Brad Yasar EQIFI AMA

12 min readDec 19, 2021

We wrote about our partnership with the EQIBANK backed platform EQIFI here and the NFT card here. We had a very exciting AMA in our Telegram group with the EQIFI CEO Brad Yasar, and if you missed it, here is the summary:

Good morning Brad (@bradyasar)

We are all so happy and excited to have you here from EQIFI.

Thank you for inviting me over :)

Mike Unearthed:
Awesome, 👏

Our community is super excited to know a little more about EQIFI.

What is EQIFI?

Brad Yasar,
EQIFI is a DeFi platform with 4 core products powered by a licensed and regulated bank EQIBank.

Brad Yasar,
In a nutshell, we are a platform where you have your banking services next to your favorite defi products.

Mike Unearthed,
Perfect and can you share a little bit about the team background?

Brad Yasar,
Our team is very well positioned for this project because we have career bankers, compliance people who are well respected by our regulators, and of course a tech team that has developed dozens of crypto projects. So we are an experienced team that understands the traditional finance world as well as the defi/crypto space. I come from a banking and finance background by training but have been a technologist and entrepreneur all my life. my co-founder Jason Blick is a very seasoned banking entrepreneur who sold his previous bank for 1.2B. Frank Frausto, our CMO was with Google for 17 years, our CTO Ioana Frincu is a Forbes 30 under 30 and has built some incredible projects in crypto and the list continues.

Brad Yasar,
Every member of our team has a proven track record of giving 100% and delivering results so although EQIFI is a very lofty idea, we are confident that we can do it :)

Mike Unearthed,
Wow, what an amazing 💪heavy hitter team. I love it. Great answer to this question.

Mike Unearthed,
The Community would love to know, Will they be able to use POLC to buy stuff in the real world with the card? Will it automatically convert it to whatever currency we need to make the purchase?

Brad Yasar,
Well, the idea behind creating a virtual card in the metaverse was exactly that. we wanted to allow people to access the value that they create in the polkacity metaverse outside as well as inside of it. with our card, we expect people to be able to spend the polc they have on any chain in their everyday lives to buy coffee, grab lunch, or if they are polc millionaires even to buy a car! :)
just imagine having a cab in polkacity and making enough to buy a cab IRL! total immersion of meta and real realms.

Mike Unearthed,
Wow, absolutely amazing 😍
That is huge and we are all just totally thrilled to be a part of this with you guys.
OK, awesome, before we open up our Telegram for community questions, I have just one last question.

any upcoming news you’d like to share?

Brad Yasar,
well the biggest news for me is our partnership. Polkacity has always been a dream of mine since I first played Second Life online many years ago and now to see it become a reality is exciting and staying true to our mission, we will be announcing more features that make EQIFI and our products and services more accessible to more people (more blockchains, full mobile support, more languages, and markets, etc) and of course continue building bridges between the real world we live in and the virtual realms we visit so a lot of exciting stuff coming up

Mike Unearthed,
We’re so excited man. We are honored to be a partner with you guys. ❤️

We’re going to race each other someday in PolkaCity 😉🏎🌆

We will be giving away one of the wonderful EQIFI NFT debit Cards to a lucky loyal community member during the AMA.

The person I vote with the best question will receive their EQIFI NFT card today. 🥰🙌

AMA is now open for community questions

Brad Yasar,
Let’s go!

Grey,
Greetings Brad! Going forward, will EQIFi make it possible to loan out our Polkacity NFTs, to make a passive income out of our NFTs that way; and/or to get a loan for buying another NFT, by having our existing NFT as backing for the loan?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Grey]
we have plans to offer nft collateralized loans, the challenge is the underwriting of these assets but we are working on ways to at least test out some models, stay tuned.

Grey,
[In reply to Brad Yasar]
That's so amazing!🔥

Ⓜ️ike,
do you have a bank license? If yes from which country?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Ⓜ️ike]
yes, of course, the details are on our website eqifi.com but EQIBank is licensed and regulated in Dominica.

Bayram,
I heard you are aiming to be one of the top 10 cryptos in the long term. How do you intend to do this? Which aspect of you is different from other DEFIs?
You aim to be one of the top 10 major coins in the crypto industry. For this reason, unlike the CLASSIC DEFİ, will you achieve this as a pioneer in innovations with both metaverse and fixed corporate banks?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Bayram]
Great questions. Our goal is not to be a number on a scoreboard but the nexus of ALL financial activity crypto and traditional so our differentiator is not our competitiveness of which we are but our connector approach with inclusivity first. We want to connect all crypto together with fiat under one single platform in the success we believe that is going to set us apart from everyone else.

Jake,
Hello guys! So if I understand correctly I can use the EQIFI debit card in Polkacity to in-game purchaces and also to buy real life items in the Polkacitys metaverse? And the real life items will be shipped to my home? Like if NHL opens their shop in the metaverse I can buy my favourite team jersey and get shipped to my home? Can I also use the same debit card in real life when I go to my local coffee shop? If the answer is yes then that would be freaking awesome!

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Jake]
that is the plan :)

Peter,
Hi everyone, my question is : How @EQIFI_FINANCE as a crypto bank sees the future of global standard of banking?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Peter]
it is going to be technology-driven (read decentralized) and those who create the most value for their users are going to be successful as opposed to those that strive for higher profits at the detriment of their customers.

Bayram,
You aim to be one of the top 10 major coins in the crypto industry. For this reason, unlike the CLASSIC DEFİ, will you achieve this as a pioneer in innovations with both metavarse and fixed corporate bank?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Bayram]
yes, we plan to adopt a hybrid model that takes the best of both worlds.

Gregg,
What other plans does Eqifi for PolkaCity? Will you open your own storefront in PolkaCity, so we can access your great products?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Gregg]
working on it.

Rishab,
How do you plan to market to the wider masses? How will you attract them?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Rishab]
we have a strong marketing team and a vibrant community of both of those who are activated we believe the message will propagate across the globe. and of course, we have a good grasp of growing communities from past projects we launched.

Aers,
In the future on Polkacity site NFT market do you plan to add different and more eqifi nft products except your first NFT card ? If yes, would you please tell us some tips about what these products would be ?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Aers]
I wouldn’t spill the surprise, stay tuned.

Mike Unearthed,
Man all of you guys have such great questions

Cryptological | OG,
Love the integration of pol.c and the real world! Will there be any fees, now or in the future for debit cards or bank accounts if you arrange it through the NFT?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Cryptological | OG]
hard to answer a question like this because there are always costs associated with any transaction. who will bear those costs is a different question. I am sure some services may have fees and others may not as long as we can pass the value along we intend to make it seamless for our users.

HoHoHoCrypts,
Hi. Will eqi have a land and build a bank in polkacity? Will there be perks to give polkacity more utility instead of just going straight to eqi website?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to HoHoHoCrypts]
yes, we want to make it native and immersive, not just have a hyperlink floating around that takes you to our website!

Answe R,
We know that Eqifi NFT card provides us great oppurtunities like having a free bank account, having a debt card and 50 polc gift every week. For this card do you plan to add more surprises or gifts in future so its owners would benefit ?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Answe R]
why not?

Luz,
What would be the % of collateral for the loans and would it be inclusive for people who can’t take traditional loans due to interest?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Luz]
that will be determined by the market you can see our current rates and requirements on eqifi.com. yes, we aim to serve as many people as we can as a global bank and defi platform.

Jhunrie Barre,
Wow, im very bullish from what ive heard. With your collaboration. One day polka city will be the biggest metaverse and eqifi will be the biggest banking system in the whole world able to compete with the traditional bank. My question is What is your biggest advantage being a digital bank from a traditional bank?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Jhunrie Barre]
overhead. the cost of maintaining branches and archaic banking systems is incredibly high and we avoid those to pass the profits to our customers.

J,
Will we be able to use your bank to take loans to purchase other things besides NFTs?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to J]
yes, you already can. check out eqifi.com

HoHoHoCrypts,
How will spending of polc work? Currently say we have it in our metamask wallet. Will we need to transfer polc to eqi wallet to spend it?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to HoHoHoCrypts]
details have not been finalized yet but we intend to make it as simple to use as possible.

Benjamin,
How do you guarantee the safety of the funds that polkacitizens — or any other customer — trust you with? How are you backed and secured IRL?
Say you get hacked and our funds are gone, how will you reimburse us?

What are you doing to make us chose your bank over others?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Benjamin]
We get this question a lot. we have full bank-grade security on all assets on our platform whether it is digital or physical and has the best practices in these areas. we will also be announcing insurance partners on our platform soon so the goal is to give you 100% peace of mind that we are doing everything to protect our platform and all the assets on it.

Beasle,
Hi Brad, thanks for taking the time to speak with some of the investors, it’s much appreciated.

Some of the other ‘crypto cards’ offer a kind of cashback in the form of crypto; a certain % in rewards for using the card to spend $USD. Will Equifi offer a similar service? For example if you spend in USDollars could you receive 1–2% cashback in POLC, something like that. Whilst also being able to spend POLC directly from the physical card. But perhaps spending POLC doesn’t receive cashback, only spending other currencies maybe? Or is it even something that could be implemented later? Thanks

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Beasle]
details are not finalized but we plan to make it a very cool product.

M M,
How will we get our card

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to M M]
it will be shipped to you when the card program starts

Grey,
Is EQIFi aiming for just the Crypto Market, or is it more like a ‘bridge’ in connecting the real world with the metaverse that we’re building here, filling the gap between them? Going forward, does EQIFi currently have all the legal international rights to have us as customers from all different kinds of countries across the globe?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Grey]
everything finance and banking from crypto to traditional products

Jacek Bartecki,
can I use the card same way I use my VISA and buy groceries?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Jacek Bartecki]
yes

James,
When we want to buy stuff with the eqifi card, does it spend polc token or it convert polc token to fiat?

If so which fiat currency ?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to James]
Your local currency if you want or any of the fiat currencies supported by us.

Grey,
Is EQIFi aiming for other cross-chain metaverses, other than Polkacity aswell? Untill we’ll see theyre (probably) being interconnected with each other in the future.

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Grey]
we want to connect everyone so you have a single banking and finance portal to use for ALL your needs.

HoHoHoCrypts,
When we use polc to buy real world items. What happens to the polc? Is it sold and put into reserves? Will it be burned? Does Eqi pocket it?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to HoHoHoCrypts]
you spend it so why worry about what happens to it? :) actually, it will be transferred to the merchant where you spent it in the form they want to have it (i.e. polc may become USD in USA or euros in Italy to pay the merchant)

Andruxp,
can be withdrawn at any ATM?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Andruxp]
anywhere the card is accepted

Answe R,
If you would consider giving more gifts to EQIFI NFT card holders with this card i think it will be more tempting for new buyers. Even I myself would think to buy few more of this great card.

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Answe R]
well, we will have added functionality and promos for those supporting us with their business.

Konstantin,
It is very important for PolkaCity to attract new players for earning opportunities. Will new players not from the crypto be able to purchase the first POLC to start the game and earn money thanks to EQIFI?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Konstantin]
yes, that is our #1 goal: to bring more non-crypto users into crypto.

Gary,
If I sell my EQUIFI Card NFT will I lose my physical card and account? Will the new buyer get a physical card and account too?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Gary]
Polkacity will decide that.

Mike Unearthed,
Everyone has been absolutely spectacular. Thank you so much for being here @bradyasar
Your answers to all these complex questions have been some of the best we’ve ever seen in an AMA.

We’re super excited about our partnership and look forward to our journey together.

Mike Unearthed,
Let’s do a couple more questions and then maybe find an EQIFI NFT card winner 😃

Scott,
Do you need to do KYC verification to receive the card and bank account?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Scott]
yes, we are a fully compliant bank so our banking services will require the appropriate amount of KYC/AML.

Aran Tore,
Hi

Polkacity in the past did great marketing like giving advertisements on billboard in New York in real life. In future, will you give more importance to marketing too like polkacity did ? Eqifi still did not get much attention in exchanges in trading volume, so this is the reason i am asking it.

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Aran Tore]
we are a new project that just launched 4 months ago so stay tuned :)

HoHoHoCrypts,
Will I be able to sell polc into fiat using the eqi debit card and hold fiat in the debit card?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to HoHoHoCrypts]
if you prefer. the whole idea is to not have to hold any fiat until you spend it but if you prefer you can have a fiat account as well.
anywhere the card is accepted if they are on the visa/Mastercard debit or credit rails, it should work.

Double_K,
Brad, does your team have the vision for crypto mass adoption?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Double_K]
yes, we live for it. same way 40 years ago using plastic cards for buying stuff was questioned, same is happening the crypto which is the future!

Beasle,
Can physical cards be shipped anywhere in the world, and are they delivered by standard mail or courier or something else?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Beasle]
yes, except for sanctioned countries. if you live in an internationally sanctioned country we will not be able to serve you.

HoHoHoCrypts,
Virtual economy is new to me.. any suggestions for polkacity mechanics to make it a successful economy and mass adoption? More partnerships with retailers for example?

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to HoHoHoCrypts]
Polkacity is already doing an incredible job creating value for its stakeholder and it is only going to get better with more practical use cases in the metaverse. stay tuned!

Mike Unearthed,
All right guys we’re going to wrap it up. Thank you so much Brad for being a part of the AMA and answering so many questions. ❤️

Polkacity Community Support,
And want to remember this!.. Eqifi will have a branch on Metaverse!.. 🎂🎂🎂

Brad Yasar,
[In reply to Mike Unearthed]
Thank you for having me, Polkacity community is the best!

Polkacity Links

Website: https://polkacity.io

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PolkaCity

Telegram: https://t.me/Polkacity

Medium: https://polkacity.medium.com/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/polkacity/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PolkaCity

Github: https://github.com/POLKACITY

Coinmarketcap: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polkacity/