Hi everyone and also a special shout-out to members of the AMPire that may be reading this article. Today I wanted to talk about AMP, the native token of the Flexa network and a project in its earliest of days. This project is going to not only revolutionize paying with crypto, it will revolutionize the payment sector in general. From simple store purchases to something as big as ensuring a whole country is able to use BTC as a national currency! That’s right, I said it! Before I go any farther though, I just want to say this is not financial advice in any way. It is just my opinion of an extremely exciting project. One in which I am invested heavily into. I’m just an old dirty biker, and a working shmuck like most of you. Money is important, so don’t put in more than you can afford to lose. Not just in crypto, but in general!
The basics
Amp is a token used to collateralize purchases and is asset agnostic. It currently supports more than 30 cryptos for purchases. 
The idea is simple. Use any crypto you would like and pay the merchant. The merchant can then choose to receive payment either in fiat or any crypto of his choosing. Now you may be saying “But sometimes transactions take awhile on the blockchain!!!!” Correct. And many times those transactions can fail before they reach the receiving party, leaving Jimmy down at the sausage shop with no money and a lot less sausage. In comes AMP. It guarantees the merchant gets paid regardless of what happens. When a transaction is made,the required amount of AMP is put to work to guarantee it is completed. If the transaction is successful,the AMP is returned to the pool. If it fails for whatever reason,the AMP is liquidated and Jimmy gets paid. He never sau-sage a thing before and now he’s all AMPed up to accept crypto again! Best of all,Jimmy don’t need no stinking new payment processors to make this happen. He can simply do a software update to his existing POS system. The merchants are not required to purchase AMP to participate,but if they do buy and stake AMP, they can get rewards on the back end from an APY that compounds every 15 minutes. Jimmy says Cha-Ching!
Let’s take a dip in the pool
Currently, at the time of this writing, AMP is priced at $.0296 with a market cap of 1.3 billion. There is a circulating supply of 42 billion tokens which represents 46% of the total supply. “Holy shit that’s a lot of tokens!” you just shouted at me with much more than a hint of disgust in your voice. There’s a reason there’s that many however. Of the 42b tokens in circulation, roughly 66% are currently staked. Amp needs a large supply of tokens to be able to collateralize purchases while accounting for the fact that not everyone will stake their tokens. The stake pool is what guarantees merchants are paid and if AMP has to be liquidated from the pool,it is split evenly across so that impacts are negligible. Towards the end,I will post the link to the whitepaper so you can read the tokenomics for yourself. Staked AMP has a variable APY that compounds every 15 minutes. The less people that stake,the higher the APY and the opposite is true if more are staked. There are currently 3 places to stake AMP with more coming. As of now you can stake AMP on
- Flexa network
- Gemini(notice that Gemini earn is powered by Flexa)
- Lightning network
The APY is variable and honestly I don’t have the numbers at this time. Please feel free to comment if you know the staking percentages!
Just the facts
A stated goal of Flexa is making it possible to use any asset, in any app, in any store in the world. And with over 30 supported cryptos,they have more choices than any other competitor. Speaking of competition, they don’t hold a candle to AMP. Some of them require the merchant to buy their token and hold it and more importantly,use the old legacy payment rails like Visa and MC. Flexa has developed an entirely new set of payment rails,and merchants that use AMP will find their fees are much lower and more fraud proof then any other way. A redditor named u/MannerSweet wanted me to mention that merchants can also choose to buy AMP and stake it, not only saving money on transactions, but also getting rewards on the back end.
If you’re a consumer, you download the SPEDN app from Flexa. It’s important to note the app is proof of concept and is in its early stages so it is not a finished product. There’s currently a spending limit of $750 I believe, although as more regulations are met, that will be increasing. As of right now, there is over $24b of spending capacity on the Flexa network
And of course there’ll be a lot of links at the end of this article because they can tell this story so much better than I lol
Woah there,partner!
Partnerships are key. AMP was developed by Flexa and Consensys to be open source and asset agnostic. Anybody can use AMP.
Amp is used by the Lightning network to collateralize purchases and there are many rumors about some big name companies wanting to use AMP but those are just rumors. Unless you hear it directly from Flexa, it’s just a rumor. Flexa is also partnered with Banco Agricola. Many people in El Salvador are able to take advantage of it and save a ton on remittance fees when receiving money from loved ones out of country. More money to the people,not the corporations like western union etc. The SPEDN app can be used at many retailers here in the States at places such as Bed Bath and Beyond, Dunkin Donuts, DQ, Gamestop and so many more. Simply open the app,have the cashier scan the QR code as a gift card and you’re good to go. The list grows and Flexa has also been obtaining money transmitter licenses in state after state. This company is laser focused on exceeding the regulations set forth by the USA to be able to do business. Even New York is on board. I mean, come on!!!
In the long run
As I said, this project is super early. Not even a year and a half and already they are helping populations of entire countries. Look beyond running down to Jimmy’s and buying some sausage. Anything that can be collateralized and secured against fraud can use AMP. Purchases,loyalty points,remittances, real estate transactions and so on. If you can think of a need, AMP can fill it. It wouldn’t surprise me to see titty bars and coke dealers use AMP. I mean the hookers and blow have to come from somewhere, and I imagine they don’t wanna be ripped off either!! Lol This is gonna make AMP very valuable and a real threat to legacy payment institutions.At just under $0.03 and a MC of about 1b, AMP can easily reach $0.50-$1.00. I feel much bolder than that however . I expect AMP to eventually reach up to $10 with a MC of around 300b. Maybe that sounds crazy, but I think that’s a fair valuation given the world of finance and how much of the share, if not the entire pie,Flexa can capture. Enough from me, I will post some links for you to check out. I encourage you to look into AMP farther. It is truly a gem,and so early. If you enjoyed this story, please feel free to tip me and consider following along. I write about everything from crypto to price action, personal experiences and more. And if you really feel generous,I accept USDC at this address
0xEC25b66A3355f779e23dd251734C8ABfFE939Cd5
Thanks and as always, don’t let your meat loaf!
PS.. I also included a screenshot of some highlights of AMP as posted on Reddit by u/coolstorynerd on the AMP subreddit. A great place to go to seek info on AMP from people who know way more about it than me. A few pieces are outdated as this post was from 3 months ago and some points have been added to. Also, I just took a screenshot of the different links regarding Flexa and AMP. I know that may seem lazy to some of y’all, but I am a full time, single dad of two boys ages 7 and 2. If you have kids, you know how important saving time is lol
And here’s the important links for you
Also if you are considering using Celcius, please use my referral code. We both get $50 of BTC if you use the code. However you must transfer at least $400 of crypto and leave it there for 30 days for us to receive the reward. If the market drops,you do not need to add to it to maintain its value Join Celsius Network using my referral code 113068c979 when signing up and earn $50 in BTC with your first transfer of $400 or more! #UnbankYourself
https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/113068c979
For more info on Celcius, please check out a recent article I wrote
https://www.publish0x.com/confessions-of-a-crypto-enthusiast/holding-for-the-long-term-why-not-put-your-crypto-to-work-wh-xznxndj
