An In-Depth Look into Vegawallet with CCO Jacob Ballou

The Complete Cryptocurrency Platform

VegaWallet was founded in early 2018 by Tarek Hajri and Jacob Ballou. VegaWallet is a global leader in providing real-world applications for blockchain based payment protocols. Among their most popular products are consumer based multi-signature cryptocurrency wallets and their highly developed VegaPay system now in test-net. A fully regulated and registered international exchange is also launching later this year and will cater to the back-ends of their wallet and point of sale systems. The combination of these services create a complete ecosystem for both consumer and business interactions and will help drive adoption for under-banked communities and business types.

Hello Jake, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. Can you tell us a little about yourself, what sparked your interest in blockchain, and what position do you hold at VegaWallet?

First off, thanks for having me! It’s always a pleasure.

I am a designer by nature, but started teaching myself how to code around the age of ten. This led to freelance work through college which would eventually help pay for some of my schooling as a communication design major. I have been interested in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology for a while now. I was sort of a rebel growing up and found comfort in communities that messed with Bitcoin early on in platform development. After following along for awhile and watching the continued progress of Satoshi’s invention I finally made my first Bitcoin transaction around 2014. Shortly afterwards I started to get into mining, specifically Bitcoin and Ethereum. It was here that I became more familiar with the ecosystem and advancements still needed to work towards what we call “mass adoption”.

Fast forward to 2017, when the cryptocurrency market cap was at it’s peak, and new platforms were plentiful. I am thankful enough to have met Tarek through mutual contacts and immediately we started bouncing ideas off of each other for a realistic approach to what we would then label “a complete cryptocurrency platform”. I was eager to help co-found VegaWallet and now hold the title of Chief Creative Officer. My daily tasks involve running our design and development team, marketing outreach, and continued business strategies. I often present my own ideas and the VegaWallet platform on podcasts and at conferences in hopes to draw more interest to decentralized finance.

I can see you’ve been a fan of blockchain technology since the early years. So, VegaWallet provides services to not only businesses, but consumers as well. Can you give us a brief overview on what that involves and how they commingle?

Defiantly the early years, but in order to be a “complete cryptocurrency platform”, one has to address both sides of the problem. People want to use cryptocurrency, and businesses are becoming more interested in accepting cryptocurrency. The development of an intertwined ecosystem would essentially be the easiest way to complete this task. We first started off with the consumer products like our desktop and mobile wallet to display the security and simplicity of our platform. The next step is to take the research and technology we have developed on the consumer side and apply it to specific business related products. By integrating similar backends and process flows you can then make it easier for both of these platforms to co-exist. It’s also worth mentioning that any part of our platform can also function with wallets or payment systems outside of our ecosystem to promote further cryptocurrency expansion.

The best example of this would be our multi-sig integration, which prevents single point of failures associated with other popular cryptocurrency wallets. This was initially integrated into our mobile wallet upon launch and has been successfully used ever since. We are now integrating multi-sig as step one of our security protocols in our business solutions and have actually added a hierarchical wallet system on top for use in large enterprises to protect newly acquired funds from theft so popular with cash based retail systems.

VegaWallet is set out to revolutionise the payment industry, can you give us some insight on how the project plans to accomplish this?

I’m excited to finally start talking about our VegaPay system! VegaWallet’s payment infrastructure, VegaPay, is designed to be easily integrated into websites, merchant processing systems, or any other product where the user wishes to collect payments in cryptocurrency. While many platforms provide cryptocurrency payment processing, VegaWallet provides the most open-end comprehensive system for just a fraction of the cost. Our platform fees total just 0.2% of the total collection for a day while other popular companies charge upwards of 0.5–1.0% of each transaction. Cryptocurrency payments are supposed to be cheap and fast, let’s keep it that way!

VegaPay will be added to both our mobile and desktop wallets to promote the use of cryptocurrency payment systems among small family businesses. In addition to the simple integrations we will also be releasing our complete point of sale, and fully integration based API endpoints for use in any large merchant processing system or other application. We have secured initial integrations with some large international payment processors, which I can’t wait to announce shortly!

Sounds exciting! So, what issues in the payment industry does VegaWallet aim to resolve and what are some benefits the platform has over traditional payment options.

A complete platform like VegaWallet helps to resolve many current issues and future proof business models. The influx of central bank problems and international tensions is starting to scare the average consumer, especially one who deals with cross border payments. Fraud in the credit card industry and security problems in the cash industry also play a big role in the expansion of cryptocurrency’s popularity in payments.

While we do focus on underbanked communities and business models, we can’t stop there. The total goal is to introduce cryptocurrency payments as an alternative alongside cash and credit rails to start. With simple straight forward integration and education you can then teach the world about the advantages we have all become so thankful for when dealing with blockchain protocols and payment systems.

Our platform fees are a huge competitive advantage for us when relating to traditional merchant systems and even other cryptocurrency payment systems. By offering secure payment services for only fractions of a percentage point, we can help first help to increase a companies margin.

Combine that with other services we plan to offer alongside VegaPay like inventory management, payroll systems, a rewards and loyalty system, and more… That sounds like a perfect solution to me, especially for small businesses!

Many say cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are the future of finance, where do you see VegaWallet in 5 years and what’s the projects course of action when aiming to achieve mass adoption?

The expansion of VegaWallet’s ecosystem still looks very promising, even in a volatile cryptocurrency market. As of right now, we have successfully met all of our road-map goals and continue to roll out newly designed updates and products. The expansion of our VegaPay system is a must for our 5 year plan and we are constantly working on obtaining new users and partners for integration. I could summarise the best plan for our future in one sentence, “Keep it Simple, And Make it Secure!”

I like that motto!

So has your team made any partnerships? And if so, what do they entail?

We love our partners here at VegaWallet and one of our main focuses is platform collaboration. Some of our major partners include The Dash Core Group and Carbon. We have also obtained usable partnerships with CoinFlip ATM’s, PayAnywhere, Changelly, Coinswitch, Cryptowolf, SendWyre, AscellaHealth, and more to further promote the use of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology across different industries.

The members of the Dash Core Group constantly reach out to us with different business strategies and possibilities for expansion because of our undying ambition to continue platform development. When referring to everyday payments in the cryptocurrency industry, I would go with Dash any day. Their InstantSend technology along with ChainLocks and the upcoming Evolution blockchain upgrade makes it perfect for remittances, small payments, and several other everyday use cases. We have also decided to attack the cannabis industry alongside Dash and provide several specific utilities for MRB’s who are having trouble finding banking services.