Blockchain Innovation Creates the Potential to Revolutionize How Money Moves Around the World

In a Nutshell: The best companies offer products and services that can make their clients’ lives easier. Zebec Network provides solutions that allow consumers to use cryptocurrency in novel ways. The company’s payment cards enable cardholders to transact in various cryptocurrencies. Zebec Network has earned the support of cryptocurrency enthusiasts as it introduces solutions that simplify their financial transactions.

New technologies can lead to new possibilities. Businesses use emerging technologies to develop creative products and services and enhance existing product lines to extend further functionality and convenience to their customers. 

Many companies today incorporate blockchain technology into their business processes to unleash innovative ideas and forge new frontiers.

Zebec Network (Zebec) started as a decentralized, continuous streaming protocol, enabling users to stream and share video content without accessing a central server. 

The company has changed course since its inception and recently underwent a rebranding effort to reposition itself as a decentralized payment processing network. Zebec is a payment company with a vision of making payments seamless in a decentralized environment.

We spoke with Elena Solovyov, Zebec Network’s Chief Marketing Officer, and Aniruddha Dasgupta, its Head of Product, to learn more about the payment innovations the company is spearheading.

Zebec is currently attempting to bring all the partners in the decentralized payments ecosystem together into a network to become a network of networks eventually, Dasgupta said.

“We’ve come a long way since we first started,” Dasgupta said. “Now we are a payments company seeking to make payments seamless globally in a decentralized world. That’s what our vision is.”

Zebec uses a decentralized payment network underpinned by the company’s ongoing efforts to foster a value-added ecosystem. The company is involved in projects that harness the power of blockchain technology to create practical solutions for cryptocurrency transactions. Dasgupta said one of Zebec’s goals is to be the first crypto payroll payment provider. 

Zebec offers a payroll card that can accept crypto payments.The company is also working to offer cross-border payroll remittance to supplement its suite of payment solutions.

The company’s rebranding efforts occurred while it was developing new business opportunities. Zebec has recently added new services and a payment card to its product lineup, and it is in the midst of a pilot project to deploy point-of-sale terminals to select business partners.

The company’s point-of-sale terminals can process crypto transactions, allowing merchants to offer customers increased payment flexibility.

“We provide customers with the ability to spend their crypto at any of their favorite locations by making both the payment and acceptance of crypto as seamless as possible,” Dasgupta said. “The whole idea is to make sure we democratize the use of crypto and make people believe that there is indeed a crypto ecosystem being developed. We are trying to bring in real-world use cases for crypto so that it increases trust in our community and makes peoples’ lives easier.”

Though most people have heard of blockchain technology, not everyone accesses it daily or can explain how its benefits can improve their lives. Solovyov said technologists love playing and experimenting with blockchain technology, but the world needs valuable applications of its infrastructure.

“Folks like us are building products that use the technology and can be simple and work just as they’re intended to,” Solovyov said. “It’s a very complex and interesting technology on the back end, but you don’t need to understand it to use it. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to develop useful applications, but the results are tangible.”

Zebec Network’s payroll solutions introduce efficiencies to consumers. Some U.S. employees can receive a portion of their paycheck in a stablecoin, such as USD Coin, which is tied to the U.S. dollar. 

With Zebec’s payroll technology, employees receiving payments in a stablecoin can transfer money to overseas parties without having to engage with and pay transfer fees to traditional money transfer companies. 

Solana is a blockchain platform launched in 2020. The first payment card Zebec brought to market was a Solana-based card. The company has since expanded its offerings to support other blockchain platforms.

Zebec has broken new ground in the payment and blockchain landscape. Dasgupta said the company issued the first payment card, the Zebec Instant Card, which accepts meme coins. Meme coins, such as Dogecoin, are forms of cryptocurrency that originate or draw inspiration from internet memes.

Zebec performs due diligence before working with meme coins to ensure they have enough liquidity to be useful for consumers and that legitimate entities back them. Dasgupta said the company’s work with meme coins has injected a measure of confidence into the crypto community because it has provided a way for consumers to use more types of cryptocurrency.

The Instant card takes the tokens consumers use, converts them to USD Coins, which enables cardholders to spend them as U.S. dollars. Dasgupta said the Instant card is available in more than 138 countries.

Zebec issues multiple versions of the Instant card to support different currencies around the world, including the U.S. dollar, euros, the British pound sterling, and the Indian rupee.

“All the most popular currencies in the world are supported with the Instant card,” Dasgupta said. “It has enjoyed huge acceptance in the U.S. and countries outside the U.S. as well. People have given the card as a gift to their friends and members of their families.”

The Zebec Instant Card is a no-fee card. Solovyov attributes the card’s popularity to its no-fee structure and the company’s ability to capitalize on the excitement around meme coins. She said the card has earned Zebec numerous accolades.

Despite the product’s success, Zebec’s customers sought features in a card that the Instant Card didn’t offer. The Instant Card is a prepaid card, and cardholders aren’t able to reload funds to it.

In 2024, the company launched a new card, the Zebec Black Card, to meet customer demands. 

“Our goal has always been to provide more options to our customers,” Dasgupta said. “We want to cater to all segments of our community and our customer base, and a portion of them have been wanting something more from us. That’s why we developed Zebec Black, which has been a card that everyone has loved since its launch.”

The Zebec Black Card is a reloadable debit card with higher spending limits than the Instant Card. Customers can use Zebec Black to make purchases and withdraw cash at ATMs. 

Zebec charges customers a load fee of approximately 1% to add funds to the card. The company charges customers in the U.S. who use Zebec Black to withdraw funds from an ATM $2 per withdrawal plus 2% of the amount withdrawn. 

Zebec Black offers users more options than Zebec Instant. Dasgupta said the Black card works across five blockchains, and Zebec is considering adding functionality to allow the card to work with additional chains.

In terms of tokens, the Black card supports nearly everything the Instant card supports. Zebec supports more than 200 tokens and is planning to support more as the Black card matures in its life cycle.

“All of the partnerships we have with the Instant card are carrying forward to the Black card,” Dasgupta said. “There’s also another card that we are planning to introduce soon, so we will have a marketplace of cards for customers to choose from. It all aligns with the whole idea of making crypto more accessible.”

Even people who aren’t cryptocurrency enthusiasts may have some familiarity with Bitcoin. In terms of market capitalization, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency in the world. 

But Zebec’s cards don’t support Bitcoin. The company hasn’t found value in enabling its customers to transact with the currency on its Instant and Black cards because many people view Bitcoin as an investment rather than a spendable asset.

“Market studies show that Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency people least prefer to use for transactions,” Dasgupta said. “Whereas the smaller value coins, which can be very volatile, are currencies that people want to use when their value increases. That’s why we’ve focused more on adding those coins at this point.”

As Zebec Network grows, the company plans to add functionality to its cards to allow cardholders to transact in Bitcoin. Dasgupta said some of Zebec’s larger customers will appreciate accessing Bitcoin on the Instant and Black cards. 

Zebec’s tremendous growth in a relatively short time is a testament to the company’s ingenuity and resourcefulness. Despite the company’s success, Dasgupta said the most rewarding part of his journey with Zebec has been earning the trust of the blockchain community.

Zebec views its relationship with its customers as a partnership. The company aims to introduce new solutions to the market as technologies around cryptocurrencies and payments continue to evolve.

“We want to be the silent partner who is going to stay with you in your wallet and your travels to extend a helping hand whenever you need it,” Dasgupta said. “That’s who Zebec wants to be — a partner for your day-to-day life. That’s why we’re creating a network of trust that also offers immense value to the community.”