I would like to welcome you to MoonPos Blog – a place for everything related to accepting payments in cryptocurrencies at your store, coffee place, bar, taxi or any other establishment. We will talk here about strategies, how to prepare your business to accept crypto, about the philosophy of crypto and also about the technology.
In this post I am going to to say something about me, the creator of MoonPos. Then I’ll tell you the story and vision of MoonPos.
Something about me
My name is Andrej and I come from Slovakia. Ever since being a child, I was fascinated by computers. My first contact with it was through games, but later I tried to learn how things work “under the hood”. I started creating basic websites, created Flash animations, got into programming, and other fun stuff. So when I was choosing a university, studying Computer Science was a clear choice. I got my bachelors degree at Brno University of Technology and my masters degree at Masaryk University in Czech Republic. But even while studying, I started making mobile apps for Android. I got to hone this craft professionally and got opportunities to work on many different types of apps – games, food delivery, e-book readers, banking apps – you name it. While developing these apps I got interested in learning “what makes good apps good” and how users use them. I decided to focus my diploma thesis on User Experience and usability testing.
But even though I was focusing more or less on mobile app development, I kept my mind open for other technology, too. I got introduced to blockchain and cryptocurrencies at a Students for Liberty (a student organization) conference, where I attended to a Bitcoin workshop. There I have installed my first Bitcoin wallet (Mycelium) and played around with transactions. Of course I got really interested in the technology and the whole crypto ecosystem. I started trading, entered Blockchain Slovakia (NGO) and started toying with an idea to develop some app, that would be related to crypto. But I didn’t know, what kind of an app it should have been.
The story of MoonPos
Actually, the idea to create MoonPos did not come just from my head. A couple of my friends, which are crypto-enthusiasts have decided to open a coffee house. Of course, as young and modern guys, they wanted to accept payments in crypto. Howver, they were using a tablet with a Point-of-Sale software, that (of course) did not offer them an option to do such a thing. So they went for a hunt for a good solution. They found some mobile wallets, but they were met with these problems:
- They wanted to accept more than one coin. There were not many wallets, that would allow them to use multiple cryptocurrencies
- Many of the apps were not adjusted for tablets
- The wallets had a terrible usability. The User Experience was suffering, because a lot of these apps were created “by engineers for engineers”. The people developing these apps were aiming for people, that understood how crypto works and had more experience in developing the functionality of the app, but not the interface, that users would work with. Clearly, non-tech people with no understanding of crypto (e.g. waiters) were not able to use these apps.
- My friends did not want to have any coins at the store. An employee or a customer could steal the tablet and all their crypto would be gone
And so there was a problem to solve with my skills and my knowledge. I decided to change my work from full-time to part-time and spent my evenings and weekends with design and development of the app and website. And voilá, MoonPos was born.
The vision
Although the first version of MoonPos solved problems of my friends, I have realized that there is much more to be done. I started learning about the philosophy (meaning) of using cryptocurrencies, read some books and attended a few crypto meet-ups and conferences. I have come to a realization that cryptocurrencies are the future that no one can avoid or ignore.
However, in order for crypto to be adopted by the masses, it must to be easier to be used. Just like everyone in the crypto-space agrees, the current situation is similar to early days of the Internet. Education of the newcomers is required, too. And people can no longer just “sit on Bitcoin” (HODL), but use it, too. However, no one can use it, when there are no businesses, that would accept crypto. And this is mainly what MoonPos is aiming for:
The mission of MoonPos is to allow businesses to accept payments in cryptocurrencies in the most easy and safe way.
These are the goals of MoonPos:
- Creation of great apps, that are intuitive and easy to be used. The focus is on a great User Experience of the users. Even people, that do not understand cryptocurrencies “under the hood” can use MoonPos without any problem.
- Already existing Point-of-Sale apps can integrate MoonPos’s SDK, so that they can offer payments in cryptocurrencies.
- Business owners are educated in the importance of crypto, the technology and strategies, how to manage payments in crypto and how work with it safely.
