all. So myself and Tina, who I know some of you have met before, will be flying out. We’re also hoping that maybe we can even get some more of the team to also come to events and we’ll bring some merchandise with us.
We will set up some meetings so you can all see who we are, how we work, and also how the application works because we will be rolling out new features more and more as the product develops. So, I think it’s really just keeping honest with communication with the community, but also onboarding new people that have a larger audience that can use Fluid and they can give good feedback as well. I think it’s super important when you have a live product, but thank you for the question.
COLLINS: Thank you so much, Jessica. Now we’ll be directing some questions to our other speakers.
To Lulu, Is it possible for one to send money to someone else who does not have a Fluid account?
LULU: Yes, we now have an option to send money to someone who does not have a Fluid account. The recipient will sign up and the money will automatically land in the account.
So we have the option whereby you just go to your Fluid app, click on your DUSD, and select send using link. You fill in the amount, you create the link, and then you insert the 2 factor authenticator code that will give you the security code that you will share with the recipient. Then you send the link by e-mail, or you can share it on WhatsApp or Telegram.
The link is valid for 48 hours. So, if the recipient does not claim it within that period, the money will automatically return to your account.
COLLINS: Alright, thank you for that. Now to Etieno, is Fluid Finance a bank? And if it’s a bank, does one need to provide an ID before using the Fluid product?
ETIENO: No, Fluid Finance is not a bank, but it is a financial technology company that offers banking services through impressive partners. We are not a bank, but we are a group of people who want to make the world a better place by creating a better banking model that fits into the digital age.
So, I would say it is a revolutionary bank alternative where your money would work harder for you. It is beyond banking services; it is beyond the normal banking operations.
Also, if you reside in one of the jurisdictions where we offer traditional banking services and you need a traditional account, of course you will need an ID for that.
COLLINS: A question for Josh. Going through the Fluid Finance website, I see that one of the services they offer is getting some interest if you save in USDT at the end of the month or whatever duration it is. So, I wanted to ask if the accrued interest is only specific to USDT or if it also applies to other currencies.
JOSH : OK. At the moment, you cannot earn interest by saving on our platform in other currencies because our operations have not extended up to that point. So right now, you can earn interest by saving on our platform in DUSD but for other currencies, you would not earn interest. But eventually, we’re going to integrate currency operations into our platform such that you can earn interest on whatever currency you use on our platform.
COLLINS: OK, Chioma. There is also an opportunity for one to get the Fluid card. How does one get this Fluid card?
CHIOMA: OK, currently the Fluid cards are not available to the public. They’re still undergoing internal tests at the moment. The employees and some selected testers are going through everything to make sure everything is in place before the cards are issued to the public. So for now, no one can request for the card except those selected few. But if you want to be eligible to get a Fluid card, for those of us in Africa and other parts of the world, you need to get one Fluid token.
You can buy it from SushiSwap, or if you’re not a crypto native, you can simply buy a Fluid token in the app at $10 per one. But you can get it very cheaply on SushiSwap. Once you buy from SushiSwap, you just need to send just one Fluid token to your connected web3 wallet address, which you connected to the app. Just send one free token, not more, because you will just be sending more than required. But just make sure it’s one. If you don’t send up to one, try completing it in your next transaction.
If you send that one token or if you buy it from the app, it is locked for one year. After one year, it will be unlocked for you to do whatever you want with it. So with that one token, you’re eligible to get a Fluid card once we open it up to the public. Then we have cards for traditional accounts. This one is not available for Africans because we need a traditional account to get the cards.
COLLINS: OK, thank you so much, Chioma, for that insight. Is Fluid Finance regulated and what is the regulation like?
CHIOMA: I think this depends on the location of the company. Fluid Finance is governed by Swiss law. So, all regulations come from that side. We are operating under Swiss law and we need to abide by whatever laws or rules govern Switzerland.
COLLINS: Regulations are really one of the things people normally look out for in case anything happens, so that they know that there is an authority or there is an establishment that they can go to to protect their interests. Thank you for that.
AARON: Let me just throw in some insight about the regulations. So, Chioma is right about how well we are regulated in Switzerland. But OK, we also need to consider telling our listeners that we are a fintech company that offers services globally. So, this means we can be accessed from any corner of the world. But initially, we operated from our headquarters in Geneva.
So, we are fully regulated. It should not be an issue to have our services in all these other countries. You know, some people expect to have a physical presence, but they should be assured that Fluid Finance is fully regulated and our presence is also international. So, wherever you can access our services, they are really well regulated and up to standard.
COLLINS: Alright, thank you. So Lulu, I see that Fluid Finance offers 4% APY interest on stable coins kept under their custody. Is this 4% guaranteed? Will it be continuous or are there times when this 4% might not come?
LULU: OK. So first of all, we have to know that the APY is generated from the revenue accumulated from the transactions. It’s more of sharing profits with the shareholders, and we have to understand that the interest will go hand in hand with the interest rates that are actually not fixed. So yeah, the interest rates are average interest rates that are deposited over a year. The interest in that case might not be guaranteed because the rates vary.
COLLINS: Awesome. I understand that it is quite easy for somebody to convert their digital USD to on-chain by connecting their web3 wallets. And one of these Web 3 wallets is MetaMask. So I want to ask, is MetaMask the only web3 wallet that one can easily link with Fluid Finance?
LULU: Not really. One can actually connect to many other wallets through Wallet Connect. So when you go to your app, you’ll find options to either connect to MetaMask or Wallet Connect. In Wallet Connect, you’ll get to see a number of wallet options such as ledger, etc. It’s just that MetaMask is more popularly used.
COLLINS: Alright, thank you. I’ll turn to Etieno now. Is it possible for one to use the digital cash from Fluid on-chain?
ETIENO: Of course, you can. From your Fluid account, you can mint your digital cash with a Web3 wallet, like your MetaMask, as Lulu said. And from there, you can send it to any blockchain address. So, the beautiful thing about Fluid is that you can do multiple things at the same time. You know, you can easily go in and out of crypto in seconds, and it’s simply amazing that we can do all of this. So, to our interested friends and new ones here, you should at least create an account after this space, and then try some of these amazing features. Thankfully, we have so many self-explanatory tutorial videos on our YouTube channel that you can easily watch and follow along.
COLLINS: How fast is the verification process?
ETIENO: The verification process is very, very fast. Of course, we use sophisticated technology that allows one to process in, you know, less than a minute, provided you have the right document in place. So you can achieve this within one minute. You just need to scan your face with your device, scan your ID, and, you know, upload the proof of address and you’re done. So, as simple as that.
COLLINS: OK, thank you so much. Over to Josh, could you please just let us know what digital cash is? Because digital cash seems to be synonymous with Fluid Finance.
JOSH: Alright. Thank you for that question. Digital cash is fiat converted to digital form. It is not different in value from the normal fiat notes that you have. Maybe with one of our partner banks, you swap fiat to digital form. Such that it’s more or less the representation of the money you have in digital form and it maintains a 1:1 ratio. Not that it is more valuable than the digital form.
Just like the e-naira we have in Nigeria that was introduced about a year ago. The e-naira is the digital form of the Naira. So in the same way, when we talk about digital cash on Fluid, we more or less refer to the fiat that has been converted to digital form. So that’s just that’s just about it. There’s nothing ambiguous about it.
COLLINS: OK, thank you so much. But how can one get this digital cash?
JOSH: It is quite easy. We have countries where we operate and we have partner banks. So, if you open an account with one of our partner banks, you can easily make deposits in any of those banks’ traditional accounts and easily convert your fiat currency to digital cash using our app.
So that’s just one way, and then the other way is that you can actually buy digital cash on-chain on our platform. So it’s just that simple. If you have an account with any of our partner banks, you can just swap from fiat to digital cash, and that’s it.
COLLINS: To Chioma, is it possible for one to open an account for their family member?
CHIOMA: Of course you can, as long as they have email addresses. I guess you just need to have email and a password to open an account. So, I don’t see any restrictions for someone to open for their family members. If you have 20 of them, just open accounts right away.
COLLINS: Alright, thank you. I’d like to ask Aaron this question. Is it possible for the digital cash to be stolen from Fluid accounts?
AARON: Thank you so much for that question. One of the most critical questions people ask, and I will answer you this way: the answer is no. Our Fluid accounts are over-protected. This means nobody can access your account unless you allow them.
So, first and foremost from the app, we have security protocols that our users use to log into their account. You can start with the basic one, which is your email. That is one. Secondly, we have passwords to log into your account. You know, these are your secret passwords. We also have biometric login for those people who have phones that allow biometrics.
One of the features of the Fluid app that I really like is that in order to send or receive money from your account, you must have a Google authenticator, which generates a 6-digit code. Every time you need to send money, you need to input this code. You know this code is generated every 30 seconds. So these are unique numbers, and they are unique numbers that are automatically generated by Google.
So, definitely, our platform is really protected from outside users. They cannot access your account and remove your digital dollars, euros, or GBP, or send them out of your account without your permission. So this means, you have all the power of your mobile phone in your hands. So nobody can access it and get your money out. That’s how Fluid accounts are protected.
COLLINS: Wonderful. Thanks for that. Now to Seth, one of the words synonymous with cryptocurrency and, by extension, blockchain, is custodial. And we understand a custodial wallet is a wallet whereby a third party has control of your private keys. So, having known this definition, are Fluid accounts custodial?
SETH: Yes. Every Fluid account that one creates is a custodial account, and it’s being handled or managed by the Fluid team. Everything that has to do with Fluid is under the protection of Fluid. So, as some of the speakers mentioned earlier, the only time your funds on Fluid come into your possession is when you transfer your funds to a web3 wallet. So in simple terms or to summarize everything, yes, Fluid accounts are custodial and this is within the Fluid ecosystem.
COLLINS: Alright, thank you so much. As a follow-up question, how easy is it for someone to move their money from a Fluid account to his Web3 wallet account?
SETH: Yeah. So just like the way we have minting, what you have to do is if you have funds in your Fluid account, let’s say DUSD, and then you want to move them to, let’s say, MetaMask, or to any other wallet, all you have to do is to move them on-chain and then you become the owner of that particular fund. So, in that case, Fluid Finance is not protecting your funds; you become the owner because you have your private key and all that.
Whatever happens within that particular setup or when you move your funds from your Fluid account to your Web3 account is left up to you.
COLLINS: OK, thank you for that. To Etieno, I ask, is it possible for one to open a traditional account with Fluid Finance?
ETIENO: If I were to give a direct answer to that question, I would say no. Fluid offers traditional banking services in the jurisdictions where we have partnerships. So, it is only people who reside in this jurisdiction, like the European economic areas, that is, the EU, the Island, Liechtenstein, and even Norway. Traditional accounts are also available in the UK, and it will soon be available in the United States. So, stay tuned.
The traditional account is not for everyone, though, depending on your country of residence. But we have our Fluid accounts, which are very available and built for the digital age. So you can actually have a Fluid account and enjoy all the benefits, like easy and global transfers, connecting to crypto and all that. So you can still enjoy the app and the good thing is that, the app marries these two worlds inside one super app, both the traditional side and the digital side. So it’s very amazing and you should try it out.
COLLINS: Alright, thank you for that.
SETH: I would like to chip in something here. As we are talking about Fluid Finance, what we want our African brothers and sisters to know is that Fluid provides the platform for you to even receive funds from your family and relatives abroad and this happens within minutes. No longer having to wait for two to three business days in order to receive your funds and with a whole lot of processes. Just have a Fluid account, tell your relatives overseas to also get a Fluid account which can be created within a minute and then they can be able to send you funds and you can also be able to access it. The good thing is that for those particularly in Nigeria who now have a peer-to-peer platform on Fluid, you’ll be able to just move your funds to your local bank accounts and then you’ll be able to have access to it. So, this is something that I think all of us will have to embrace and then make good use of what Fluid has provided us with.
COLLINS: Thank you, Seth. I have an experience that relates to this very thing you talked about. I could remember in my penultimate year in the university, an uncle was to send me money from the states. You know, I was I was down on cash, so I asked him for money and to my utter chagrin, it took about two weeks for this money he sent from the States to get to my Nigerian account. Even when it got to my dollar account, it still took a couple of processes because the money at that time was quite a big amount. So, they needed a lot of verification. They needed to be very sure that, I was not involved in any dubious activity.
I think if I had an account with Fluid then, what I would have done would be to just inform that my uncle to open an account with Fluid. He wires the money to me, using just my username and it immediately gets to my account and I could just decide to sell it on P2P and in the twinkle of an eye, I will just have the money in my Nigerian bank account.
So, one of the problems that Fluid has come to solve is this issue of cross border payments . In a situation whereby, you’re expecting money from your relative outside the shores of your country, and you would have to wait for days. So, the problem Fluid has come to solve is to shorten this curve so as to make this transaction very easy and seamless.
3RD SEGMENT — COMMUNITY QUESTIONS
Q1. I introduced the P2P feature to my friends and explained the arbitrage opportunity. But, they were sceptical about the profit margin and thought that it was unrealistic and Fluid Finance might just be a scam company. How can I convince them that Fluid is a legit company?
CHIOMA: I understand where they are coming from. Let them know that even though we are not a bank, we have a partner bank, which is Currency Cloud and they help us with these banking services. Currency Cloud can hold up to 32 currencies. So, we don’t have any fear of where our Naira is going to be kept or how to get back USD.
Fluid is here. It’s here to stay for a very long period and the team is brainstorming on how to help Nigerians get more Naira into the system, not just the card top-up. I hope this helps to answer your question.
Q2. Are there any new features we expect to see on the Fluid app?
CHIOMA: We have more savings product to come, loan application and all that and we will have more utility for our Fluid token in the coming days. So, we have just so many features coming up. Just keep your eyes on the channel. I don’t want to spill the beans before these features are out.
Q3. I want know how we are guaranteed security of our money with the whole scamming and fraud going on in the crypto space because so many people don’t trust platforms like this because of too much fraud going on. So, how much of guarantee do we have with Fluid Finance?
AARON: To answer you directly, Fluid Finance is insured by Lloyds of London. So this means, nobody gets to lose their money and in case that happens, we have the right to refund your money. On other platforms, when you lose your money or something happens, you cannot retrace or get back your money, so Fluid is secure. Once you hold your funds with us and maybe something happens, we would replace that money for you. And because your money is insured, every currency you deposit with us, is backed in real time, so your fund is at 100% protected.
COLLINS: Alright guys, like I said in the beginning, that the essence of what we are doing is to acclimatise us with the opportunities that Fluid Finance offers, for us to have a thorough understanding of the project, and of the problem they are coming to solve in the blockchain space. And for us to also understand that they deeply have our interests at heart. One of the ways they’ve exemplified this is by opening the P2P feature for Nigerians, and I think there will be a new development for other countries as well.
Alright, so I deeply want to thank us all for hanging out with us tonight, for making out time out of your busy schedules to be with us. And as we said last week ,that what we are doing is, in form of a series. So we’re looking forward to having you guys on board and also invite your friends. Let them know about the opportunities that Fluid Finance offers.
On behalf of all our speakers, our African Community manager and our our Chief Marketing Officer, Jessica, thank you guys for doing this with us and we hope to see you all next week.
To learn more about Fluid Finance, follow us on our social media platforms:
