LoyaltyX receives $15,000 NSW government grant and eyes ICO with belief crypto is the future of loyalty programs

For startup founder Philip Shelper, the emerging yet volatile cryptocurrency market spells big opportunity for the world of loyalty and rewards programs.

“If you look at the history of loyalty programs and similar systems, it went from clay tokens in ancient Egypt, to copper tokens in 1700s America, to stamps in the 1800s, and then finally the modern day system of points and miles,” he says.

“We see that there’s an opportunity for crypto to be the next loyalty currency around the world.”

That’s what Shelper’s looking to achieve through his startup LoyaltyX, which has recently completed a trial with over 170 students and staff at the University of New South Wales.

The trial involved 12 on-campus retailers implementing LoyaltyX’s system, meaning those customers would receive $10 of digital currency Ethereum for every 10 points accumulated.

Shelper says this was a trial run to gauge the desire and interest in crypto rewards points, with the results being extremely positive.

“The results were overwhelmingly positive. We found that those staff and students would prefer to receive crypto over normal points as they liked the idea of it being a ‘live’ currency that would increase in value over time,” he said. Read more

Dominic Powell - Smart Company - 19 Jan 2018