Plutus Weekly Report - 6/11/2018

Welcome to the Plutus Weekly Report on Tuesday 6th of November

Our bounty program continues to be a success, our devs are helping to scale our platform, we are working towards Plutus 2.0, and more. Read on.

Building Towards Plutus 2.0

In June 2016, we articulated part of our vision for the long-term future of Plutus - https://medium.com/@PlutusIT/slingshot-from-orbit-the-future-vision-of-plutus-it-cf7b69f827ef

Now that we have built up a network of amazing strategic partners, we are able to take the next steps towards a full-featured platform.

The necessary preparations are being undertaken that may enable us to offer (current and additional) products indispensable to both crypto-enthusiasts, the unbanked, as well as the general public.

Using the power of SEPA transfers, Plutus Tap & Pay is quite possibly the fastest way to get from cryptocurrencies to a bank account balance.

Access your funds whenever you need them, with Plutus Tap & Pay.

You can now download the latest BETA version of the Plutus Tap & Pay app for Android or iOS and enjoy rapid crypto to fiat conversions at zero fees - http://plutus.it/

Media and Press

Global Banking & Finance Review Magazine:

“Blockchain Can Offer Solutions to Brexit Pitfalls”

An interview with our CEO and Founder, Danial Daychopan. (Page 58) - https://issuu.com/globalbankingandfinancereview/docs/forissuu_b12f961e08929d/58

Development Updates

The wheels are spinning and development is moving forward to deliver results. This week, our development progress is quite concise, but far more challenging than usual.

-Preparing for a complete overhaul of front-end infrastructure and flow, based on the results of the London UX session

-Testing edge-cases for card integration. Overall progress on card integration is at 35%.

-We have released a new version of the app with small changes in design and UX

-Implementing (even more) changes that will let our infrastructure reliably handle a large influx of users and scale to a larger audience.

The Bounty Program

Hundreds of hackers, coders, and enthusiasts have been stress-testing Plutus’ systems to win Pluton rewards (PLU). In total, our bounty hunters contributed 30 successful improvements that have been approved and implemented.

The success of our first (but not last) bounty competition so far has helped us enhance the security of our platform, in line with our mission to provide a cryptocurrency product that you can rely on.

“It’s this changing attitude to crypto that we hope to encourage as we build towards a full-service launch with the Plutus Debit Card next year. This is the first step to impacting real change on the crypto market of the future.”

To keep up to date with all things Plutus, join our Telegram groups, and read this weeks update in full - visit our Medium blog -https://medium.com/@PlutusIT/

Very important note: If you previously participated in the PLU crowdsale and have yet to claim your PLU you must do so before the end of December 2018. If you miss this deadline you will forfeit your unclaimed PLU and this will be used for bounty payouts.

Welcome to our Plutus Weekly Report on the 22nd of November

As you may know already, security is one of our biggest priorities at Plutus. Our aim is to deliver a crypto payment platform that is unmatchable in terms of user safety and usability. As a result, the dev team have been working on a few changes this week to deliver on this.

What has the development team been working on this week?

This week we have released a new version of our iOS app in the App Store.

- We have added additional screens with further instructions regarding payment information, making the customer experience simpler and more efficient.

- Ironed out issues with getting real-time updates during matching and tracking of the order processes, and resolved technical issues with our Redis infrastructure.
 
- Currently, we are working on account transfer functionality for selling crypto and linking to the card account. Deployed all major changes related to payments transfers and order matching services.

Using the power of SEPA transfers, Plutus Tap & Pay is quite possibly the fastest way to get from cryptocurrencies to a bank account balance.

Access your funds whenever you need them, with Plutus Tap & Pay.

You can now download the latest BETA version of the Plutus Tap & Pay app for Android or iOS and enjoy rapid crypto to fiat conversions at zero fees -https://plutus.it/

The Departure of Martin Szyllo and Filip Martinka

Martin Szyllo and Filip Martinka will unfortunately be leaving Plutus to embark on new challenges.

Filip joined the team at its infancy in 2015 to help with public communications and community support. His professionalism and expertise in the crypto space have helped shape the company line for future communications.

Martin was contracted to join in an interim management role to help Plutus establish a team of international developers, ensuring architectural security and overseeing third-party API integration.

We are incredibly grateful for their work at Plutus and we wish them the best of luck in their next career pursuits. They have left us in a strong position for future growth and we thank them for their contributions. We pride ourselves in sourcing only top-tier talent in order to achieve our ambitious goals and this will be continuing.

As sad as we are to see Martin go, we are also very excited to shortly be announcing our new permanent tech lead. A fintech and crypto veteran in his own right who will be coming in for the next stage of Plutus, helping with scaling our development team for both the UK and offshore. He will steer the company through the final stages of development and oversee the product growth of the ambitious Plutus 2.0 platform planned for an early 2019 release.

We have also hired a new Social Media & Content Marketer who will be covering a large portion of the writing from here forward. A well-rounded young professional who is hungry to grow Plutus’ online presence, with a track record in generating views.

This week the marketing team have been looking at Q1 plans, card mock-ups and EU Partnership Programmes.

Currently, the marketing team are planning for upcoming Q1 events. In order to maximise coverage, a media plan is being put together for the announcement of our card programme and high-profile press launch.

The designers are also putting together some mock-ups of the much-anticipated cards, this includes both the physical cards themselves and all the entailed packaging.

Preparation of our EU Partnership Programme is also in progress. We are identifying businesses that already accept crypto who we can develop mutual interests with through a corporate rewards programme. We believe this could provide an inflow of institutional wealth alongside our daily payment users.

We will also soon be introducing you to an adjusted 2019 roadmap now that we have discussed some major product developments that we think are best for Plutus’ future. We are incredibly excited as to the changes decided and believe these will transform usability and adoption of the app. The new roadmap will be arriving Jan 2019.

Our bounty hacker programme which has proven extremely successful and helpful is still in progress.

We have so far awarded over $6,000 worth of PLU to individuals stress-testing our services which has greatly fortified the security of our platforms.

Security researchers who successfully identify any major bugs with either our PlutusDEX or ‘Plutus Tap & Pay’ mobile app, will be rewarded with $500 worth of PLU. To find out more, assist in securing our platforms, and earn crypto, please read about it further here.

We would like to remind you of our various social media channels so you can stay up to date with the latest news on our project.

All new announcements will be made on our Medium channel first, if you are looking to keep informed on product developments, blockers and relevant news, please give us a follow here- https://medium.com/@PlutusIT. Our bi-monthly report is also posted on Steemit(https://steemit.com/@plutusit) as a commitment to supporting decentralized alternatives.

To get in touch with our staff and community, Telegram is the best source to visit. The team go over any questions the public may have, inform you of developments made, provide giveaways (you could win €200 worth of PLU just for joining) and more…Please join here - https://t.me/plutus_group.

We are also active on…

- Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/plutus
- Bitcointalk
- Twitter - https://twitter.com/plutus/media
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Plutusit/?ref=br_rs
- Instagram https://instagram.com/plutus.it?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=1g693sucx4ih9

Plutus was set up in 2015 by CEO and serial entrepreneur, Danial Daychopan, with the aim of bringing cryptocurrency payments to the mass market.

This is being achieved by combining an exchange with a payments system. Users will be able to pre-load either a Plutus debit card or virtual mobile balance with crypto (which is seamlessly converted into spendable fiat) that can then be used for in-store purchases.

We already have beta versions of our services with core functionalities available to the general public.

Our decentralized P2P trading platform known as the PlutusDEX can be used to buy and sell BTC, ETH and PLU at zero fees. What’s more, by design the platform is immune to company hacks, corruption, downtime etc., from having any impact on your funds, as we at no point store the user’s assets. For free trading, visit here - https://plutus.it/dex.

Our new mobile 'Plutus Tap & Pay’ app is also available for download on Android and iOS. This enables users to deposit crypto funds too, however, additional features that will enable NFC payments to be made will be arriving shortly. You can download the app early and try it out here - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.plutus.android&hl=en_GB.

Welcome to our Plutus Weekly Report on the 6th of December

Despite the year’s end approaching, efforts are on the rise to deliver an unrivalled service; the team have navigated a few obstacles this week and successfully managed to stay on track. Here is our weekly report summarising the events that have occurred…

What has the Development Team achieved this week?

This week the Development Team has improved the session management functionality of our PlutusDEX web version. The changes are currently in quality assurance and will be rolled out later this week to production.

We urgently updated our infrastructure after information in the news revealed vulnerabilities in the event-stream package.

The team added health check functionality to our microservices in clusters and were also updated to a new and improved format that is more scalable which will help ensure the service runs properly.

Development progress with our new providers for the Plutus card integration is moving quickly and the team is already able to pass the whole flow from the backend perspective in sandbox.

Updates from the Marketing Department

This week the Marketing Team have signed up for FinTech Connect, the UK’s largest fintech conference and trade show. This will be a great opportunity to gain insight into innovative financial products and to network with leading figures in the space.

The team has also engaged in a range of research activities into both economic and cryptocurrency trends. On top of this, we have investigated social media tracking products to help better understand our higher performing activities and areas of improvement, such as our weekly update, entering the new year we hope to have a fresh layout that makes our content more visually appealing to readers.

We are continuing to add evergreen content to our Plutus Publications page and want to provide insightful content to the community that helps establish our position as opinion leaders in the field. Read our latest addition here.

Bi-Monthly Reminder

We would like to remind you that from now on, our Plutus reporting will be released on a bi-monthly basis. You can expect our next and final Plutus report of the year to be available by 19th December.

We still remain the only crypto payments company to reveal such regular and detailed commentary on the behind-the-scenes work. We also believe that going bi-monthly will help document more concise and insightful reporting on our company as at times some parts of the development take longer than a single week to formulate or implement.

We want to be as transparent as possible but also deliver acutely accurate information.

New Product Owner

Over the last couple of months, the team have been sourcing the addition of a new Product Owner. Plutus always strives to hire only the best employees for the project in order to deliver excellence. With this in mind, we are happy to announce our latest hire, Minyi Soon.

Minyi has a diverse background across asset management, blockchain, product and tech. She has previously worked as an investment analyst within Legacy Financial Services, with a focus on research, asset allocation and trading. She then transitioned into building both VC and non-VC products.

She carries experience building tech products at various stages of growth, across multiple sectors, with an intense focus on aligning behavioural data and design with business goals.

Her last role was Senior Product Owner at London-based Crypto Digital Asset Exchange, BlockexMarkets, where she was responsible for building their blockchain-based tokenization product and user acquisition.

Her first foray into bitcoin was in February 2014 when it was just £203, making her an early adopter in the field by today’s standards.

She graduated with an Economics degree and is an alumni of the Blockchain Strategy Programme at Oxford University. We are excited to have her on board and look forward to the progress we can make with her added contributions.

Social Reminder

As always, we would like to remind you of our various social media channels. Be sure to follow us on each one to stay fully up-to-date on the Plutus project.

Our Telegram is the best way to get in direct contact with our staff or community. If you have any questions relating to the project, this is the best place to ask them. The group discusses project developments, FAQs, important topics and crypto giveaways (there is a strong chance that you could win €200 worth of PLU just for participating in our channel). Join us here.

For more detailed breakdowns of our project developments, visit our Plutus Medium page. We regularly discuss the company challenges, advances and noteworthy events experienced by the team. Take a look here.

It’s also worth checking out our other platforms…

Reddit
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Steemit

About Plutus

For the first time readers, here is a brief explanation of how our project works and why we believe it is so revolutionary.

The aim is to be the most secure and reliable cryptocurrency payments platform globally. This will be achieved by combining a payments system with a decentralized exchange.

Before an in-store purchase is made, the users’ cryptocurrency holdings are converted into spendable fiat through our peer-to-peer exchange known as the PlutusDEX. The user can convert only the amount of crypto necessary for a purchase and pay via a Plutus debit card or mobile ‘Plutus Tap & Pay’ app. This overcomes the slow process of merchant adoption and makes crypto instantly usable at over 40 million stores worldwide.

A beta version of our PlutusDEX trading platform is available now and is quite possibly the fastest way to convert your cryptocurrency into a useable European bank balance. Whilst in beta we are offering the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies with zero fees attached, take a look here.

Unlike any of our competitors, we never store the funds of a user. Given the rising number of exchange breaches and constant advances in hacking techniques, we believe storing user assets a jeopardy to everyone involved. Instead, our users are in possession of their crypto and fiat at all times, making their funds immune to company hacks, corruption, downtime, closures etc. impacting their money in any way.

We are on target for a complete product release in Q1 2019, the Plutus 2.0 will include an intuitive user interface backed by the Plutus debit card, mobile ‘Plutus Tap & Pay’ app and PlutusDEX trading platform.

Is there any news
I thought in 2019 Q1 there would be full launch. But no information at all 
When debit cards??
When working product?
When tap and pay??
When a decent exchange?(and i don’t mean the plutus dex with NO liquidity)

David, will PLU also get listed on other exchanges than the plutusdex? Are you in talk with other exchanges? Are you doing everything you can to get PLU listed on other exchanges?
Thank you!

Plutus — A Look Back At The Achievements From 2018

A Successful Year Behind Us

2018 has been an exciting year for Plutus and the company has seen some real progression, we are proud to be one of the few crypto companies to go from a white paper to a functioning product. This article will cover our year’s achievements, blockers and developments.

Challenges

Before delving into the positives accomplished this year, let’s go through the challenges faced by the team and how these have been overcome.

Card Issuing

At the start of this year, our MasterCard services were available to the general public and customers were able to seamlessly spend their converted crypto. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond the control of Plutus, we were forced to terminate the cards issued to our customers as a result of policy changes by third-party service providers. The news was a disappointing setback and stunted Plutus’ progress, the rest of the crypto-payments sector experienced similar setbacks as a result of constantly changing corporate opinions on cryptocurrencies.

The team shifted their focus towards releasing the new Plutus cards, and have since prepared to release them in early 2019 by re-building the appropriate partnerships and by aquiring new service providers.

Red Tapes

Since Plutus taps into the legacy payment infrastructure it faces similar legal challenges experienced by any regulated financial institution, especially by the FCA and FSA in the United Kindgom. Having forecasted future regulations, we have taken every precaution necessary from the inception of our token sale to the building of an e-banking app that works with crypto. It requires extensive due diligence of the token model (Pluton), the application workflow, and the business model in the interest of the company’s longevity. We have achieved this with the continuous help of our legal partners Bird & Bird. You can read more about the legal standpoint of Pluton here - https://medium.com/@PlutusIT/legal-opinion-on-pluton-e945a224627

Landmark Achievements

The team have dedicated a lot of hours to bring you the most proficient and secure crypto payments platform possible. We have built from the ground up, a non-custodial way to convert crypto to fiat via our PlutusDEX and a mobile Plutus Tap & Pay app for payments. There has been a lot ongoing behind the scenes to put us in the position we are at today, here are some of the most notable highlights…

Partnerships

After the unavoidable red tape mentioned earlier, arrangements were immediately put in place to acquire a new card provider. This year we developed a new and improved partnership with an award-winning payment solutions provider to deliver the soon arriving Plutus debit cards in Q1 2019, they will also be facilitating the in-store fiat transactions from Pound Sterling and Euro accounts.

However, this is not the only partnership that’s been put in place. There are further unmentioned partnerships with services that will prove hugely advantageous for the future of Plutus, these developments will greatly speed up Plutus’ progress towards a worldwide crypto payment service and it extends the potentials far beyond that.

SEPA Integration

This relationship has also enabled us to integrate Europe’s fastest payment processing system, SEPA, an advance that offers real usability to our customers. The new cross-border Euro bank transfer format is used in 34 different countries and guarantees payments are received in full, on time, and without bank deductions. Users can withdraw their converted crypto into their personal bank account balance in minutes as a result. Our platform is potentially the fastest way to get from cryptocurrencies to a bank account balance.


Plutus Tap & Pay App

This September we successfully released the BETA version of our ‘Plutus Tap & Pay’ app. The mobile app enables users to exchange their crypto into a virtual fiat balance which can instantly be withdrawn, the team are preparing additional payment functionalities that will be arriving in early 2019. We are seeing an increasing number of app users daily with 7,000+ downloads so far. The application is available on both Android and iOS and can be downloaded here.

PlutusDEX

We also successfully launched a live BETA version of our PlutusDEX platform, a decentralised P2P exchange necessary for converting crypto to EUR/GBP for the soon arriving Plutus payment features. Pluton became instantly and securely tradeable across the platform and this was expanded soon after to facilitate Bitcoin and Ether transactions also; you can now trade all three cryptocurrencies using the service. These two core functionalities, the buying and selling of crypto, are offered with zero fees attached whilst in BETA. To experience fee-free trading, please visit: PlutusDEX


Reward System

Our loyalty reward system is now set up and ready to deploy, as soon as fees are attached to our service we will implement our rewards programme, expected to be released in our next major update in Q1 2019.

Users will receive up to 3% of their crypto deposits back in the form of Pluton (PLU) which can instantly be exchanged to fiat and withdrawn using our service, or utilized for spending. We have by far the most rewarding structure in place out of any crypto payments platform.

App Survey

In order to improve every aspect of our app and deliver an unrivalled service, we sent out a user experience survey this October. We take user satisfaction very seriously and the results highlighted some major product design changes to be incorporated into our next app version. The developers have been working on significant improvements in preparation for a 2019 release which we are incredibly excited about.

Hacker Bounty Programme

We have additionally been running a hacker bounty programme throughout the year where we reward security researchers who identify any bugs or security issues with our service. The programme aims to assist in delivering an incredibly secure trading platform. Security is of paramount importance which is the primary reason we opted for a decentralized P2P exchange in the first place, this bounty process has helped us deliver on that. In total, our bounty hunters have contributed 30 successful improvements that have been approved and implemented, in return, we have awarded over $6,000 worth of PLU for their efforts.

Next Year

We have some game-changing developments to be released early next year, the Plutus 2.0 platform will have several e-banking features, as well as an intuitive user interface, for ease of use on both the app and desktop. More details on these updates and the complete list of features will be announced in the coming month.

Thank You

We would like to give a warm thank you to everyone involved in the Plutus project.

Our Media partners have done a great job and we are truly humbled by the positive media responses we have received. We thank the security researchers for their assistance in fortifying the strength of our platform and we are also incredibly grateful to the community, both the veterans and the newbies, for their continued support of our project. We could not be able to work without knowing there is a loyal user base excited to use our services.

If you'd like to read the rest of our EOY look back, which includes our new hires, marketing highlights, and events, as well as links to our social media page then head on over to our Medium blog here - https://medium.com/@PlutusIT/plutus-a-look-back-at-the-achievements-from-2018-c8a589ba0d5a


Very important note: If you previously participated in the PLU crowdsale and have yet to claim your PLU you must do so before the end of December 2018. If you miss this deadline you will forfeit your unclaimed PLU and this will be used for bounty payouts.

It's commendable that we are getting regular updates now.

However, you really need to get on some reputable exchanges.

Maybe get in touch with Bittrex?

They don't charge for listing.

HitBTC is too shady.

Hi everyone,

Here is a great in-depth analysis of Plutus written by a member of the public, it's definitely worthy of a read

https://marketmadhouse.com/plunging-into-payments-with-plutus-tap-pay-and-pluton-plu/

Marcus

Welcome back to our bi-monthly reporting, the Plutus team has been working at full speed on a wide variety of tasks over the last fortnight and we are pleased with the progress being made.

Pinned Announcements

- You can buy BTC, ETH & PLU on our BETA PlutusDEX platform with 0% fees.

- Our BETA Plutus Tap & Pay mobile app is available on Android and iOS. It lets you sell crypto for fiat and withdraw to your bank account via SEPA transfers.

- We aim for a complete product overhaul including the card release to be completed in the coming months.

Development Update

KYC & UX

We have been refining our AML and KYC policies with an established next-generation screening and monitoring tool in order to ensure our regulatory measures meet the strict traditional banking and payments standards. This was a lengthy process, but we are on track.

Enhancements have also been made to the UX of the KYC process from a user’s perspective on both web and mobile applications. We have additionally set up learning procedures and analytics around KYC interactions so we can learn and iterate rapidly from our users for future amendments.

Security Audits

We passed our security audit. We were required to undergo a full manual security penetration test of our DEX application for our card provider, to prove the robustness of our security features. The renowned software audit company accepted our approach and the process enabled us to implement some small changes that will further increase our security.

We also completed the implementation of a service side antivirus, this was a hard requirement for our worldwide card provider — another box checked off.

Other progress includes optimisation of the KYC function (no longer writes data to disk, faster, less IO); implementation of EFK for improved log aggregation and monitoring; analysis (and rejection) of EKS for Kubernetes management.

Marketing Update

The marketing team held an internal meeting to discuss the aesthetics of our upcoming Plutus Debit Cards; evaluating the textures, colours and how we can differentiate ourselves from the rest of the market. We also engaged with two leading card manufacturers, who supply most household name cards, to discuss what is possible with regards to finishes and special effects.

The team has been working avidly on our content video strategy in line with our anticipated card release due over the coming months. We have outlined and created a schedule of titles and formats of 11 how-to videos, these will be supported by additional content and digital promotions.

With our Plutus 2.0 upgrade approaching, the team has laid out the designs for of a new website — more specifically the written content side and not the imagery. This includes the sub-pages, our products, feature descriptions and navigations.

On top of this, we continue to prepare for our large scale marketing activities; this includes ongoing press networking, identifying potential strategic brand partners for our launch, narrowing down potential speaker events, and finalising of our blogger/influencer activities.

The team has upped their regular posting across various social media platforms and this will be continued over the coming weeks.

Plutus Vacancies

In order to accommodate the progress being made, we have decided to further expand our impressive workforce. We are looking for four new talented individuals to join our team and grow Plutus to its full potential.

Senior DevOps Engineer

We are seeking an experienced Senior DevOps Engineer interested in improving our highly available, robust and secure platform on AWS. The newest member will be responsible for architecting and implementing solutions, as well as coordinating with the teams responsible for other layers of the product development.

Senior Frontend Developer

The successful applicant must have a passion for web application development and the related ecosystem of tools and libraries. They must be able to demonstrate: strong frontend skills, the ability to produce pixel-perfect picture, extensive React/Redux experience and proficient Javascript/CSS/HTML coding.

Senior Full Stack Developer

This role requires a similar skill set to our Senior Frontend Developer role plus additional strong backend experience with Node.js/Express development. Our applicants must also possess strong SQL, PostgreSQL coding principles.

Head of Blockchain

We are also in search of a respected, reputed blockchain specialist with a good understanding of Financial Services and regulatory framework. The successful candidate will provide thought-leadership on all things crypto and blockchain, as well as some hands-on solidity programming and public speaking.

Building a product is a highly collaborative effort, and as such, strong team players with a commitment to perfection is a must. If you feel capable of contributing to the Plutus platform, or know of someone who might be suitable, then please refer to our application page here.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —— — — — — —

Fact: It’s possible to buy as little as 0.00000001฿ (aka 1 Satoshi) which is less than a thousandth of a penny.

We currently support Bitcoin trading for zero fees on our decentralised exchange, the PlutusDEX. Although much more challenging to build, decentralised exchanges offer far better security as there is no central storage of funds susceptible to hacks, corruption etc. Decentralised exchanges match users looking to trade directly instead of acting as the trusted middleman in possession of your assets.

Join us on Telegram and read the full update on our Medium page.

I tried to download Plutus Tap & Pay, but google play says its not available in my country. I live in Norway, which is on the list of supported countries.