Sweden might be cashless in three years’ time. That would mean the disappearance of the only means of payment that always works and never jeopardizes personal integrity. Although offering the unique features of cash in digital form is urgent, the process of finding an alternative is currently too slow. Besides, the technology used is inefficient and unnecessary. Now, Crunchfish is taking on a leadership role and showing how it’s done.

Even today, many businesses are opting out of cash. The digital cash equivalent will be welcome in commerce, since it’s far more secure, efficient and cheaper than how we currently handle cash.

The move towards a cashless society must have its benefits, but in the near future Sweden will be missing the only means of payment that always works. Downtime and long Internet disruptions could paralyze the country. The National Bank’s e-crown experiment has been debated in three webinars moderated by Crunchfish. Sadly, the process is a slow one, involving unnecessary blockchain technology that does not even address the core problem. For Sweden this is serious, as we’re poised to become the world’s first cashless society. 

But the National Bank is not alone in being on the wrong track. The entire world’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) industry is at a dead end in its quest to digitize cash as a new money format, rather than offering the properties of cash digitally. It is not the banknote that should be digitized, but the money order. Both represent a value, but the money order also defines the payer and the payee. This simple yet fundamental change makes everything fall into place, and the old standard account-based way works just fine. The only thing required to offer the features of cash digitally is Crunchfish’s Digital Cash.

Crunchfish recently made a submission, in collaboration with Swish to the Swedish Post and Telecoms Agency’s innovation competition, implementing the unique features of cash to account based transactions. If Swish’s member banks choose to implement Digital Cash, Sweden will be offered digital cash guaranteed by the banking system, instead of the National Bank.

Two minute interview with Crunchfish CEO Joachim Samuelsson: Why Digital Cash?

Long interview with Crunchfish CEO Joachim Samuelsson on Digital Cash

Crunchfish’s Digital Cash offers a digital wallet to all the world’s payment services, whether on mobile or on a cash card, usable even without an Internet connection. The digital wallet manages a balance that is linked to a virtual account where all transactions are registered when the user is online. The virtual account balance is blocked to guarantee coverage when offline payments are settled online against this account.

Crunchfish Digital Cash works with all payment schemes and is based on a patent-pending two-step settlement, first offline at the moment of payment, and then online when the cash is moved between the accounts. VISA recently proposed this architecture, as CBDC and Crunchfish are VISA’s technology partners. The most exciting part of this two-step architecture is its ability to offer globally interoperable payment services. Even in the future, cash is king.

About Crunchfish – crunchfish.com/digitalcash
Crunchfish is a tech company with a patent-pending solution for digital offline payments that can be integrated both with the payment rail or in a mobile wallet. The offline solution is globally scalable and makes digital payments more robust as the risks of disruptions and downtime are eliminated. Crunchfish has been listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market since 2016 with headquarters in Malmö, Sweden and with representation in India.

Wet market in Malmö. Crunchfish’s digital cash offers mobile wallets and payment rails the same simplicity, robustness and personal privacy as physical cash. Cash is the best means of payment. It always works, it’s easy to handle and it safeguards personal privacy. These features need to be preserved when cash goes digital. The transformation will […]

Wet market in Malmö. Crunchfish’s digital cash offers mobile wallets and payment rails the same simplicity, robustness and personal privacy as physical cash.

Cash is the best means of payment. It always works, it’s easy to handle and it safeguards personal privacy. These features need to be preserved when cash goes digital. The transformation will be rapid as digital cash will be present in all mobile wallets in the future.

Digital payments are available in many forms. Card payments compete with mobile wallets where money is transferred instantly between accounts. In parallel, central banks across the globe are investigating how their national currency will be digitized. What these payment methods have in common is that they are all dependent on a network connectivity to work.

– In order for transactions to work flexibly, securely and immediately, you have to drop the connectivity requirement and instead replicate the features of physical cash. To emulate physical cash, radical thinking and new technology is needed. Crunchfish has the solution for digital cash and offers it to mobile wallets as well as the payment rails, says Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish.

Integration directly with the payment rails
Crunchfish’s digital cash can be integrated with mobile wallets or directly with the digital payment rails. This creates enormous scalability since digital cash will be enabled in all mobile wallets using the payment rail. For the card infrastructure, Crunchfish’s digital cash brings another great advantage, as the merchant doesn’t need to have a card terminal to accept payments. Instead, the integration is done by Crunchfish’s offline payment solution. A similar integration is also possible for the central bank’s rails for digital currency, in order for it to be used offline or when any of the necessary cloud services are down.

– As for security, we use the same tried and tested technology as in tokenized card payments, where transactions are signed digitally from a secure element in the payment app. An offline balance is debited in the mobile and the payment is guaranteed even if the payee is offline. The payment is ear-marked for the payee and transferred via QR, NFC or BLE, to be verified by the payee either in a mobile, card terminal or directly in a cash register. The transactions – which are saved by both parties – are settled later when either party connects online, Joachim Samuelsson continues.

Integration with the payment rails for central bank digital currency (CBDC) and EMV card infrastructure. Crunchfish’s offline mobile payment solution for digital cash may be integrated with all payment rails.

Digital cash – a new standard for payments
Digital cash are always transferred immediately and swimmingly easy since they are independent of anything that can go wrong online.

– Crunchfish’s vision is that we will continue to pay with cash, but in a digital form. Only when you need access to more money than you have available in the mobile wallet do you need to connect online.

ABOUT CRUNCHFISH – crunchfish.com
Crunchfish develops globally scalable solutions for digital cash, eliminating all online risks from disruptions and downtime. Crunchfish is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market since 2016.

The usage of physical cash is rapidly coming to an end in Sweden. It will be sorely missed as it is the only means of payment that always works and never jeopardize anyone’s personal privacy. According to a Swedish Central Bank director, cash may be history in just three years. It is therefore a matter […]

The usage of physical cash is rapidly coming to an end in Sweden. It will be sorely missed as it is the only means of payment that always works and never jeopardize anyone’s personal privacy. According to a Swedish Central Bank director, cash may be history in just three years. It is therefore a matter of urgency to develop a digital alternative having the same features as cash.

Many businesses are already opting out of cash today. However, digital cash will be a welcome addition as payments always works swimmingly easy and cash management will become much more efficient.

The development towards a cashless society may have its advantages, but in the near future Sweden may lack a means of payment that always works. The whole of Sweden may become paralyzed by downtime and disruptions in payment services. The Swedish Central Bank considers meeting this challenge with a digital e-krona. This has been discussed in three webinars moderated by Crunchfish’s CEO. Radical new thinking and new technology will be required to deliver the same properties as physical cash in a digital equivalent. Crunchfish has developed patent-pending solutions for digital cash that ensures that the payment works swimmingly easy, without compromising personal privacy.

– From a security perspective, we use the same proven technology as for tokenized card payments with digital signatures from a secure element in the mobile. Digital cash may be integrated with mobile wallets and also directly with the card and CBDC payment rails. We are deeply engaged in partner discussions with international companies about integrating digital cash, says Crunchfish’s CEO Joachim Samuelsson.

Crunchfish’s CEO Joachim Samuelsson is a serial entrepreneur and tech pioneer with over twenty patents and patent applications within digital payment and proximity-based interaction.

Personal privacy in payments
Digital cash complements all types of payment services and allows the payer to be private. The payment is always frictionless and is either finally settled at the moment of payment in a mobile wallet or subsequently to a bank account, depending on the preference of the payee.

– In Germany cash is still the preferred means of payment, while in Sweden cash is only used in 9% of in-store payments. The main reason why the Germans are sticking to cash is their resistance to digital traceability. With digital cash, it is possible to set a desirable balance between personal privacy and countering money laundering. The bank does not have to see all payments just because they are digital. Crunchfish solves this.

If the crisis comes
Digital cash makes the payment market robust. Without access to the network, people can only cope a few days until the liquidity in the market is gone, with no remaining ability to pay for goods and services. If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that the state must plan and safeguard all fundamental societal functions. Relying on people having cash in their mattresses will not work when cash handling routines are no longer available.

– Our vision for the future is that we will continue to pay with cash, but in a digital form. Digital cash is transferred instantly and swimmingly easy as it is designed to be independent of anything that can get messed up online. Only in case you need access to more money than available in the mobile wallet, an online connection is needed. In addition, if the network is down during a longer period of time, Crunchfish’s digital cash may also be sent securely by regular mail, to be scanned into the mobile. This is an important feature in a crisis.

ABOUT CRUNCHFISH
Crunchfish is a tech company from Malmö, Sweden that has developed patent-pending solutions for digital cash that can be integrated directly with the payment rails or mobile wallets. The solutions are globally scalable and make payments robust as the risks of downtime and disruptions of payment services are completely eliminated. Crunchfish is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market since 2016.

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Crunchfish returns to AWE EU in Munich October 18-19. The two-day conference is, with 2,000 attendees, 100 speakers and 100 exhibitors the leading AR/VR conferences in Europe. Crunchfish will demonstrate the next step of interaction in AR glasses where focus is on usability. The main Crunchfish message at the conference is that the industry needs […]

Crunchfish returns to AWE EU in Munich October 18-19. The two-day conference is, with 2,000 attendees, 100 speakers and 100 exhibitors the leading AR/VR conferences in Europe. Crunchfish will demonstrate the next step of interaction in AR glasses where focus is on usability.

The main Crunchfish message at the conference is that the industry needs to focus more on usability and user friendliness, as they two supports the adoption of AR. Crunchfish will showcase how contextual awareness in combination with gesture control radically improves the user experience. We also launch a security solution that substantially increases the personal security and protects sensitive information when using AR glasses.

Focus on user experience in AR is key to success
So far, AR projects have focused on technology to provide the AR experience rather than methods that allow users to better engage with the content. It is crucial to include the user experience to secure confidence in the AR technology and avoid project failure. Crunchfish has in its new interaction solution used UX-experience from projects during the last 8 years resulting in a cutting edge and user-friendly interaction solution for AR.

Crunchfish demonstrates the importance of usability and how to dramatically improve the AR-experience.

At AWE in Munich Crunchfish will demonstrate several solutions increasing the usability and security when using AR glasses:

• Gesture interaction – one of the most natural ways to interact
  Touchless gesture interaction lets you engage with AR devices and environments in a direct way, making interactions more fluid and immersive. Crunchfish has vast experience in UX design after 8 years of gesture interaction projects. Our software is used in AR glasses to navigate content, perform tasks and interact with 3D-objects.
• Contextual awareness – makes interaction more efficient and user-friendly
  Contextual awareness is context driven information based on proximity. It customises the interaction, ensures relevant information in every situation as well as efficient information exchange between humans, device and the surrounding. Experience the Crunchfish solution at our booth 307.
• Increased personal safety when using AR glasses
  One of the main safety risks when using AR glasses is the limited split vision. Crunchfish new solution informs user when exposed to danger both from fixed and moving objects as for example a moving vehicle.
• Increased information security in AR with gesture-controlled pin code
  The new Crunchfish solution tackles the information security issues when using AR glasses by offering a smooth pinch-click solution for entering the pin code when using AR glasses.

For more information, please contact:

Henrik Winberg, Sales Director at Crunchfish
+46 702 12 61 29, henrik.winberg@crunchfish.com

Augmented Reality smart glasses are changing work processes in several industries. Efficient and convenient interaction in the glasses is the next focus. Gesture control significantly improves interaction capabilities in demanding field conditions and makes you less dependent on buttons and touchpads. In this video, we show how Crunchfish’s gesture control technology is used in industrial […]

Augmented Reality smart glasses are changing work processes in several industries. Efficient and convenient interaction in the glasses is the next focus. Gesture control significantly improves interaction capabilities in demanding field conditions and makes you less dependent on buttons and touchpads. In this video, we show how Crunchfish’s gesture control technology is used in industrial AR glasses to handle visual and remote assistance.

Software Development Kit
Crunchfish’s SDK provides developers with gesture interaction specifically developed for AR smart glasses. Contact us for more information about licensing.

Malmö 18 December -Ever suffered from a stiff neck and sore shoulders after long hours in front of your desktop at work? Crunchfish brings natural interaction to the office workspace with a software solution where users are able to navigate and operate a computer based on presence and gestures. Control your device with gestures and presence […]

Malmö 18 December -Ever suffered from a stiff neck and sore shoulders after long hours in front of your desktop at work? Crunchfish brings natural interaction to the office workspace with a software solution where users are able to navigate and operate a computer based on presence and gestures.

Control your device with gestures and presence

With Crunchfish Touchless A3D software you can navigate and control your computer or tablet through gesture commands rather than clicks and touch. Just by raising your hand you can access touchless applications on your desktop from a comfortable distance. With a simple swipe in the air you can browse through presentations or photos. By using gestures you can manage your notifications efficiently and accept or dismiss incoming calls or messages without distracting attention from what you are currently working on. Experience our solution today!

More to gain than just convenience

Touchless technology does not only provide convenience at work. Our solution saves battery power with shorter sleep delays as well as increases security with quicker auto lock based on presence. Natural interaction is more possible than ever. Contact us to find out how our software can offer innovative interaction solutions for your users.

Visit us at MWC and experience how Crunchfish technologies redefine the way we interact with mobile devices. You will find us at the Swedish Pavilion Hall 7.