What is Flexa?
Most people will remember Flexa as the payment project that the Winklevoss twins, through their Gemini exchange and stablecoin, have partnered with in a bid to serve as the future of retail payments.  If this doesn’t ring a bell, you may remember some articles making waves in the space a few months back, regarding companies like Starbucks and Whole Foods (among others) now accepting bitcoin.  That is Flexa’s retail partnership network.
The Flexa Network is a payment app taking advantage of the increased speed, security and lower transaction costs that are all possible through Blockchain Technology.  Flexa debuted their project at Consensus 2019 through an hour long talk which can be found on youtube:
“FLEXA: HODL. BUIDL. SPEDN!”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaXbl-og23o
^ This talk begins with some very enlightening information about the status quo for retail payments and payments processors, to give you a sense of how bloated with middle-men the entire affair is at current.  As the talk moves on, you’re shown how Flexa drastically simplifies this process, saving merchants hugely on upfront costs that have been going to the existing payment processing status quo.  I highly recommend listening to this talk if you want to learn more about Flexa as well as the space they are entering and improving upon.  It is probably the best single source for Flexa information out there at the moment.
Currently, Flexa is in a very limited beta stage, having only very recently launched the Android beta app to accompany the pre-existing iOS counterpart.  Still, the videos of people using Flexa and their crypto to make purchases at existing partnership retail locations are growing and making the rounds through Twitter daily now.  I just received an invitation to the android beta myself, and intend to go film my own video at a local participating retailer.  See below for links to a quickly growing collection of videos of real people going in to real stores and paying quickly and easily using the Flexa app.


What is the use-case for the Flexa Coin, specifically?
Flexacoin, or FXC, can easily be likened to other liquidity tokens such as XRP and NPXS, in that the primary function of the token is to serve as both the front end, and the liquidity bridge, for any and all other currencies being handled.  So, let’s say you want to pay for a cup of coffee with some bitcoin, head next door to pick up a book with litecoin – you absolutely can, but the merchants won’t be receiving any bitcoin or litecoin.  Rather, FXC, in conjunction with the exclusively partnered Gemini, and their GUSD stablecoin, work in tandem to ‘front’ the immediate payment value, allowing the transaction to process immediately, while the actual conversion and handling of any of the other currencies in your wallet is handled behind the scenes.
Did you catch that?  Merchants don’t have to handle crypto.  The one-of-a-kind partnership with Gemini allows Flexa to take advantage of the fact that Gemini is the only NYDFSA-regulated exchange, ultimately allowing Flexa to provide an insured custodial service for all funds in the SPEDN (or other future Flexa payment apps) app.
Moreover, due to the instantaneous and transparent nature of blockchain technology, Flexa is able to offer merchants a drastic, if not nearly complete reduction on fees stemming from fraudulent charges, chargebacks and other fees.  These are additional savings (representing tens of billions spent annually, at current) to be added on top of the initial reduction of fees from cutting out the bloated status quo.
What puts Flexa ahead of the competition?
A few things, some of which have already been touched upon.
1)	The partnership with the Winklevoss twins.  This means the exclusive partnership with Gemini as an exchange and for their stablecoin.  The advantages provided by this partnership, discussed above, are enormous and frankly serve as a bit of a blowout factor, with respect to other payment apps competitors.  What the involvement of the Gemini exchange and the GUSD stablecoin does to simplify and protect merchants and buyers alike here sets them head and shoulders apart from any of their competitors, period.
But I also want to note the benefits of having such accomplished and revered members of the investing and cryptocurrency space as the Winklevoss twins.  Just a few weeks ago it was reported that they have been in talks with facebook lately.  And a few more weeks before that, it was reported that, out of recognition and desire for the expertise of the Winklevoss twins in this space,  they would be stepping in to assist Coinbase with an eventual Chicago rollout in the near future.  The Winklevoss twins are successful, visionary investors who have made this space their backyard and future.  There are very few people who you could hope to partner with in this space, that can provide the level of expertise and guidance, especially concerning dealing with regulators and regulations, that these men can.
2)	No new Point of Sale hardware is necessary

The next ace up Flexa’s sleeve is the simple, and easily overlooked fact, that merchants do not have to buy any new Point of Sale hardware to integrate in to the current SPEDN app merchant network.  In other words, as you’ll observe in the videos of beta testers paying in stores, linked below, you can simply walk into a participating retailer, and they’ll scan a QR code from your phone.  And you’re done.  Compare this to a project like Pundi X – who I do like – but who is relying on numerous proprietary Point of Sale (XPoS) and/or wallet devices (xPhone) as integral components of their own attempt at blockchain-powered in-store payments.  This means upfront costs to both Pundi X and the merchants, and will always exist as a part of the process that will inhibit the ease and rate of scaling, as more and more hardware will have to be assembled, shipped and sold.  Compare this to the ease of existing merchant locations and hardware being able to scan a QR code off of your phone, yesterday.

In this way, I feel that Flexa has already dominated the Point of Sale aspect of the future retail payments race.
3)	The SDK, and staking.
The Flexa SDK allows future clientelle to construct their own apps (like SPEDN) to suit their own purposes.  Little has been said by Flexa to provide clear examples of the potential use-cases for this open-endedness in their ecosystem, but I loosely see it as an opportunity for different partnerships and marketing agendas to work together, as well as a possible avenue for implementing and managing future loyalty programs.  Perhaps a plurality of merchants would like to implement a shared, singular loyalty rewards program that applied to all of the stores in the network?  It is my understanding that the SDK is currently being focused on and remains a priority and a prerequisite ahead of staking.
When does staking begin?  In the most recent update from Flexa, it was indicated that staking would become a top priority following work on the SDK as well as their debut into their first market outside of the United States, which is projected to take place in early August of 2019.
Staking is for FXC only, and you will eventually have options when it comes to which app (SPEDN, etc) you choose to stake within.  The idea is that certain apps may offer higher or lower staking rewards at a given time, for one reason or another.  Staking is essential to the real-time, low-fee transacting, as this is the means by which liquidity is achieved.  The more people staking FXC, the stronger the network and the more quickly everything can be verified.  This is why you are rewarded for staking, and I much prefer to stake in something for a reason like this, as opposed to staking with a lender such as NEXO or any others, who, for all we know, may be touching our money and rewarding us for handing it over to them for any number of reasons that we don’t really know, in the way that we do when it comes to staking a consensus mechanism like FXC.  Food for thought.  In any case, staking is coming, and that is a very, very attractive perk for serious, long-term investors.
4)	Size, Quality and Rate of Growth for retail partnership network
Starbucks ulta whole foods etcetc xygcxygsd + intnr brands coming in, this is all in times where regulatory uncertainty looms and a plethora of blockchain offerings exist in any sector at this point, yet Flexa has already secured a network as impressive as this.  Imagine where things will go as they continue to lead and run away with the competition, and as regulatory progress is made on the whole for crypto.  And as Flexa continues to expand internationally, integrating in to more stores, more regions, attracting more merchants who have the ability to customize and define their own use for the SDK.

What’s next for Flexa?
SDK Development, International Expansion, Staking & Marketing.  Expanding beta test sizes?  More stores, more partners?
blahblahblahblabhalbhalbhalbhalbhalbhalbahlbahblahbalbhablhablahblahblahblahblabha

Informative Odds & Ends
Previously only listed on the relatively user unfriendly, Ethereum-centric, decentralized exchange known as IDEX, as well as a pair of extremely low-traffic exchanges, FXC has only just begun to see exposure to mainstream exchanges, and arguably not yet, still, as the recent Huobi Global listing.  It has recently been discussed in the official Flexacoin Telegram group that the project is in a distinctly pre-marketing phase,
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“In 2018, Gemini launched the Gemini dollar, dollar-pegged stablecoin, under the direct supervision of its regulator the New York Department of Financial Services. Flexa customers' assets will also be custodied by Gemini, providing an additional layer of security and regulation.”
“Another interesting component of SPEDN is Flexa’s partnership with Gemini — hence why the wallet supports Gemini Dollars. Drawing from Gemini’s existence as an NYDFS-regulated cryptocurrency exchange, all custodial funds in SPEDN wallets are insured and deposited with Gemini’s regulated infrastructure.”
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The SPEDN app currently supports 5 cryptocurrencies:  BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC and GUSD (Gemini USD stablecoin.)  More coins to be listed in the future.  Keep in mind, I believe that we can assume all future listed coins will also be insured and custodied by Gemini.  Why spend or store your BTC and LTC, or whatever future coins come to be supported, with another payment app, who doesn’t offer you, or the merchants, something so fundamental as insurance and *any* degree of regulatory headway?
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Sarah Olsen, head of business development at Gemini, told CoinDesk the exchange company is partnering to provide security for the custodial wallet. In return, the app now provides a new way for stablecoin users to use GUSD beyond trading.
“Whether that’s a foreigner who’s coming to the U.S. and more easily able to participate in our economy or vice versa,” Olsen said, adding:  “The Flexa network is going to be open source so if you’re a merchant anywhere you can integrate to use their network, even without necessarily interacting with the Flexa team directly. This is going to be the first step toward the future of how we transact value.”
Indeed, Flexa co-founder Tyler Spalding told CoinDesk the ability to spend cryptocurrency can actually boost its function as a store of value.  “You need the other ecosystem to exist,” Spalding said of bitcoin’s value being tied to utility that includes, but isn’t limited to, trading.

Plus, users don’t need to have a credit card or bank account to use this mobile app. A 2017 study by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation found that 8.4 million American households were unbanked. Filter said that the eventual goal is to bring buyers and sellers closer together with a digitally native payments system. For now, Flexa’s crypto exchange partnerships manage conversion on the backend.

“We’re actually building payment rails on top of cryptocurrency instead of just trying to integrate cryptocurrency into the payment rails that already exist,” Filter said.
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FAQ –
Why is the total supply of FXC so high?
As with other Liquidity Utility Tokens, such as XRP or NPXS, the total supply for such a token runs on the large side to promote deeper decentralization, and greater liquidity, meaning lowest speeds and fees, by having an abundance of stakers who can handle the dramatic scale of commerce that the Flexa network is designed to handle.  Investors new to this kind of utility are often wary of the degree of adoption that would have to occur in order to raise prices meaningfully over such a high total supply.  To this, I simply encourage you to contemplate the potential scale of adoption and frequency of use that awaits this token or its peers, by comparison to projects aimed at different sectors and use cases.

Videos of Flexa being used already within major retailers:

Flexa Whitepaper:
Flexa Team:
Flexa Advisors:

Follow Flexa on Twitter @FlexaHQ for regular updates on their latest progress.  Follow me @TheBankOfLumi for more news and research on $FXC and other top tier investment opportunities within the crypto space.

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