Today, Crunchfish presented a new patent application that extends the scope of Digital Cash from offline to online usage, providing commercial e-wallets and CBDC implementations with easier onboarding, improved payment integrity and interoperability. CEO Joachim Samuelsson has been interviewed by Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance and provided an overview of the innovation.

“Digital Cash goes online. Happy that Crunchfish yet again has managed to adapt technology to solve key market challenges. Arguably our most important innovation to date”, says Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish.

Listen to the interview with Alf Riple at Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2v_ZunlgUY

For more information, please contact:
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish AB
+46 708 46 47 88
joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com 

Erik Berggren, IR Manager
+46 726 01 16 73
erik.berggren@crunchfish.com

The information was provided for publication by the contact person above, on 18 November 2021 at 13:00 CET.

Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.

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Crunchfish is a digital payments pioneer focusing on Digital Cash. This patent application extends the scope of Digital Cash from offline to online usage, providing commercial e-wallets and CBDC implementations with easier onboarding, improved payment integrity and interoperability. 

​Digital Cash is an extremely flexible digital payment service that complements any payment service with a two-stage payment process; first instant verification of the Digital Cash payment from reserved funds and then settlement where the payment service moves money between accounts.

Digital Cash replicates paying with cash in digital form. Crunchfish has focused on offline payments, as cash does not require online access. However, cash is also an inclusive means of payment where the receiver does not have to prepare to be able to accept it. By verification online it is possible for users to receive Digital Cash securely even if they are not yet onboarded. Privacy is supported if users are allowed to be anonymous within set limits.

Easier onboarding
Digital Cash with online access makes it much easier to onboard new users as there are no pre-requisites to receive payments, making it just as easy to receive Digital Cash as physical cash. New users verify payments using a link integrated with the Digital Cash payments. There may also be a link where user may opt for opening new accounts with the payment service provider to settle and make other Digital Cash payments. Easy onboarding is expected to be desirable by commercial payment applications as well as CBDC implementations.

Improved payment integrity
Allowing users to use Digital Cash without prerequisites opens the possibility to support privacy, a key feature for CBDC in countries planning to preserve payment integrity when cash goes digital. Regulators or payment service providers may establish limits for Digital Cash transactions with privacy. To prevent money laundering, the payment service provider would be obliged to request more knowledge of the user if limits are exceeded. This mirrors current procedures depositing physical cash.

Interoperability
Interoperability for offline payments is a pending patent application by Crunchfish that relies on trusting a pre-installed root certificate to verify payments offline. Online payment interoperability, where the root certificate is accessed online to verify payments, is part of this patent application.

“There are tremendous benefits using Digital Cash with online access. Instant verification made possible by Digital Cash’ two-step payment process, adds value to complex open-loop payments that may experience response delays at the moment-of-payment, e.g. payments involving open banking, international remittances and CBDC. Easier onboarding and interoperability are beneficial for many payment service providers and most CBDC implementations have privacy as a key requirement.

This innovation is strategically very important for Crunchfish as it makes Digital Cash more versatile and valuable. It will be faster to roll-out as it does not require any local app installations. Users wishing to pay or verify payments without online access may download compatible Digital Cash applications for offline payments” says Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish.

For more information, please contact:
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish AB
+46 708 46 47 88
joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com 

​Erik Berggren, IR Manager
+46 726 01 16 73
erik.berggren@crunchfish.com

This information is such information that Crunchfish AB is obliged to publish in accordance with the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was provided for publication by the contact person above, on 18 November 2021 at 00:01 CET.

Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.

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Crunchfish AB (“Crunchfish”) and V-Key strengthen their partnership to expand Crunchfish’s presence in Southeast Asia, the world’s fastest growing region for e-Wallets. Crunchfish will benefit from V-Key’s strong position and local offices throughout Southeast Asia. 

Mobile payments are booming in Southeast Asia. The number of e-Wallets is expected to grow by over 300% between 2020 and 2025, reaching up to 440 million across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam*. As e-Wallets are increasingly replacing cash and cards, requirements on e-Wallet availability are growing. An e-Wallet empowered by Digital Cash works offline – regardless of connection issues, infrastructure failures or overloaded servers. Digital Cash ensures 100% payment availability, it’s like having cash in your e-Wallet.

V-OS from V-Key is a trusted execution environment where Crunchfish Digital Cash solution executes securely in isolation from the unsecure environment of the mobile phone. The product partnership with V-Key is now expanded to also include market activities. Crunchfish and V-Key have published a joint solution paper and will collaborate on sales and marketing activities in Southeast Asia. V-Key, with headquarters in Singapore and local sales and support offices in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, have existing customer relations which will shorten time to market for Digital Cash in the region.

“V-Key technology not only secures digital identity, but more importantly, allows our customers to deliver Trusted Digital Services. Our partnership with Crunchfish is unique in that we believe that digital payments should be a fluid, seamless, and trusted experience, whether your online or offline. In Asia, we are experiencing steep growth curves in the adoption of digital services and payments, and with these, our joint-solution will help answer some of the challenges of the digital economy.”, says Peter Mah, VP Global Sales at V-Key

“V-Key is a key partner for Crunchfish. We expand our partnership now by engaging in joint sales and marketing activities in Southeast Asia. V-Key have sales and support organizations, as well as existing customers that we together can approach and leverage. As our product offering is already integrated, this will create great opportunities for both companies.”, says Patrik Lindeberg, CEO Crunchfish Digital Cash.

*According to The Business Times, July 2021, referring to analyst house Juniper Research

For more information, please contact:
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish AB
+46 708 46 47 88
joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com

Erik Berggren, IR Manager
+46 726 01 16 73
erik.berggren@crunchfish.com

Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.

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Crunchfish AB’s initial PCT patent application for Digital Cash has been published today, 18 months after the local filing date. Crunchfish has analysed the International search report and will modify its patent claims before demanding an International Preliminary Examination with the aim of getting an International Preliminary Report on Patentability.

Patent applications become public 18 month after the initial local filing date, unless they are abandoned. Today, the application PCT/SE2020/051251 and International Search Report of Crunchfish initial Digital Cash application was published by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Crunchfish has analysed the search report and intend to move forward with an amended application as the basis for the International Preliminary Examination that must be filed before November 29th, 2021, in order to get an International Preliminary Report on Patentability before May 29th, 2022.

“As expected in a hot area as payments, prior art exist as the International Search Report indicates. We have identified how to modify our application in order to aim at a favourable report on patentability and a strong IP-protection of our Digital Cash solution”, comments Crunchfish CEO Joachim Samuelsson. 

A PCT application does not lead to a patent, rather to an international search and a written opinion regarding patentability (novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability). In the national phase which starts 30 months after the initial filing date, each country applies its own patent law in the final examination.

For more information, please contact:
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO at Crunchfish
+46 708 46 47 88
joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com

Erik Berggren, IR Manager
+46 726 01 16 73
erik.berggren@crunchfish.com

Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.

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Crunchfish AB (“Crunchfish”) announces today that the Digital Cash solution has been refined and is ready for shipment with V-OS Virtual Secure Element. V-OS is a trusted execution environment where Digital Cash is securely stored, and Digital Cash processes can be executed in isolation from the unsafe environment of the mobile app.

Worldwide we have made us dependent on the net. Digital payments are no exception, and demand reliable online systems. At the moment of payment, there is a risk that the payment is denied due to no network connectivity, infrastructure failure or overloaded bank servers. With Crunchfish Digital Cash the payment is made locally on the smartphone, completely offline and irrevocably, providing 100% payment performance.

Crunchfish Digital Cash Wallet has now been integrated and is ready for shipping with V-OS Virtual Secure Element. This means that the Digital Cash Wallet is a packaged solution with a secure component that creates a trusted execution environment where data is securely stored, and where processes can be executed in isolation from the unsafe environment of the mobile app.

The Digital Cash Wallet maintains a credit balance as well as a log of all offline transactions. As this is sensitive data it must be maintained with banking grade security. This is accomplished by a secure element within the app that handles cryptographic keys, verification of user credentials, authentication of transactions, and maintenance of digital cash credit balance and transaction log.

Crunchfish and V-Key entered a Marketing & Technical Partnership Agreement in July 2020. V-Key is the inventor of internationally patented V-OS, the world’s first Virtual Secure Element, which recently obtained Common Criteria EAL3+ on both Apple iOS and Google Android mobile phones.

“This is a milestone in the development of Digital Cash. Our Digital Cash makes digital payments available offline and ensure 100% payment performance. With V-OS integrated, we now have a packaged solution ready for shipping”, says Paul Cronholm, CTO of Crunchfish.

For more information, please contact:
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish AB
+46 708 46 47 88
joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com 

Erik Berggren, IR Manager
+46 726 011 673
erik.berggren@crunchfish.com

Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.

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Crunchfish and Getswish continue to investigate the possibility to enable offline payments with Swish, in spite of today’s announcement from PTS of not receiving funding via the PTS Innovation contest. The ambition remains to provide the Swedish society with a digital equivalent to paying with cash.

Crunchfish’s and Getswish’s submission to the PTS Innovation contest reached the final but was not selected to receive funding from PTS. Crunchfish and Getswish will continue the dialogue to make Swish available in contexts when internet connectivity is not available, or banking services are down.

”Swish is an incredible success story for online payments, however Swish demands that the user is online. We very much believe in the idea of being able to pay offline with Swish as well.”, says Anders Edlund, CPO at Getswish.

”We’re looking forward to build an innovative world-class solution together with Swish, that will create a digital equivalent to paying with cash”, says Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish.

For more information, please contact:
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish AB
+46 708 46 47 88
joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com 

Erik Berggren, IR Manager
+46 726 011 673
erik.berggren@crunchfish.com

Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.

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