Building the Web3 payments platform that will bridge the metaverse and the physical space requires bold marketing. Read on to find out how we’ll do it
How will Utrust’s marketing change under your direction?
First of all: we are expanding. We want to expand locally, and we want to expand globally. We want to be closer to both the users and the community. Both the people who are passionate about Web3 and the people who simply want to use our product for their day-to-day lives.
We are fully aligned with MultiversX’s vision of bringing one billion people to Web3 (even more! 🖖), and that means gathering different perspectives and openly discussing market opportunities, technology innovations, gamification of tokenomics, and other areas. Personally, I am driven by that joint effort to support everyone everywhere to Break on through to the Web3 side and enjoy financial freedom.
Wherever you are, if you are even a little bit frustrated with how slow, inefficient, unsafe and complex your payments are, we want to be there to listen and to show what we can do.
That means new initiatives coming early next year: such as creator economy oriented programs, more local initiatives and specific programs for UTK holders.
Moreover, I — as well as others here at MultiversX and xMoney — was part of the blockchain arena back in 2017-18 and earlier. We must remember how everything was based on open dialogue and knowledge sharing. This year we plan to bring those valuable areas even more into focus. We want to capture that spirit of community again and promote the mainstream adoption of the better, smarter, cheaper way to send or receive payments.
What are your thoughts on the metaverse, and how to market within it?
It is in human nature to build a home, interact face to face with people, walk, talk and live our individuality. It is only human to want to do things interacting face to face.
The metaverse will allow us to do these things on our own terms.
Throughout 2022, in every situation I have had to talk about Web3 marketing and market trends, the grand metaverse idea has been at the center, with all the opportunities that come with brand new worlds.
xMoney will allow people to merge physical and virtual spaces. How we make our money and how we spend it are a massive part of our lives. Both the businesses we work on and the ones we patron are how we explore our passions and grow.
But that is not all.
Virtual world allows us all to test, try, experiment and launch new community and technology innovations. That is exactly what xMoney is eager to explore. From a marketing perspective that means we will have new ways to interact with other projects, ecosystems or blockchain networks to create a more immersive brand and product experience, as well as to explore new creator economies and related innovations. That is something we are all highly excited about!
What was it about Utrust’s project that made you take the job?
☝️ First of all, the long-term vision for the company.
Utrust doesn’t aim to be a neobank. Utrust does not aim to force you to rely on crypto only, Utrust does not create additional costs when, as a merchant, you want to try or integrate Web3 technology.
Utrust supports all businesses that seek to expand using decentralized technology. This, by the way, is not a political answer. It’s the truth. We all know a lot of Web3 solutions out there are vaporware. All hype, no users, no real use cases. Not here!
Utrust is real, and has been real for seven years, doing the work, building a system for electronic transactions that doesn’t rely on trust.
Reputation in this industry matters, and Utrust is one of the rare innovators that didn’t lose sight of the real objectives for profit and short-term success.
✌️ The second key factor was the combination of awesome technology and people. As Sanja explained wonderfully: ‘’We have continued building and delivering since our inception, and we strongly believe that an exceptional product will result in exceptional adoption.’ Utrust’s product is top of the line, on-chain, decentralised, in accordance with Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision, and it’s being built in a healthy environment by a talented group of people led by a strong leadership team.
🤟 One very important reason is community. Web3 has always been about community, and that’s a two-way street. It’s been heartwarming how Utrust communicates, engages and ‘’treats’’ its community members – and on the other side how the community responds, suggests, provides feedback and impacts the development directions.
🖖 This, by the way, includes tokenomics. The ingenious way UTK’s utility and general focus on merchant yields, staking and long-term advantages for holders was devised speaks to me as a Web3 contributor. I have often found myself furious at market players hyping prices, doing shady marketing and opaque business practices for the sake of pumping green candles and making short-term profits.
Once I checked the token mechanics, life-time value and usability of UTK, and how wonderfully it was fused into MultiversX’s ecosystem, I knew it was my preferred currency. Not to mention the wallet agnostic approach and opportunity to enjoy real-life needs (travel, shopping, car or home purchases) available with UTK. There’s no limit for such token allocation, amount in circulation and possibilities on the table when it comes to B2B users we can all benefit from as holders.
How did the opportunity present itself?
The Chief Marketing Officer role is not exactly something you apply for. It’s more a question of being in the right place at the right time with a proven track record and Web3 vision.
I’m happy to say that is what happened to me. After meeting Sanja, CEO, and enjoying fruitful conversations about the market, marketing tactics and learnings, my motivation and opinion of the space…everything went naturally from there.
Of course I ended up going through the whole hiring process, meeting the fantastic teams that make up the company, and working on different challenges.
In xMoney, even the process of selection is decentralized — every internal stakeholder you will be working with in the future has a voice in whether you’re the right fit. Thus, I would like to use this opportunity to thank the marketing and leadership teams for trusting me and my ideas. If I’m here now, it’s because everyone believed in me 🙃
What are the roadblocks you foresee, and how will you overcome them?
There will be challenges, of course, but aren’t we here to disrupt by building?
One of the challenges I do see is that it’s getting harder for new joiners to actually experience the real Web3 tech advantages. The market is still too cluttered with short-term projects that add no real value, and this is impacting knowledge-sharing and the successful onboarding of Web2 people.
The reputation of the whole sector is damaged, and we must work very hard to educate the market and make merchants aware of what our solution can do. We need to create these “Aha!” moments when people understand how we can help. How great it is on the Web3 side.
The other challenge I would like to mention is Rebranding, going hands by hand with what’s stated above.
Even though it’s a beautiful process, definitely one of growth, changing the brand name while keeping the identity and brand image will always be a challenge. We hope that the community and partners will join forces with us, and support (as painless as can be) spreading the word and supporting brand awareness global outreach.
We plan to run a fun, engageable rebranding launch campaign – and we see you as a part of it, because one thing’s for sure:
By taking the lead in disturbing DeFi exclusivity and opening up the finance ecosystem for us all, our key focus stays unchanged: we want to give back every single thing rigid centralized systems took from you, the user.
What makes MultiversX different from some of the spectacular recent failures in the space?
Without a doubt the network of products and underlying tech. The whole ecosystem believes in disrupting the traditional way of doing things, and that includes having no desire to keep your funds.
Our mission, our vision, and our values, have nothing to do with those of the companies that so spectacularly failed the nascent crypto audience. Everything we build is transparent. Everything we run is on-chain. Everything we build is built in public.
All of the ecosystem’s products are based on finding actions and solutions to fix a real problem. One example, of course, is Utrust (xMoney). Thousands of merchants are using our platform to get paid every day, evading ridiculous fees, grotesque border regulations, and the general inefficiencies that plague businesses worldwide.
We are serving everyone, from multinational corporations to individuals freelancing all over the world. Our invoicing solution allows anyone to accept crypto payments, no matter how big or small.
I guess the one word that sums it all up is “attitude”. While others are in it for themselves, and scamming their community while they’re at it, we are in it because we believe we can make a positive difference on a universal scale.
On a multiversal scale.