From Dollars to Digital

I'm going to go ahead and dive in and Matt, let me know if John is able to hop back in and then I can pause and introduce him. Thank you.

Okay, so good. Hello, everyone. Thank you for being patient. Welcome. And thank you for joining us. I am Kristen Guthrie. I'm the chief marketing officer at Tronic, your host for today. And I promise we tested webinar jam dozens of times. Not sure why maybe today is a very popular time to have webinars when they're overloaded, but thank you for hanging in with us.

I'm also joined today by John Bollinger, who will be co hosting, and he is the SVP of strategic partnerships and sales. He is got kicked out as well, and he is rejoining, but that's all right. Look, we'll catch him up when he gets in. So I'm, I'll give me a shout. If you can't hear him back, is everything okay?

Is that a yes? Thumbs up? Everything is good. Good. Thank you. Okay. So let's dive into today's session. We're excited. Well, first of all, we're Tronic as I mentioned, and we're excited to explore the evolution of digital wallets. And the benefits of cryptocurrencies, as well as how Web3 technology can revolutionize your business operations.

This is our sweet spot. This is what our company is known for, and we excel in. So we're happy to share the details of what we know about Web3, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, but in particular, Customer benefits as well as some of the operational benefits that companies are seeing. I'll weave in some real life use cases throughout and but we'll keep I have generalized some of the company names in a few spots to protect the innocent.

Not all of our customers. Are we able to reveal their names? Make sure you stick around to the end of the webinar. It'll be worth it. I'm going to put in the chat a link to the. Uh, smart contracts article that we promised. But if you can't stick around to the end, we're also going to email you a recording as well as a link to the articles.

So don't worry about it. In the next slide that I'm going to move to, we have a poll. And so this is where you're going to have instructions. If you, if you can participate, that's great. If not, don't sweat it. So let me show you the next slide. This is what it looks like. What you're going to do, this is what I mentioned before.

Grab your phone. You're going to text. The phone number you text to is 22333. You see it on your screen and you're gonna type in my first and last name, K-R-I-S-T-I-N, Guthrie 6 0 1, and just hit send. That's your message, Kristen Guthrie 6 0 1. That opts you into our poll, and we have them throughout. And I have one question for you today in our poll, and is, what is the first word that comes to mind?

So after you put Kristen Guthrie and you're opted in, you're gonna type in one word next in text. What's the one word that comes to mind when you think of digital wallets?

Go ahead and then hit submit.

Oh, I got a couple words just filled in the word cloud. So as you're doing it, keep them coming. Crypto, trust, money.

Oh, a couple people have crypto,

security.

Crypto is getting even bigger. The bigger the word in the word cloud means is the more people that are texting it. So it's good to know. We're going to cover a lot of these things. These are your real things. Real time answers from every one of you. Thank you for participating. We're going to have several opportunities, so you'll, you won't have to re enter the phone number anymore.

The next time we get to a slide that has a poll or a question, you can just text your answer. So we've got security, secure, uh, NFT brands, crypto, money, retail. You see me look away, it's on my computer. I have your answers to the quiz that you guys are looking at. So that's great. That's interesting. Uh, thank you.

Okay. So now we're going to dive into Why your business needs digital wallets. We're just going to talk a little bit about the history. The turning point for digital wallets pretty much came in 2019. That's when you had more of a mass sort of in mass adoption. They surpassed credit cards in 2019 as the most widely used payment type globally.

This is likely linked to continuous development of their convenience benefits, but honestly, it also got a huge boost when COVID hit because of a contactless payment methods. According to Juniper Research, the value of digital wallet transactions forecasted, um, is forecast to rise from 9 trillion in 2023 to 16 trillion in 2028.

Because more and more customers, consumers are discovering it and the benefits of app based payments and money transfers. Usage has moved beyond just credit cards. That's another reason for adoption. It is to include a storage of digital gift cards, memberships, concert tickets, airplane tickets, loyalty cards.

Um, it's endless as people are continuing to add and coordinate their, uh, what they feel comfortable using digital wallets for. Popular examples of people using it, um, that are not necessarily a retail specialty would be PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Wallet. Digital wallets have also have a built in security feature.

It's, this is a process called tokenization. Essentially, instead of sending an actual credit card or number during a transaction, the digital wallet generates a random, a one time use token made up of random numbers. That token is what's used to process payment or personal information remains secure.

Here's an example of how some companies are using digital wallets today. So I've changed the name again to protect the innocent, but a popular restaurant, I'll call them Gourmet Delight, implements a digital wallet. They find that customers who use digital wallets, the feature, tend to spend more per visit because the process is so seamless.

And later on in a, a, A few more minutes in the deck, I will actually give you statistics about what Forbes sees is how much more people use and spend money because they have a digital credit card instead of whipping out a credit card or paying cash. Additionally, the restaurant can send personal promotions to customers because of the digital wallet you're collecting and the blockchain collecting a lot more information on the back end, which.

enhances gamification, personalization, all things that drive more revenue to the company using it and deploying it and optimizing it as well as the consumer. They benefit. So now let's go from digital wallets to cryptocurrency. I'm going to pause a minute just a second because I heard there's a 60 second delay.

Okay, let's talk about cryptocurrencies. Well, digital wallets began, began basically as electronic version of what you carry in your actual wallet. Crypto wallets are different. They store the keys needed to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies or crypto for short are decentralized currencies, which means they're neither issued nor governed by a central bank.

A system with crypto currencies eliminates the possibility of a single point of failure. As an example, in 2008, the large financial institutions setting off a cascade of global crisis. If you don't have your currencies going through a centralized location, you mitigate that risk of failure. Well, really the 1 of the largest financial failures that we've had, and that was back in 2008.

Crypto are digital assets. They have no tangible form. They exist and operate on a public ledger called a blockchain, which records all crypto transactions. Blockchain technology is the backbone of cryptocurrencies. What that means is it's maintained by a network of computers around the world. This is the distributed ledger that ensures that all transactions are transparent and secure, making it virtually impossible for anyone to alter or tamper with the data, because the data doesn't sit in one place.

There isn't one place to hack. You'll often hear this described as immutable. I'm using it because anywhere, if you do any Google search anywhere, they use the term immutable. Essentially what that means is it can't be changed. So when you hear about blockchain, it's almost always hand in hand. They're gonna describe it as immutable.

Some common cryptos think Bitcoin, a lithium and light coin. Many of you've probably at least heard of the, have heard of the first two Bitcoin and um, Ethereum crypto wallets provide a safe place to store cryptocurrency. So there are crypto wallets. Different wallets support different types of coins.

Most hold bitcoins, some only hold Ethereum, and a few can hold any type of crypto. Metamask, for example, is a cryptocurrency wallet that allows users to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. It's available as a browser extension or mobile app and is considered one of the most user friendly Ethereum wallets.

We can't cover everything, there are probably 60 pages for each of these topics, but I tried to pick the things you're going to hear the most and that might pique your interest the most and include those in the presentation. Crypto serves multiple roles as you can see on the slide. They are a medium of exchange, they're a store of value, they're a unit of account.

As a side note, digital wallets like Apple Pay do allow you to add a crypto debit card. The card converts cryptocurrency to dollars as the current market value, which the wallet then uses to pay for purchases. So let me show you another example. Here's a company, and I wanted to show you examples that weren't necessarily, again, retail or, um, kids trading NFTs.

What are, what are, there's actual real world adoption of cryptocurrencies. So in this example, there's a tech startup, InvoTech, that begins accepting cryptocurrencies for their software services. They find that they attract a new demographic of tech savvy clients who prefer using crypto. I also have a blockchain example for you.

So an international logistics company, I'll call them Global Fight, Flight, Fright, Freight. Apparently I need to slow down. They adopt blockchain for tracking shipments. So it does not have to be purchases. It can be operational efficiency that a lot of companies are exploring using. Cryptocurrency and blockchain.

They experience enhanced transparency and efficiency in their supply chain operations. They can use crypto for global transactions, and each step of the shipment process is recorded on the blockchain, reducing disputes and ensuring timely deliveries.

Okay, I'll pause a second for the delay and take a drink.

Switching to accepting digital wallets and cryptocurrencies can offer numerous benefits over traditional payment methods. There are a lot of them. Traditional credit cards often come with high processing fees. They can eat into your company's profits. Um, in some, you're starting to see they don't even allow you to pay by credit card unless you pay an extra fee because they want to cover, um, naturally some of their costs.

In contrast, cryptocurrency transactions usually have much lower fees, which can save your business a substantial amount of money over time. So, as an example, card payments typically. Charge merchants between two and a half, three and a half percent per transaction. Bitcoin transactions do not require a processing fee, though the crypto payment gateway that you'll use.

Typically charges about 1%, but it's significantly less than your credit card transactions. Digital wallets for peer to peer payments can also provide highly competitive fees. It's an a peer to peer might be a Venmo as an example. You can also see faster transactions. So if you don't have aren't accepting digital wallets today of any kind, whether it's with a credit card in it or crypto, And you're accepting ACH payments.

Those can take days. Crypto can be completed in minutes, regardless of the amount or location, and digital wallets enable instant payments, enhancing cash flow and efficiencies. Another current benefit of accepting crypto for a company is the reduced risk of chargebacks or disputes. So this is maybe less of a benefit for the customer, but as a company.

Bitcoin works like cash in the sense that all payments are final. This means as a company or a merchant, you will not have to worry about paying at the moment until more regulation is put in place 10 years from now. You won't have to worry about paying steep chargeback fees, usually 25 bucks per chargeback or dealing with payment disputes.

Continuing with this theme of benefits, Traditional payment methods can be challenging when you're dealing with international transactions. And that's because you have to convert to the currency there. I remember, you know, and not even that long ago, 10 years ago on business trips, you were converting, um, what the exchange rate would be and, and how do, how do you optimize it and where's the best place to get the exchange rate with crypto.

You're not having to deal with that at all. And the. Cross border fees are negligible. It eliminates these barriers, enabling seamless, borderless transactions, which I truly believe is going to really rapidly increase the adoption of cryptocurrencies as consumers start seeing more of those personal benefits.

Digital wallets also support multiple currencies, which make it easier for international customers to pay in their preferred currency. Let's take a quick look at another example. So I've got Globetrotter and Ventures. They're a travel agency. Imagine you're a travel agency and the number of calls that you get and support as you're booking cruises and trips in there.

What's the currency and what does that mean? If I buy it at this rate, how much is that in US dollars with cryptocurrencies? You can serve customers worldwide without any concern about the, um, the differences in the, uh, exchange rates. So I can check in my phone to make sure if someone pings me that they can't hear anymore.

So I have an example for, uh, consumer demand as well. So based on a recent survey from Forbes advisors, digital wallets are shaping the way customers shop. So here's an example. I just want to give you some stats from this Forbes advisor study. 47 percent and this is American shoppers say they spend more money.

So this is what I talked about earlier. They spend more money when they use digital wallets compared to traditional payment methods. This is neuro linguistics 101. The reason is they don't notice leaving their pocket. Most respondents, 67 percent always, or sometimes lose track of how much they spend when using digital wallets.

51 percent of people say they would stop shopping with a merchant that doesn't accept payments from digital wallets. And this survey was done at the end of 2023. That number is growing as more and more realize more and more consumers realize the benefit of digital wallets as well as they have the opportunity or the access.

If you're picking between two retailers and one is easier to do business with. Even if you're spending more money with them because you don't see it coming out of your account, you're picking that one over the other so that it will become a real competitive advantage to make sure that not only you have a digital wallet, you have one that's remarkable and distinguishes you from your competitors.

Over 70 percent of people said they would make digital wallets their primary method for shopping, while another 62 percent said they would use it for travel. Okay, now you have a chance for a poll again. Without your phones, this time you don't have to put in anything but your answer. So the question is, what's your CEO's favorite phrase when talking about new tech?

There are four common answers that we put in there. Some are humorous, but we, I have personally actually heard every one of these, not necessarily from my current CEO. Use your phone to vote. You enter A, do you think it's, do you hear most often? We need to be disruptors. Is it B? Can we cut costs while growing 200%?

What is it? And D, if you like that answer, let's innovate, but on a budget, which one best fits your CEO?

I got a couple votes, but 67%. We need to be disruptors. Let's innovate on a budget. Anybody else?

Oh, I got bees catching up. Can we cut? Oh, we're tied. We need to be disruptors and can we cut costs while growing 200%? I have personally heard that one before from very large companies that know better. Nobody said blockchain. What is that? I, and I can't tell if that's maybe because they don't know what it is yet or it just hasn't come up in the conversation and you guys are ahead of the game.

All right. Great. Thank you. All right. Now we'll go to the next one.

Okay. So far, this all sounds great. You may be thinking, this is great. How do I start offering either a digital wallet if I don't do it today or accepting cryptocurrencies or how do I level it up? Let's start with just the fundamentals of what would it take to start with a digital wallets. This one's somewhat mundane, but there is a formula for it.

So to offer them, you need to start by integrating a reliable payment gateway. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here. I'm just going to hit a couple bullets, but a payment gateway is a service that will process credit card payments for online and brick and mortar stores. Some of the examples of more reliable payment gateways are Stripe, PayPal, square.

Uh, they provide the technology to accept the payment securely and process transactions smoothly. Then you're gonna want to, of course, integrate that payment gateway into your website or your point of sale system, or both. This can be done through APIs, a ver variety of, um, sources provided by the payment gateway.

And also the APIs allow different software systems. So if your point of sale, if you have multiple, if you have in real life activities, then you can, um, through the APIs, integrate those, ensuring the payment information is transmitted securely. Next thing you would do is ensure that your system has robust security measures.

So it would need. And I said, as this, this is high level encryption, tokenization, two factor authentication, all the things most of us go through today and expect to protect customer data. Last but not least, this is probably the biggest thing. So you want all that customers assume you're going to make it easy to pay that it already exists, and they assume you've made it as secure as possible.

They want you to tell it, tell them about it, educate them about the benefits of why I should use digital wallets. Why is it crucial? Um, and then promote it. Even by offering incentives, getting people to try it. Those that have been resistant up to this point. So I've got a couple tips on the next slide.

We'll jump to on what? So what benefits should I talk about? If I'm I do have people using digital wallets, but man, if they're going to spend more, I sure wish I had more of them using it. Well, here's a here's more detail from boards advisors related to what people want and what they see as a benefit. So this is what you would communicate in your outbound efforts to your customers or to even attract those customers that maybe weren't coming to you because you didn't have a digital solution.

Many consumers are drawn to digital payments because they are easy to use. When asked to identify the primary reason for using digital wallets to make a purchase, the same Forbes advisor study respond respondents cited 41 percent followed it and then that was closely followed by rewards and loyalty programs as part of the digital.

So having a digital wallet isn't just enough that gets you making it easy and convenient, but then it also needs to incorporate your rewards and loyalty programs. And then, as I mentioned before, gamify it and you've got a, you've got a winner there. So let me show you the chart. This is what the Forbes chart looks like.

41 percent convenience. These are the top 6. So you're going to want to make sure your communications at least hit on the top 6. For four of these convenience availability of rewards and loyalty programs in that digital wallet ability to track recent purchases enhanced security because they're assuming people often don't differ differentiate digital wallets with blockchain they assume that they're one and the same that you built them together and that there's enhanced security and they also assume there's a faster checkout process that gets pretty small the foreign three percent three percent is nothing in particular they do it just because Another interesting discovery from the same study is that respondents are equally likely to use a digital wallet for small and large purchases.

Almost, it's like 35%, almost 40%. This means consumers are as inclined to use digital payments to buy coffee. As they are to buy a new sofa. So your examples and communications shouldn't aim too low and should focus not just on the smaller purchases or products, should be on everything. In fact, even encouraging the larger purchases.

Another detail, the pain of paying is a term coined by behavioral economists to describe the negative emotions experienced while making a purchase. And this negative experience can curb spending. Findings published by the Association for Consumer Research show that mobile payments are less painful.

Again, we talked about that a little earlier, that neurolinguistics, if you don't feel it and don't see it going out, it's less painful for both cash and card payments, which may explain why overspending was a common issue among respondents. Communications should focus on the painless, easy, and convenience.

Another little detail I'll point out because I think this is something we don't. Also recognize is where people are using it. Trends indicate digital wallets are most frequently used at drugstores and pharmacies. Department stores, online retailers, events, then restaurants and bars from what I've heard as I talk to individuals, they assume it's the coffee shop.

Nothing wrong with the coffee shop, but it's that gets back into the larger purchases. It is drugstores, pharmacies, department stores. So. Any and this is still is that 47 percent the list continues there really isn't an industry right now that isn't getting more and more adoption related to hospitality.

If we actually get into segments. Hospitality, retail, travel and leisure, big consumer adoption. Despite the popularity, they aren't for everyone. So this is also something to note in your communications or before you send out the. Sort of shotgun approach to communications when asked to select the 2 main reasons to keep from using this type of payment survey respondents cited the difficulty of tracking money spent and concerns about security and the concerns about security.

It was only 10%. So it's not a lot because we already saw people thought that. It was already more secure, but that 10 percent it actually, if you divide it by age, it makes a huge difference. So if, for example, the younger generations feel safer, Gen Z, 53 percent already automatically assume digital payments are safer.

Millennials. It's 40%. So if you're going to send out a communication that talks about enhanced You may not need to target it to Gen Z's and Millennials. You may need to focus more on that when you segment your list, um, with the older, which includes myself, the, uh, older generations. Okay, now let's start talking about how to offer and accept cryptocurrencies.

This involves both technical setup and customer engagement strategies. It's really not necessarily that different from digital wallets. To start accepting them, you got to choose a reputable cryptocurrency payment processor. Some of those examples of companies you may have heard, BitPay, Coinbase Commerce, CoinGate.

These processors provide the technology to accept and process cryptocurrency payments securely, integrating a crypto payment processor with your existing payment systems and e commerce platforms, just as we talked about with digital wallets to ensure a seamless transaction again, you can use APIs as part of that process.

There are several solutions. It's also very important. Not that it's not important with digital wallets, but it is more important with cryptocurrencies that you've trained your staff to handle cryptocurrency transactions so that they know what the terminology is, what's the vernacular, what questions might people be asking because less people are going to be familiar with it.

So there will be more questions. And finally, with your customers, um, As you communicate with your customers about new payment options and its benefits through newsletters, social media, you're also going to want to include FAQs, how to guides, customer support, more so in cryptocurrencies, have those ready ahead of time than digital wallet.

There's just less known about it. So you're, you want to instill that confidence and you're going to get the questions. Anyway, raise employee morale and customer morale by having them all ready when you launch. Now let's tackle Web 3. We got our last big topic. While digital wallets can function with Web 2, I'm not going to say that they don't, Web 3 has become a catch all term for the vision of a new, better internet.

At its core, Web 3 uses, Web 3 uses blockchains. Cryptocurrencies and NFTs to give power back to the users in the form of ownership. So there was a, now it's spread widely, but I think the very 1st instance of it, there was a post on Twitter in 2020 that gets often quoted that said best way to describe web version 1 was read only web 2 is read and write and web 3 is read, write and own.

And so in a second, I'll give you an example of what that ownership feels like if you're a customer. Web3 offers numerous improvements besides the to enhance functionality, security, user control, cost reductions. So, how is it transforming this space? So I'm going to walk through and for each benefit on the slide that we get to, I'll share both a customer and a company perspective.

So the first one is decentralized control. Web 3 gives customers and users ownership of digital assets in an unprecedented way. So here's an example, either yourself or maybe your kids or grandkids. Say 2 game. And I don't know if they've ever asked you. I get asked repeatedly. Can I have some money to buy some in game something or other, depending on whatever it is.

It's more ammunition or maybe it's food to feed the cows, depending on what the game is. If you purchase an in game item, and it's tied directly to your account. If the game, and this isn't web 2, if the game creators delete your account, or you, um, they, or you stop playing the game, you lose all that value that you've spent.

It is not yours. It is stays in the game. It stays with the company. Web 3 allows for direct ownership through the NFTs, those non fungible tokens. Not no one, not even the game's creators has the power to take away your ownership. For your ownership, when you own them, they are yours. They're in your, let's call it a wallet.

And if you stop playing, you can sell or trade your in game items on the open market and recoup their value. That's what we're getting to. That is what you're going to see. And that will quickly be cut. Um, Customers are going to demand that I want to own. I want to own the things that I buy in a game. I want to own the rewards that I earn.

I don't want to lose my air miles. They are my own. I don't want you to tell me who I can sell them to or give them to. I met the criteria to earn them. And the way you're going to do that is through Web 3 and a lot of the technology behind that. It's going to quickly be a lot of demand for that. It also, it's not just a downside for companies.

It creates a revenue channel because for every transaction that you allow in that marketplace, there is the potential for a back end sliver that goes to the original company who. Gave those awards or rewards that were purchased the transaction fees. They're minuscule. So the consumer doesn't notice, but a small number of a big number of customers is still a big number and a new revenue stream.

So it really is win win for all. So on the business side, what does a decentralized technologies look like? So Pratt and Whitney or not Pratt and Whitney, my aerospace backgrounds coming out, so PricewaterhouseCooper found that businesses adopting decentralized technologies can reduce their cybersecurity costs by up to 30%.

Okay. The second one, enhanced security in web two, a transaction, whether it's an exchange of money or information relies on two parties, trusting each other with the information that's being shared. Okay. By contrast, Web3 doesn't ask users to trust one another. Instead, the technology is designed so that a transaction only goes through if certain criteria are met and data is verified.

Data is plural, are verified. Imagine that someone is, look, here's an example. And this actually happened when I took my girls to Taylor Swift last year, um, in Arizona, her second night. We had friends that were there that when they showed up their family to use their tickets, they were fake. So what happens there is I, they trusted the person selling the real ticket.

They assumed it was a real ticket. They sent the person the money and the person kept it. If you have web three and you can, there are now ticket services that people are seeking out that do the transactions in web three enabled blockchain based ticket exchange services. On these sites, every ticket is assigned a unique immutable, there's our word again, and verifiable identity that is tied to a real person.

Before I purchase my tickets, the majority of those nodes on the, on the blockchain, on the network, validate the seller's credentials, ensuring the ticket is in fact real. I buy my tickets and then I enjoy the concert. It has a real quantifiable benefit. So you're, this is another reason you're going to see a lot of.

Demand and have a skyrocket quickly. You want to be on the front side of this Web 2 wallets, as we've talked about, can also be vulnerable, vulnerable to hacks and data breaches. Um, Web 3 leverages watching, we talked about that secure transaction, the immutable ledgers, the notion of security and data privacy is already hard baked into the architecture.

So, on the business side. Blockchain or data breaches. According to IBM, the average cost of one single database breach, and this is across the board. So forget the even huge ones is 3. 86 million. If you're in marketing or CTO at your company and they're resisting looking and exploring at the options for, uh, blockchain and web three and better security, you can buy a lot for 3.

86 million with just one data breach. We also have interoperability. So what is that? We hear that a lot, too, as well as immutability or immutable and interoperability is the property that allows for the unrestricted sharing of resources between different systems. So, in web 2, multiple, you'll have multiple wallets from different platforms, and it's fragmented.

So, for example, if I have a, an account on Twitter, or if I have an account on YouTube and my gym, I have a log in my. Okay. Uh, United Healthcare chart has a different log in. My Reddit account has a different log in. If I want to change or display my name or profile, I have to do each and every one of them separately.

You can use some social sign ins, but that also can present a problem. In a single click, these platforms can lock you out of your entire online life. Even worse, many platforms require you to trust them with your personally identifiable information to create an account. What's your mother's maiden name?

Web3 solves these problems by allowing users to control their digital identity. Again, from a company perspective, A study by Accenture shows that companies can save up to 20 percent in operational costs by adopting interoperable, interoperable solutions. Thank goodness that I don't think I use that word again.

All right, programmable money and smart contracts. We won't spend much time on smart contracts, but there is don't forget the free resource that everyone who attended today will get a short little article that goes into more detail about smart contracts, benefits for customers as well as benefits for companies.

Web3 introduces smart contracts, which are self executing contracts with terms directly written in the code. These contracts enable complex programmable transactions that you can automate processes such as payments, escrow, um, DeFi, which is decentralized finance, um, and I'll cover that in the next bullet.

In a nutshell, smart contracts are software programs that are automatically executed when specific conditions are met. Like terms agreed on by a buyer and a seller Gartner predicts here. So here's the business side. But by 2025 smart contracts will reduce the cost of transaction processing for businesses by 30%.

2025 is next year. So, it's just around the corner. Okay, last but not least, DeFi decentralized finance is a type of financial system that runs independently of a central authority, such as a bank. This, this started a lot of the adoption were those that were unbanked. It enables users to conduct financial transactions directly with one another.

These peer to peer transactions like lending and loans are governed by smart contracts. Web 3 is the underlying infrastructure that enables DeFi to exist. The main difference between Web 3 and DeFi is that DeFi is built on top of existing smart contracts. such as Ethereum, while Web3 is built on the internet itself.

Last stat from a business point, the DeFi market grew from 1 billion to over 100 billion in total value from 2020 to 2022, which showcases the rapid adoption and potential for business. 100 billion. Okay, so the transition to Web3 not only improves functionality, we talked about that, but also delivers higher growth and better ROI.

Web 2 has an 15 percent annual growth rate and digital wallet usage. That's great. More people are using digital wallets. But if you go to Web 3 and all the benefits of it, you get a 25 percent annual growth rate. So there's faster adoption. Digital wallets in Web 2 see a 10 percent ROI compared to 20 percent ROI in Web 3.

Cryptocurrency is used 40 percent in Web 2, but it soars to 70 percent in Web 3. So this increased utilization reflects the growing trust and acceptance in the market. Now, I want to let more formally introduced tronic. Um, now that you know what and why we are, I want, uh, is there someone who can help you with this?

Whoops. I got a text. John is in and live. Yay. It's just about his, for me, a chance to move it over to him. The answer is yes, we can help. So at this point, you might be wondering, um, for Web3, uh, some of the things, how can we help? Where can Tronic come in? Because you've told me a lot of things. I'm assuming Tronic can help.

And the answer is we absolutely can. We specialize in helping businesses like yours leverage the power of Web3 technology and digital wallets. And a great place to start because many companies are trepidatious about, okay, I can't, I can't change everything all at once. They'll start in their loyalty programs because we also saw that was the number two driver of why, what people want in their digital wallets.

They want loyalty programs and rewards. They want brand engagement. They want brand partnerships all in one place. We can help with overlaying existing loyalty programs. We have, uh, an example would be a retail chain trend center. That, uh, decides to partner with Tronic to integrate Web3 solutions and they, uh, start by overlaying their existing loyalty programs and brand journeys.

We also have, we can help creating custom Web3 solutions. We can develop unique brand smart wallets. We can, uh, also help in the first phase of developing your brand smart wallet, but providing you with built in journeys that activate your online Uh, presence and drive guests. An example would be elite stays as an example of a hotel chain that create a unique smart brand wallet that helps integrate their loyalty program, allowing guests to earn and redeem points seamlessly across all their properties.

I'm sorry if I'm speeding up, it's because we started 15 minutes late and I don't want to keep you too long. The wallet also provides personalized offers based on guest preferences. You can also grow your audience engagement by expanding your brand network and incorporating and that's by putting more right now a digital wallet and almost 100 percent of the cases only talks about your own company.

It doesn't talk about all your other brand partners you either already have in your marketing portfolio that you co brand with or that you could attract by giving them access and partnering with them in your digital wallet. We can help you with that. So if you were Sarah, here's an example. She's a frequent traveler.

She's at elite stays. She likes it because she can manage her loyalty points. She can book rooms and she gets access to exclusive offers and it's all streamlined. And then last but significantly not least, you can also, because all of that information, not only what's coming through your digital wallet, but Your partners, if you're all combined into a brand network, you can be more custom and tailored.

Hyper personalized is the term, um, through, uh, your interactive journeys, delivering them what they want, when they want as part of that loyalty and rewards program. Okay. We got one, another pool for you. Now it's your turn, a quick vote. What excited you most about web three? So this is, again, you've got A, B, C, and D as your answers, and you can put decentralization is A, enhanced security is B.

New revenue streams is C and customer engagement is D.

What excited you the most? I got one vote. Decentralization. Nice. Customer engagement.

Anybody else? Oh, we got another one. Enhanced security.

All right. Customer engage. Oh, revenue streams caught up there for a second. We still got customer engagement as winning. Those are all great choices and all can be realized with Web 3. Okay, so I know that some of you may have concerns about moving to Web 3. We can address that. As I mentioned before. Um, 1, you can even just reach out to tronic.

We can help you by answering a lot of questions, but we can also help you, um, by the making it more user friendly and at tronic. We provide comprehensive support. We know security is a concern. We can with web. 3 is enhanced security and tronics robust. Protocols. We can help you allay some of those concerns as well as integrating Web 2 with existing Web or Web 3 with existing Web 2 systems.

Okay, so before we go on, it's my chance to take a break. So you could get to hear from someone else. I am going to stop sharing my screen and switch to actually, I think now you can see, um, uh, Socorro Tequila. Can you John? Are you on? And can you see? I am. I could see it. Perfect. All right. I am logged in.

Oops. All right. All right. So she pulls that up. First, I want to start off by thanking everyone for joining the webinar today and apologize for the technical glitches we had at the beginning of the call. I want to thank our fabulous Chief Marketing Officer, Christine Guthrie, for leading our call today.

And as she mentioned at the beginning of the call, my name is John Bollinger. I'm the Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Sales here at Tronic. And let me tell you a little bit about Tronic before I walk you through this demo. And most of this. Chris didn't kind of touch upon, but Tronic has revolutionized how brands engage with each other and their customers.

We have built a SAS brand engagement platform with the security and MightyMida blockchain and web3, which she had shared. Um, we, as we think about our portfolio, we're igniting our brand community, empowering brands and organizations, and give them the power of ultra secure digital wallet journeys and rewards.

In essence, we have supercharged, gamified, and built a customer custom loyalty program. We have gamified the approach to consumer engagement and built journeys, but brands front and center of. Uh, front and center and motivated them through tokens and awards. I'll share that with you through this demo here.

Our platform tracks everything in real time to uncover insights about our customers behavior. And they can also partner with brands to create new audiences and create exclusive offerings for your customers. And it all happens. On our secure platform to put your brand front and center mind, um, around loyalty.

So I know we're coming up right on time. So let me try to walk through this pretty quickly. So this is an example of a brand network, right? So this is for Sakura Tequila, what it looks like. And within here, we've created and built Journey. So I'm just going to ask Carissa to kind of share two journeys.

Let's start with. Um, so this is where a brand partners with a different, with another brand and create Um, to create an experience and an event. So once you click Sarah, kind of starts the journey. And with this journey, it is, I want to go to a restaurant and have a circle, go to Margarita. So this shows that it's geo based.

So it shows, yes, I was at that location. Yes, I checked in. So our, our platform shows, um, consumer that may be checking in. So it could be at a restaurant. It could be at an event. Okay. And by doing so, they get rewarded for, for taking that, that, that journey. As you see here, when she clicks it, um, you get points.

So it sits in their digital wallet and we'll walk through that here in a second. And then I want to share my experience. So what a platform also do is if I want to share my experience on Instagram, right? So now a client. Customer can then take an event or journey and then when they click to start it, I can share my experience across either Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, et cetera.

So it connects with kind of all their social platforms they have. So this shows an example of what that looks like, then it takes you back to the, back to the journey and then by completing that task. As a consumer, I get another reward and I'll show you what the awards look. And then now I want to go and I want to order the Socorro Margarita.

So it shows here, I can enter, uh, as a checkpoint. So just put what the receipt is. And again, um, by doing so I receive another token or award and these tokens awards are customizable. They could be whatever we decide, whatever you want to design, how you want to design them. And by doing so you claim another reward.

Um, you get another, so this one is a Sakura unlimited hat. So now I get a gift and I've completed the. It's a good return of the journey and then you complete the journey. And then you'll see here, uh, the tokens awards that I've received, which sit in my wallet. So I got my rewards and I have my tokens. So again, these are customized tokens based on individual brands.

And, uh, awards that they, the consumer, right, whether it could be monetary or just, um, um, events or, you know, what you, however you want to award it to, it could be cash, it could be prizes, it could be points, it could be, et cetera. And let me show one more journey, Kristen, and then I'll turn it back to you to kind of close this out.

The other one I want to show you is. The mixology master.

And this again is a fun one. So this shows a journey and this is really engaging with the, the, the specific brand. So when you click there, now, if I bought Socorro tequila and I want to make a drink at home, this shows you what type of, um, signature cocktails at Socorro. So it takes you, um, out to their page where it has, here's my favorite recipes and I'll show the recipes that you can make with that specific.

Uh, with their tequila and then again, by doing so I get rewarded. Now the next one's a fun journey. So this is, I want to submit a recipe. So I've come up with a great recipe in terms of a great tequila drink. I can now submit what that recipe is. So to call it, so call it with tequila can now capture that data and see how many of their consumers are submitting recipes and maybe they can then post those recipes on their website, post them on their social media accounts, et cetera.

Am I doing so? I get a, again, I claim another reward. Um, and then here I get, um, another, I claim another award and, or I get savings by purchasing, um, the, their tequila brand and then you complete the journey. So claim the award, one more. And then I have completed the, the journey. I'm going to kind of walk with you this quick to be mindful of everybody's time.

And then now when I go to my digital wallet, I can see my reward. So click rewards, um, Kristen, please. So now you could see here. What rewards I've received. Um, so I get 20 percent off a restaurant. I get a free appetizer. I, I get savings at the store and then when hit tokens, I can see the tokens I have earned through the journeys that I've taken.

So super engaging, super fun, super interactive and a way to create loyalty with brands, brand engagement, as well as partnering across multiple brands. So with that, Chris, let me turn it back over to you. Okay, let me switch it back.

All right. Thank you. John. That was a fantastic overview. Whoops go down Um, we have our last chance for you to interact and again, thank you, John that was great and a great overview of the tronic solution and just one of the Infantestimal ways we can help save your last chance to vote. I would really love to know so please if you haven't voted before vote now How likely is your company to adopt Web3 technology in the next year?

A. Already using it. B. Highly likely. C. Considering it. Or D. Not at all. I'm curious as a group.

Oh, we have a vote. Oh, already using it. Nice.

We got a lot already using it. That's great. Highly likely considering it. We got a tie there. Nice job. And surprisingly, no one said not likely at all. These are anonymous, so don't be shy. You can vote, and it won't, there's no harm or foul. Alright, so, I wanted to show you, um, as we walk through, I'm going to show you, this is John.

You just saw him, but I want to give you his information. So that you can reach out to him, because as digital wallets and cryptocurrencies become more popular, you Businesses must invest to stay competitive. So instead of sticking with outdated Web 2 technologies, move directly to Web 3 if you can. This tech offers exactly what customers want and need, even if they never realized it before.

But if you aren't quite ready for that leap, we can still help you level up your Web 2 digital wallets or even create a new rewards program or brand engagement network. We're here to help you make that transition smoothly. We offer the expertise and support you need to succeed in this digital world.

Today, we also have Jeremy Moore on the call, and we have, um, a couple other individuals. Matt is on the call. They're both ready. If anyone has, um, I can switch back. If anyone has a technical question they'd like to ask, we do have time for that. Does anyone have a question?

Anyone want to raise their hand or type it in? They're happy to jump in. You can also always email me or John. We've got his email here. John B at tronic dot app, and we can get you answers later as well. You can call John. Here's his number 469 551 6798. Or if you want, take a picture of the QR code and just grab anytime you want on his calendar.

And I'm still looking to see, I want to make sure any questions coming in.

I don't see any others. Okay, great job, Kristen. Thank you. So our last but not least. I do want to at least say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, once again for joining us if you're interested in seeing a full demo. Reach out to john. It was john. b at tronic. app. Um, We're happy to schedule a personalized session with you.

I am going to put in the chat a For those who can see it, let me copy this really quick and put it in the chat Here's we will email you later today the as I mentioned a link to the Article for smart contracts, but i'm also going to put the bitly link here So if you want to grab it here, I just put it in there.

Bitly slash smart contracts guides. If you want to copy that in the chat, we're going to email that and a recording of the webinar. Thank you so much for joining us. And I apologize again for our, uh, hiccup in the beginning. Thanks, John. Bye everyone.

Oh, Eric Kraft had a question. Eric, we'll get back to you. I'll have Jeremy reach out to you.

Bye everyone.