Web 3.0 represents a paradigm shift in how the world wide web is used
Web 1.0 was for the consumption of information and content. Web 2.0, a successive iteration of the original web, saw user participation and the data behind it collected, analysed, and sold. Web 3.0, the newest iteration of the web, came into being to give back control to the creators. Today, content creators own and control who benefits from their time and talent.
However, realising the full potential of Web 3.0 requires infrastructure and points of access. And we got right on it! But alongside added processes and procedures complicating the access for the general masses, defeating the purpose of creator owned market where anyone and everyone can participate.
For example, buying an NFT requires a rather lengthy, expensive, and complicated check-out process, that includes holding a crypto wallet, buying crypto at an exchange, and finally using it to buy an NFT at a marketplace.
Tallinn based Wert, facilitates participation in Web 3.0 by embedding fiat money payment option into the native check-out processes of Web 3.0 marketplaces. It allows fiat-to-NFT and fiat-to-crypto conversion inside the partner’s website and app without gateways or exchanges.
The solution
Wert’s intuitive check-out process allows the end-user to buy an NFT using their fiat debit or credit card within seconds, ensuring that all KYC and AML processes have been conducted in the background.
Providing a fiat payment solution isn’t just an infrastructure product that sits on top of the Web 3.0 marketplaces’ check-out process. It requires a regulated payments company like Wert, to be:
- compatible with different payment providers in multiple jurisdictions (eg. debit card by a certain provider in US, Apple or Google Pay in UK, etc),
- have its own trading platform connected to multiple exchanges to support different blockchains,
- hold crypto business license in operating geographies, and
- have an agile KYC/AML framework compliant in all operating geographies.
The use case
Wert’s easy to plug-in and end-user friendly product helps its partners, such as NFT marketplaces and Defi applications, to provide their customers an enhanced buying experience without ever having to leave the website or app. It undertakes regulatory and compliance obligations of its partners.
Wert helps the marketplaces by increasing user retention since the end-user never leaves the marketplace. Additionally, it allows participation from non-crypto native customers who are more familiar with online shopping check-out experience. The solution is easily customisable with a short time to market of two to three weeks to be fully live.
For the end-users, Wert offers the complete solution embedded at the point of purchase in the NFT marketplace’s website or app. They don’t need to KYC and sign up to different exchanges and marketplaces each time. Wert’s one-time KYC process allows end-users to save their info as Wert ID, which can then be used on multiple NFT marketplaces and Defi applications.
Wert offers the embedded fiat payment option at the point of purchase in the NFT marketplace’s website or app
The market
Wert is targeting the $20bn (transaction volume in 2021) US and European NFT market serviceable by fiat money (approx. 10%). It is characterised by different ledger technologies, continuously evolving industries (collectibles, art, games, etc) and Defi applications. Still, at a nascent stage, the market is welcoming of different companies shaping the ecosystem.
George Basiladze, co-founder and CEO of Wert, has early experience building a successful crypto business with a strong product and compliance focus. He previously co-founded Cryptopay, a bitcoin wallet with an on-off ramp for the UK market in 2013. His aim is to build solutions that make Web3.0 businesses accessible to the public in line with its decentralised nature and challenger spirit.
Founded in 2021, Wert is live with 12 partners including Rarible, Mintable and KnownOrigin. It has partnered with Tezos and Polygon foundations and supports Ether, Tezos (XTZ), Polygon (Matic), and Solana (in progress) blockchains.
Wert is live with 12 partners including Rarible, Mintable and KnownOrigin
The €3.9m seed round will be used to continuously expand the fiat payment providers including integration with Apple and Google pay, expand into more supporting blockchains, tokens and exchanges, and to grow the team. If any of the above seems interesting to you and you’d like to join George and his team in their mission, head to careers at Wert.
