Ethereum and Bitcoin payment provider Plutus announces crowd sale

Plutus, the mobile payments app that combines Bitcoin and Ethereum, is to hold a crowd sale of its Pluton tokens. The startup has also released a white paper and welcomed some executive talent to the team formerly of PayPal, Visa and Morgan Stanley.

The Plutus white paper states: "Plutus Mobile Application enables a user to make contactless Bitcoin payments at any merchant with a Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled checkout terminal [...] Ethereum allows Plutus to deploy smart contracts to enable secure, peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange of fiat currency and Bitcoin, with the added benefit of automatic escrow. Using these methods, the Plutus Decentralized Exchange Network (PlutusDEX) of traders convert Bitcoin deposits into a prepaid debit balance that is valid at any contactless point-of-sale (POS) terminal."

A blog post about the crowd sale said: "Plutons are digital tokens issued to users on the Ethereum blockchain. Plutons can be distantly compared with cashback points or frequent flier miles programs.

"Plutons are prioritised in the Plutus app and allow users to instantly convert their value to Tap & Pay balance for everyday purchases. Only 850,000 Pluton will be available for sale, which represents 4.25% of the total supply of 20,000,000. Issuance is limited, which means there will only be a total of 20 million Plutons ever created, and only a low percentage of Plutons will be initially distributed.

"The reason for this is simple: Plutons will slowly (and automatically) be released as a rebate to users of the Plutus app. The amount of Plutons you receive will be proportional to the amount of bitcoin you contribute divided by the total funds raised."

The value of 1 Pluton will be established at the end of the crowdsale based on the total amount of BTC and ETH raised. The sale will run for 40 days, but we reserve the right to end the sale early with a minimum of 12 hours of notice.

Plutus CEO Danial Daychopan told IBTimes UK: "Plutons are an essential element and integral part of the payment system, which essentially allows users to transfer value between themselves on the Ethereum blockchain, without having to ask to use an internal server.

He said users hold a Plutons balance and you can convert that balance into a virtual debit card. The transfer value happens completely decentralised on the blockchain, "but there is a centralised element which is the escrow service that we provide which the trader has to give us in order for us to guarantee that the contactless payment will be fulfilled".

Details of escrow are registered on a smart contract. Daychopan explained that the platform does not require a licence because it handles fiat to crypto only. "If we were doing fiat to fiat that's when we would need one. Also we are not an actual card provider ourselves, we are just the middleman working with the card provider who are authorised by FCA so we don't have to be.

"We are not working with Visa or Mastercard directly but are currently beta testing several potential partners and are in discussion with the goal to provide the most reliable and safest service with the lowest costs possible."