Blockchain company enters ‘token economy’ with STokens

Through a blockchain-based discount coupon system that allows users to collect 10 percent of their purchases and gives them a 10 percent discount, X-widget hopes to draw 100 million users worldwide, including 10 million in South Korea, by 2024.

X-widget said its blockchain-based mileage project called SToken, designed to help the self-employed and small business owners, drew more than 800,000 users with over 1,000 stores signing up for the service in Korea and Vietnam.

The company said it plans to attract more shops and users in Southeast Asia and expand to other parts of Asia.

To that end, X-widget has developed Web 3.0 global platform S-Members, completing a business structure that rewards stakeholders including the suppliers, customers and platform operator based on their level of participation.

Based on X-widget’s own blockchain network, or a main net dubbed MASnet, the S-Members platform is exclusively embedded in a mobile cold wallet named “Master Bank” that serves as the gateway of the platform. It also features a customer service evaluation system, a messenger service and a blockchain reservation system to prevent no-shows.

SToken is a system for getting discounts from S-Members shops. On SToken, the currency setting changes automatically depending on the user’s location and choice of language. The SToken service is currently available in Korean, English and Vietnamese. By the end of this year, users will be able to register photos of the stores, “follow” shops, post reviews and use alarm functions for hot sales, the company said.

Member stores can enter information on their products, services and discount rates on a real-time basis using the S-Members app for businesses. They should receive or collect up to 10 percent of the payments made in STokens. Users can get discounts or accumulate points by browsing through information provided by the stores near their location. A “hot sale alarm system,” designed to help stores get rid of their stock, sends out messages through the app to users within a radius of 10 kilometers.

Kimg Seong-un, chief executive of X-widget, said it is a system where the company’s Master Bank mobile cold wallet and non-fungible token platform enjoy a synergy effect through SToken users and stores.

“Starting from Korea and Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines, we plan to globalize S-Members and aim to grow into a ‘decacorn’ project,” Kim said, referring to a super unicorn startup valued at over $10 billion.

X-widget said that when STokens come to hold monetary exchange value as S-Members expands and use of STokens increases, the company will sell all of its STokens on the crypto assets exchange and donate the revenue to nongovernmental organizations. The record of where the donations by each donor went can be saved on blockchain and be accessed transparently.

X-widget said the end goal of S-Members is to “Save the Earth” through a Web 3.0 blockchain-based win-win project for consumers and member stores. It plans to collaborate with a Korean shipbuilder and a global environmental NGO for a “Blockchain NGO Plastic Island” donation project, where special ships collect plastic waste at the mouths of rivers before it flows into the ocean, and cutting-edge technology is used to turn the plastic waste into petroleum.

Money raised from selling the petroleum products and donations will be used to build more small vessels to be positioned at the estuaries, and bigger ships will also be built to collect pollutants from 10 landfill islands in the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, according to the company.

X-widget is also a group of homegrown blockchain experts that offers consulting service and solutions optimized for enterprise environment.

“The SToken project can lock in platform participants by giving out as incentives tokens that can be exchanged for tangible or intangible value,” Kim said.

“By lowering the threshold for businesses to make use of blockchain networks, X-widget will substantially support small-business owners around world, and build an ecosystem where digital assets are used in the real world and contribute toward society.”