Whitepaper Contactless Crypto payments for festivals, bars, restaurants 

and retailers using blockchain technology.     

 

 Leave Your Wallet at Home 

 

 

 Table of Contents  About Us  Introduction: Market research, survey, problem use cases  Existing Solutions & Problems: Visa contactless, financial exclusion, unbanked merchants post-2008, Ireland having the highest deficit in EU, mistrust of banking industry  Vision of Festy: Contactless Payments Slice Technology Ticket Verification Identity Loyalty Programme  How it works: Use Case 1 - Proof of Concept launch  Use Case 2 - Festival launch @ Electric Picnic Use Case 3 - Retail launch Go Global  Products: NFC wristbands Contactless Crypto Card Product Launch 4th October  Business Plan: Branding Marketing Cash-Flow  Roadmap: One - Five years roadmap  Festy in the Media  Follow Us   

 

 

About Opera Incubator   Festy is a cryptocurrency based payments technology developed by Opera Incubator, Europe’s largest blockchain incubator helping start-up companies go global and building blockchain solutions. The team is headquartered in 32 Opera Lane, Cork City, Ireland and the development lab is based in École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. The talent pool of developers working on Opera projects is high, among whom have experience working in Amazon, Stripe and Google. Education is at the core of Opera, leading to rapid expansion as a result of training programmes for developers and entrepreneurs to potentially join the team and bring their ideas to the table. We are currently partnering with the European Parliament on voting and democracy on the blockchain. Other commercial ventures include Bitcart, a gift card exchange platform that allows users to get a 15% discount by using cryptocurrency.   You can join our incubator on operaincubator.slack.com 

 

               

 

 

Introduction 

 Festy is a contactless payment and verification system that unites NFC and blockchain technology to benefit event organisers, merchants and their attendees. The steady rise of music and culinary festivals taking place has presented undesirable cash flow and security implications. Festy can be the rescue remedy to these drawbacks. This solution is made possible by the ever growing use of smart devices and the advent of cryptocurrency.   Smart device ownership has expanded to 4.5 billion users world wide and is forecasted to grow even higher in the near future. This trend has brought a significant level of technological convenience that vendors are integrating into their transaction process. Companies such as Samsung and Apple have introduced payment methods onto phones and wearables for consumers while vendors are utilising tablets etc as point of sale systems.   The most well known cryptocurrency is Bitcoin as it is marked at the highest value and has appeared in mainstream media on multiple occasions. However, due to technical aspects such as network scalability and transaction time, spending Bitcoin is not suitable for quick everyday purchases. Transaction fees for using Bitcoin have also known to be higher than bank charges on occasion.   Our partners at Dash (Digital Cash) provide the perfect payment solution for everyday transactions. Dash boasts a market capitalisation of over $1 billion and has the ability to rival VISA in processing tens of thousands of transactions per second. Implementing the “Instatsend” feature we will believe that this the payment processor of the future.     

 

 

  Merchants accepting Dash payments will prevent chargebacks and there are potentially enormous savings to be made compared on the crippling fees from existing payment solutions. Users top-up their Festy “wallet” with cash using our branded ATMs or perform a bank transfer online. Consumers and merchants can withdraw to cash using a Festy ATM at any time.   In Ireland alone, with a population of 4.4 million, there are upwards of three million VISA contactless payments per week. As an incentive to increase consumer adoption, there is no fee for the launch of VISA contactless payments until the end of 2017. There are currently 20,000 merchants accepting contactless payments in Ireland. The convenience has shown increases in spending by 10-15%. This presents a valuable use case example that novel technology can quickly become adopted by the mainstream and be free for the consumer. Blockchain brings this innovation to the fore in terms of technology, privacy and security.  

 Festy delivers Crypto Contactless.  

 Unlike Visa or other financial companies, Festy does not store the consumer’s data. People own their own data with Festy. In the current social, political and economic climate this is a huge selling point as this protects the consumer against surgical taxation (legislation that is soon to be introduced that will impose a tax upon the public for poor lifestyle choices which create future problems in the healthcare system) and other privacy infringements.  You can keep up-to-date with all progress on the project with our roadmap on Trello . 

 

 

 

Problem Use Case  Significant cashflow issues can be found at music festivals, culinary festivals, and theme parks worldwide. Under the existing cash based paradigm, ATMs are serviced by middlemen at these events to provide a supply of money to attendees. This medial service is outrageously expensive and incredibly inefficient. One direct effect is that the festival attendees were found to queue for up to 2-and-a-half hours to use the event hosted ATMs. While working at mainstream festivals across Ireland and the UK in 2016, it was seen that consumers paid approximately €3 per single ATM withdrawal. This prevents a steady cash flow which reduces sales volume for merchants and has a negative impact on the reputation of festivals.   Loss and theft of wallets, purses and other personal belongings is a common thread at festivals due to lack of secure storage facilities. Festy’s utilisation of NFC bracelets and cards offers a more secure substitute for carrying cash. Festy stores cash on a wristband which is firmly clamped shut. This method ensures it stays securely in a consumers possession at all times. In the event of loss or theft of a Festy bracelet, consumers will be able to lock their digital wallet via their online account or mobile application.  

Leave your Wallet at Home  Festy’s multi-functional wristband is compatible with every Point-of-Sale system where Visa contactless is accepted, as well as on any mobile phone or computer and offline payments. Festy integrates with the merchant’s existing POS system centrally and through an app. Offline payments are available to ensure seamless payments for big crowds. This versatility is adaptable to any environment including fields, beaches, camping sites as well as bars, restaurants and conferences.  We are launching in festivals in Ireland and expanding across Europe, Asia and the American continents by the end of year one. Festy is affordable, scalable, secure and is morally sound in that supporting this currency will not lead to war and other horrid events afflicting the world right now - unlike the dollar and the euro.     

 

 

 

Vision of Festy  Festy is the emancipation from centralised banking for merchants and citizens all over the world. The benefits to society with mainstream adoption of decentralised finance are enormous. Taking control away from banks and putting it into the hands of the consumer promotes financial freedom and the principle of self-determination. These rights empower citizens to recreate a system absent of centralised greed, banker bonuses and human manipulation. By putting trust in pre-determined code and cryptography, financial systems can benefit from transparency and better accountability.   Users own their data and distribute it as they see fit. This allows people remain private as well as have the option to sell their metadata to bidders. 

 Functions of Festy Festy is versatile and supports many uses for consumers, organisers and merchants.  

 Contactless Crypto: Contactless Crypto allows people to make instant and trustless cryptographic payments at participating. Festy accepts Dash and other cryptocurrencies. 

 Slice: Slice allows customers to automatically split group bills using smart contracts. One user pays and is equally reimbursed by others in the group. This can be applied to rent, restaurant bills, and can be itemised manually.  

 Ticket verification: Festival organisers can eliminate fraud and verify tickets with Festy. Simply tap the wristband and verify tickets at the door. 

 Identity : Festy users can leave their ID at home and upload driver licence or passport for age compliancy at events, and store emergency information for medics at festivals. Encrypt emergency contact information for medics when attending festivals. 

 Loyalty Programme: Merchants and festivals can add their own tokens and coins to the network for their own branding and loyalty programme. Customers can track their purchases and earn free bonuses 

 

 

at participating merchants. This replaces loyalty cards and stamps that can be easily lost. Using blockchain to record loyalty guarantees against fraud. 

                                

 

 

How it works  Festy combines Near Field Communication (NFC) and blockchain technology to create a decentralised trustless payment processor system. 

 Use Case 1 - Proof of Concept Rooftop launch  

  On the 14th of July, set in a rooftop penthouse in the Georgian quarters of Cork City, Ireland, the Festy proof of concept was tested on a small crowd of 50 people including local merchants, the Cork Chamber of Commerce, developers and regular consumers. As guests arrived, they were given a Festy wristband and topped up with random amounts to be spent throughout the night. There were two apps developed and a cryptocurrency on our own blockchain.   The first app is called Festy ATM. This allows a wristband issuer to top-up users as they pay upon arriving at the party or in advance. In this case we distributed the tokens free of charge. The second app is Festy POS, which allows merchants to receive payments when customers tap their POS terminal.   

  Sponsored by Rising Sons Brewery, the party hosted a bar with three units: beer, wine and champagne. Guests would make their order with the bartender and one of the Festy developers demonstrated the app by selecting the unit and allowing guests to pay using their wristband.  

 A chef served meat and vegetables from the barbeque which were units for our guests to tap. During the evening a local band performed for the party and guests could tap their wristband to tip the band.  

 

 

 

   For convenience during the proof of concept, and given the fact the tokens were free, the merchant POS app displayed both the amount, and the remaining balance of the customer. A future app will instead only display the price of the bill in local currency and choice of cryptocurrency.  We created our own private blockchain for the app. The blockchain we used for the proof of concept was created using Tendermint and is compatible with all other blockchains. For example we are currently integrating Dash payments into the app. 

            

              

 

 

Use Case 2 - Festival launch  

  From the 1st - 3rd of September, Festy was afforded the opportunity to meet a second use case, that of the music festival. At Electric Picnic 2017, Festy worked with the non profit organization, ‘Help Not Harm’, and the food company, ‘O’Flynn’s Gourmet Sausage Company’.   

  

With ‘Help not Harm ’, supplying 35 volunteer workers as our base of consumers and ‘O’flynn’s Gourmet Sausage Company ’, offering their service to supply the food and work with the festy POS system, the second use case could be explored.  

 Before the festival, one of our software engineers used an app similar to the Festy ATM app to simply add 72 basecoin to each of the 35 volunteers’ Festy payment wristbands. This addition of value to each band created a link on the blockchain for each of the volunteers and in turn associated an ID with each band. This ID was used by the customers to scan the wristbands using NFC and check their balance via our website www.festy.ie (as seen below) 

  

 

 

 

   

Moving forward, this portal will be available for those that wish to use the system but do not wish to download the app. Perhaps, as was the case with the festival, there is poor signal and downloading a full application could be too much unless done in advance. For the future, however, the festy customer will be able to download a personal application with an incredibly rich array of functionality. 

  (Pictured: Festy POS app as used at EP 2017) 

 

 

 

To accept payments, a member of the Festy team was on hand at the festival and was posted to O’Flynn’s food stall to accept payments using the newly designed POS system. This POS system was application specific, unlike the final festy POS system. It was limited to three items, as above. Having a member of staff on site was not necessary, however, it provided invaluable insight to the R&D team regarding actual everyday use of the system at festivals. 

 On Monday the 5th of September, after the festival, we pulled all of the gathered data from the blockchain and compiled it with some statistics to be given to the vendor. As with each of our use case tests, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. There were also many use cases, benefits and improvements suggested by staff from all avenues such as volunteers, vendors, festival security and festival management.   After Electric, Festy’s development team has decided on a few features and products that must be included in the final roll out of the product.  

 

  Festy Personal App: An application for both android and IOS that allows the customer a rich palette of functionality including; being able to top their account up mobily, allowing others to remotely top up their account, balance checking etc.  Security Features: the festy wearable band would also come with a security related application such that the user will scan to enter a festival and then scan to exit the festival. This will prevent reuse of the wrist band by users that simply enter the festival and send the band to a friend waiting outside. It means for each user, there is only one entrance to the festival permitted. To boot, if the band is cut it should be rendered useless to further prevent fraudulent behavior  Check in points: If a user is lost the user should be able to scan their band to send their location to other users. This would be especially helpful for users that have a language barrier or for 

 

 

security, management and logistic teams to ensure the person they want at a given post is there at a given time.  For the Merchant: A mounted station at which a user can approach, order, touch and pay. This would speed up the process for the merchant, avoid the hygiene issues of money handling, provide end of day reports as to what products were most popular/ in short supply/ in need of promotion.  Each of the above functionalities will be reviewed and implemented over the coming months with the R&D team at festy.  

 Use Case 3 - Retail launch  Festy is in the beginning stages of being accepted in retail environments across Ireland. This involves integrating the Festy POS system seamlessly with pre-existing systems found in bars, restaurants and cafes. There has already been contractual relationships established with 13 bars and several food stores / cafes. 

 Going Global Since launching, we already have agreements made with Porcfest in the United States for June 2018 and a festival in Germany. By 2018 Festy will span across USA, West Europe, East Europe (Russia) and Asia. 

   

         

 

 

Products  

  

(Pictured: Festy NFC Bracelet and Card) 

 We have launched our Festy wristband and festival NFC tag as a proof of concept. The wristband allows festivals and event organisers to brand their event or use their own fabric and the Festy tag to allow payments. Organisers can issue their own branded coin which can be used inside and outside the festival anywhere Festy is accepted. Events can decide whether to analyse metadata or share it with third parties and users must consent to the terms of each event. Age verification and other compliance tools can be integrated for event organisers.   Our next product is a contactless crypto card to replace existing debit and credit cards. Cryptocurrencies are loaded on the card and spent at retail outlets, metro, buses, ATMs. The fee will cut that of current transaction fees by conventional payment processors by 50%.     We are integrating the tag with wearables and fashion design items. Our next product will launch on stage at Payexpo Europe in London on 4 - 6th of October 2017 directly after VISA present their contactless ring which is yet to go to market.  

 

 

We believe there is a rush for first to market contactless crypto. With our capabilities in fintech and blockchain technology, we believe our products are superior to what the existing financial industry has to offer.  

                         

    

 

 

Branding  

 Festy has orientated itself around its core values of versatility, transparency and festivity. It was through the significant consideration of the target markets and contexts that the visual aspect of Festy was created. 

 Festy Logo  Although the brand name of Festy is strong enough to succeed without the use of an additional symbol, the context consideration of the Festy hardware and the other promotional mediums prompted the need for a distinctive brand indicator.  

 The Fest logo is made to reflect three aspects of the company.  

● The Festy name. ● Twisted Ribbon to symbolise festival bracelets. ● Sound / frequency waves to symbolise music 

and contactless functionality. 

 The Festy typeface  The typeface used for Festy is called Rajdhani. This is an open source typeface supplied by google fonts. Rajdhani was chosen for following reasons.   Rajdhani has resemblance to typefaces used on traditional payment cards such as Kredit , Amex Emboss and Credit card but sports a more modern appearance.  Rajdhani is a web-based typeface that is optimised for use and viewing on screen but still 

possesses versatile printing capabilities .  The Festy colours  

 

 

The colours used by Festy are Pantone process Green and Pantone process Blue. These colours are simple and of international standard which enables Festy to achieve precise brand colouring when printing in every continent.  

 Pantone process Green and Blue were chosen to portray the festive nature of where Festy will be found and the security of a trusted payment system. The colours also symbolize what any festival attendee would hope for which is blue skies and green grass.  

Tone of voice  Festy’s tone of voice when speaking to customers is friendly, simple and concise. This was chosen to make the complex nature of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies approachable to the mass market and to also convey trust that a person needs to use a new payment method.   

Use of Imagery  The nature of imagery that Festy uses is that of people enjoying themselves at any of the venues / contexts that Festy will operate. Focus will be put on the sporting of Festy bracelets and the use of brand indicators such as typeface, logo and colours.   

 Roadmap  You can keep up-to-date with all progress on the project with our roadmap on Trello .  Our team will participate at the Dash conference in The Oval, London on the 24th of September. You can find more details at dash.keynote.ae  Our next product launch will be at Payexpo Europe 2017 in London on the 4th - 6th of October.  We are community sponsors to Devcon 3 in Cancún, Mexico happening on 1st - 5th of November.  

     

 

 

Festy in the Media   Dash Force News Interview https://youtu.be/Y8lZJDaUakk?t=8m13s  Bizplus.ie http://bizplus.ie/irish-cryptocurrency-wearable-readies-launch/  Finance Magnates You can now pay with Dash at festivals and bars with just as a swipe https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/innovation/can-now-pay-dash-festivals-bars-just-swipe/  Bankless Times Festy wristband lets users pay with Dash http://www.banklesstimes.com/2017/07/13/festy-wristband-lets-users-pay-with-dash/  Payment Week Irish Tech Startup Introduces First Ever Wearable Dash Payment Wristband https://paymentweek.com/2017-7-13-irish-tech-startup-introduces-first-ever-wearable-dash-payment-wristband/  CryptoNinjas Irish startup introduces first ever wearable Dash payment wristband https://www.cryptoninjas.net/2017/07/13/irish-startup-introduces-first-ever-wearable-dash-payment-wristband/  Dash Force News BitCart Announces Wearable Dash Wallet For Offline Payments At Festivals https://www.dashforcenews.com/bitcart-announces-wearable-dash-wallet-offline-payments-festivals/   German media: https://www.btc-echo.de/dash-armband-das-gadget-fuer-festivals-und-mehr  Turkish media: https://koinbulteni.com/festy-sayesinde-festivallerde-dash-ile-odeme-yapilabilecek-1093.html  

 

 

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