TRASTRA's Founder & CEO Roman Potemkin on disrupting the Paypals of the world with crypto

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

Hard to believe that digital banking, payment processing services, and the remittances market can keep a man up at night, but they do. I breathe innovations in fintech, and I dream of revolutionising retail banking through fantastic user experience and unique technological solutions. Although TRASTRA is a crypto-heavy business, our ambitions lie way beyond the Cryptoverse. Combined with mesmerising possibilities of app-based financial transactions and mobile-first retail banking, crypto can no longer be considered an alternative financial ecosystem. To me, it’s an essential cog in the global digital economy machine that works on mobile devices and social media platforms. And to ignite that machine and keep it churning, we need, above all, quality consumer experience, which was, is, and will continue to be key to success in consumer finance.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

TRASTRA, derived from “trust,” as our clients’ trust is what we’re all about. Our claim to fame is our Visa-issued crypto debit card and our app’s ability to convert six major cryptos we support into Euros on the spot. With TRASTRA, our users finally get a chance to actually use their crypto in real life as a payment method and the means to receive salaries, remittances, and other types of wages in crypto.

What is the origin story?

I’ve been a serial entrepreneur in fintech since the early-2000s specialising in digital banking development. The short version of my resume is that I founded iDA - a mobile (digital banking solutions for iOS, Android, Windows Phone), I also was at the root of InstaBank (mobile-first digital bank), and founded UPUP – money for kids (kid’s finance education).

TRASTRA’s origins date back to 2006 when I and my then-partners created Telinform (OSK Ltd), which streamlined SMS delivery to bank clients. But mobile banking is what we really wanted to do so in 2010 we started iDA Mobile and began developing applications for mobile banking and banking products for UniCredit, HomeCredit, Tinkoff bank, Societe Generale, and other banks, releasing over 20 mobile bank products that are still thriving in the App Store and Google Play.

Soon we realized that working on service apps (think Square or PayPal), they would have to be integrated into an existing banking solution, and that’s where the problem was: we were small, essentially a nameless group backed only by friends and a few angels who believed in our abilities, but no serious institutional support.

To integrate into a large enough umbrella bank that would appreciate the software would take years of schmoozing with executives, so we’ve decided, simply put, to build our own digital bank.

And so we did that with InstaBank, which was a precursor to TRASTRA – a much smoother all-around banking solution for a modern professional and crypto enthusiast on the go.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

I love that we never sleep. Literally, no office hours, no downtime, no pauses or breaks. We live what we do, and it’s exhilarating! And we’re all visionaries: give or take, over the last ten years, we’ve all been involved in digital banking solutions for retail banks, but now we see a massive opportunity for factoring cryptocurrency in our model. We want to combine it with some of the functions of legacy banking and rethink the entire concept of financial relations utilizing our expertise in blockchain, payment systems, and mobile banking. We simply want to help people manage cryptocurrencies as seamlessly as traditional money and enable them to spend it in day-to-day life.

Perhaps, we’ll be welcome in emerging markets where the existing financial systems are a much bigger concern. TRASTRA’s solution for crypto payouts and exchange can shine particularly brightly in countries with high inflation rates and large remittance markets. We are working on a toolbox for crossing the threshold of usability in places where inferior Internet, lack of smartphones, and poor education present a challenge for tech outsiders. We are optimistic that cryptocurrency adoption in these emerging markets should scale substantially in the nearest future. Being a part of this movement makes all the sense in the world and makes us all extremely happy!

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

I’d be coding my butt off, probably…

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

When every startup on Earth is essentially a crypto startup, I say, we’ve been truly successful. It’s not that far-fetched: at some point, the Internet was a novelty, and by the late-90s, it was impossible to imagine a business that’s not using it. The same goes for crypto.

It offers so many non-speculative applications that harnessing that power and utilising it in business, culture, administration, management makes perfect sense. Think about it: fundraising – a major pain point for any starter enterprise – today is much more efficient using crypto with its crossborder payment capabilities and access to global capital. Tokenised access is another advantage; early adopters will have a unique say in your product’s promo activities if they’re issued equity in the form of tokens. Another point to make is that crypto helps businesses penetrate new markets like no other technology. These are our metrics: expansion via crypto adoption is already a reality; we want to be right in the thick of it when questions like integration of payment methods, reconciling tech protocols with local regulation arise. Ultimately, if we manage to come up with something people want and create a solution that will allow our tech to be utilised for something useful and good, that’s our sweet spot.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

That we’re changing the world one payment in crypto at a time, no less. On par with anyone who is working to add utility on top of just trading crypto (Dfinity, Cosmos, Polkadot, Avanti, Ethereum 2, Algorand, and others). Speculation will remain the business model for a lot of people in the space, but those who see practical value in the tech that powers crypto are TRASTRA’s tribe. We already see crypto banks emerge, crowdfunding and community support are being rapidly transformed. We’ve already harnessed the power of Visa, so doing sensible lending, staking, venture funding, neobanking, and eCommerce using crypto is what our lives are about today.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

I’m not worried about the tech. I’m worried about people because any innovation is a two-faced Janus. Particularly, heavy-weight politicians and transnational businesses whose influence on virtually every aspect of our lives is obtrusive, limitless, and dire. I don’t think anyone’s ever framed this fear better than the renowned American sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson: “The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology.”

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

I love its honesty in everything - from branding to vernacular. It’s a rare treat in the world of professional punditry and institutionalised idolatry of ‘likes, ‘shares,’ and ‘views.’

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

It would be not only to pursue what I’m passionate about but find a way to monetize my passion.

Once you start earning with it, it will give you more satisfaction and compel you to pump more energy, more time, and more effort into it. You can only go so far on your enthusiasm, but you will always need money to buy new equipment, run promo campaigns, pay subcontractors. Once you find a way to support that hobby not with cash out of your parents’ pockets but on your own, you will grow tremendously in your own eyes, and you will find new levels of respect for your craft in the eyes of others.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

Being a staunch atheist, I’ve always wanted to read the Old Testament cover to cover. This year I finally did it. I don’t want to spoil anything but I encourage every person who considers themselves a part of the Earth civilization to make the same discovery. You will learn a great deal about yourself, why the world is the way it is, and what can be done about it.