NFT-styled debit cards the future of Web3 — Animoca founder on $30M hi investment.
Animoca Brands partners with hi, a Web3 neobanking app that features cryptocurrency exchange services, conventional digital banking and customized NFT-styled debit cards.
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Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu sees significant potential in the personalization of Web3-based services as his firm earmarks $30 million for the neobank platform hi.
Siu’s investment firm plans to invest in the Web3 app that combines a cryptocurrency exchange, digital banking services and a customizable nonfungible token (NFT)-styled crypto debit card offering as part of its growing ecosystem.
Speaking exclusively to Cointelegraph, Siu said hi’s vision for its NFT debit card offering intersects with his views on the interplays of culture and Web3. Hi’s flagship crypto-friendly Mastercard debit card allows users to personalize their physical cards with an NFT avatar they own.
It is an example of the ongoing shift toward personalization, where Web3 finally allows users the opportunity to express themselves and their individuality in new and exciting ways.
A central feature of the agreement is the potential to amplify the utility of various Web3 tokens and NFTs. The hi ecosystem features Web3-integrated financial applications and its own hi protocol, which is an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible sidechain.
The two companies will also look to drive the adoption of a “unique-human authentication mechanism” through the hi protocol’s proof of human identity solution.
Hi co-founder Sean Rac told Cointelegraph that the protocol’s proof of human identity solution addresses shortcomings of the Web2 era, where a handful of companies gained control over user data and identity after establishing themselves as “dominant credential providers.”
According to Rac, hi’s solution addresses this by using a dual-node structure where one set of nodes serves as identity validators responsible for verifying accounts owned by humans. Meanwhile, block producers secure the network.
Rac added that the approach could open up possibilities for “human-only” networks and decentralized applications.
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