In the Payments and Fintech segment we also find new digital devices and financial currencies. Digital currencies are growing globally and among them you frequently hear about so-called, cryptocurrencies. You have probably already heard about the most famous cryptocurrency – Bitcoin. There are however several cryptocurrencies established globally already, with Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin, Tether amongst those already widely spread. The number of unique users of these cryptocurrencies have now exceeded the 300 hundred million mark, up with more than 200 million compared to the same time last year. In this Next Insights #4 we had the pleasure to sit down with NGRAVE CEO Ruben Merre. NGRAVE is an important customer to NEXT and Ruben is a thought leader from the cryptocurrency market. The purpose of this Insights paper is to explain how NEXT fingerprint sensors are being used in digital devices linked to crypto currencies.

Number of cryptocurrency users^[1]

Fun facts

• Bitcoin’s first payment purpose was back in 2010, when it was used to buy two pizzas in for a total of 10,000 BTC
• There are currently over 300 million unique people using crypto
• There are more than 200 crypto exchanges

Trading online with digital currencies, are there risks?

One of the most common risks associated with trading or holding cryptocurrencies is to have your digital cryptocurrency keys and passwords hacked and/or stolen. Another risk is that users simply lose their keys, and due to the nature of the cryptography are subsequently unable to ever get them back, According to Ruben Merre: “at the end of  2018, USD 2.5 billion in crypto was stolen, only rising to a new record in 2021 at USD 14 billion.” Merre continues, “another astonishing fact is that of the total fixed number of available Bitcoins (21 million) approximately 1 out of 5 or 20% are already lost, and most of these Bitcoins will never be recovered.”

To prevent having crypto keys and passwords stolen, users have historically attempted to store them safely in USB sticks, encrypted hard drives, or so-called crypto “hardware wallets”, offline hardware devices dedicated to creating and storing crypto private keys securely, as well as signing crypto transactions offline. Often, these types of wallets are also referred to as “cold wallets”, referring to the offline nature of their use, whereas “hot wallets” are online wallets such as mobile apps or browser extensions. During the last couple of years, the use of different digital crypto wallets securing the users valuable assets has become popular due to the increased need for protection in tandem with increasing value of the market Hence, the number of users owning a digital crypto wallet is likely to correlate strongly with the ongoing hyper-adoption in number of unique users.

Number of blockchain wallet users^[2]

What is the link to NEXT Biometrics and our fingerprint sensors?

Since passwords are easy to forget and proven to be highly sensitive to theft, some digital crypto wallet providers have started to integrate biometrics into their hardware wallet devices as an additional measure of security. This is where you find the link to NEXT Biometrics. Our high security (even FBI certified) fingerprint sensors are a perfect way to increase security of crypto wallets. With our great form-factor, NEXT fingerprints sensors are a perfect fit for slim, smart digital crypto-wallet providers. For the latter, this will add yet another layer of security for their users since they all have their unique fingerprint now enabling them to access their digital currency wallets. Customers don’t even need to remember or save passwords, they have the possibility to use their personal and unique fingerprint as credentials.

@NEXT we are proud to have been selected by one of the coldest ultra-secure digital crypto wallets, produced by NGRAVE in Belgium. The NGRAVE “ZERO” wallet has recently been awarded “Crypto Wallet Solution of the Year 2021” for its highest security, design, and ease of use.  We believe in NGRAVE as one of the most promising crypto wallet providers globally. They have entered a high growth market at the right time, with a solution that clearly solves several existing security and usability challenges, well-supporting customers to save their private keys in a secure and convenient offline wallet.

NGRAVE was founded in 2018 by its current CEO, Ruben Merre and co-founders Edouard Vanham (COO) and Xavier Hendrickx (CTO). NGRAVE is a digital asset security provider offering user-friendly maximum-security solutions for blockchain and crypto use cases. Its previously mentioned flagship product — crypto hardware wallet “NGRAVE ZERO” — is the only financial product in the world that features the highest security certification: EAL7. NGRAVE has partnered with the world’s top tier in nano- and chip technology, cryptography and hardware security, and counts among its advisors several blockchain pioneers such as Jean-Jacques Quisquater, famous cryptography professor and second reference of the bitcoin paper.

NGRAVE ZERO including NEXT Biometrics fingerprint sensor

We asked Ruben what NGRAVE expects from its recent launch of the NGRAVE product suite, going forward. “We are experiencing significant demand and have already sold and shipped our products to 90 countries and counting. At this point, we are effectively sold out and we highly recommend that people sign up for the waiting list so they can receive theirs in time.”, “Our biggest challenge right now is the long lead time of certain important components of the bill of material, we are being very proactive and working hard to overcome this so we can meet the strong demand.”

A few days ago, NGRAVE placed a follow-up recurring order with NEXT Biometrics as ZERO’s demand is increasing significantly with the increasing problem of insecurity in the crypto markets.

@NEXT we love biometrics and we believe that more digital currencies and crypto wallets related to this fast-growing market will benefit from it. Who knows, people might be trading with their digital currencies from their car infotainment system soon, so why not protect your assets with your own unique identity – your own fingerprints both in the car as well as with a digital crypto wallet.

At NEXT we believe that more and more devices that become digital and connected will benefit from biometrics. Today, we tried to provide some insight into a relatively young but fast-growing market and how we are linked to it. But surely as Internet of Things moves ahead, we will all benefit from using biometrics instead of trying to save, remember, store and restore passwords.

Till NEXT Insight

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^[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1202503/global-cryptocurrency-user-base/

^[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/647374/worldwide-blockchain-wallet-users/

You might believe that we have been silent lately, that might be correct, but please don’t underestimate the activity level of NEXT hard-working employees around the globe. In this NEXT INSIGHTS #3 we provide an update related to our latest achievements in the Payment and Fintech industries. The last 9 months we have gained more and more traction in the payment and fintech industries known for its rigorous security standards dealing with customers and businesses digital money. So, what is the latest steps taken by NEXT related to the payment & fintech industry?

Today’s news item is from Mumbai in India. NEXT Biometrics has recently signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) and received an initial PO for delivery of fingerprint sensors to be integrated into yet another payment Point-of-Sale (POS) device. In addition, NEXT will provide high security sensors to Biometric Bluetooth Readers for the India Market. Our sensors provided to these two new devices is in corporation with Pagaria Group in India.

The initiated corporation with Pagaria Group related to mobile payment POS terminals in India follows NEXT’s already communicated partnership (during 2020) with China based Newland (the world’s second largest POS provider). In addition, NEXT announced a new customer in the crypto currency industry, Ngrave in Belgium, during Q4 2020. Ngrave has developed a digital wallet that uses NEXT’s fingerprint sensors linked to the use of blockchain-technology. We get improved attention from the payment and fintech industry with these contract wins and partnerships. Customers handling both physical and digital currency transactions over different technologies have identified NEXT as a strong provider of secure fingerprint sensors.

What is cooking in India?

Under the recently signed non-binding LOI, NEXT will provide our India certified One Touch ID Finger Print Module to Pagaria. NEXT has already received an initial PO for 4,650 sensors from Pagaria in accordance with the signed LOI.

Pagaria Group, a well-known supplier of financial hardware solutions, in partnership with Watchdata, a pioneer in Smart Devices, has incorporated NEXT fingerprint modules into payment POS terminals and soon to come Biometric Bluetooth readers for the Indian market. The LOI has an estimated volume of 13.000 sensors to be integrated into payment POS devices and an additional estimated volume of 10.000 sensors to be integrated into Biometric Bluetooth readers. The majority of estimated and planned shipments are expected to take place during 2021.

Where will these payment POS devices be used in India?

The POS terminals and Biometric Bluetooth readers will be used in the Fintech domain by one of the fastest growing payment banks in India providing door-step digital services to the citizens of India.

“Pagaria’s outstanding solutions capabilities in the fintech market together with NEXT’s unique fingerprint sensor technology brings the right solutions and products to capture the on-going significant growth of mobile financial solutions in India”, said Ankush Pagaria, CEO of Pagaria Group.

We are pleased to announce this LOI and initial commercial order with Pagaria Group. The collaboration with Pagaria Group also reaffirms NEXT support of the “Digital India Program”. The collaboration with Pagaria Group is another important step for NEXT enabling smart and slim biometric payment and fintech products that requires a high degree of security.

I hope this NEXT Insights #3 gave you some good insight into our activity level in the Payment & Fintech markets. Rest assured, we continue to keep our ears close to the market while digitalisation in the Payment & Fintech space is developing around the world.

Best regards
Peter Heuman CEO NEXT Biometrics ASA

About Pagaria Group :

Pagaria Group is a leading hardware solution provider for 2FA authentication devices, Smart Devices, Biometric & Aadhar Authentication equipment, HSM devices mainly in Banking, Fintech and Government applications. The company partners with renowned OEM’s globally to develop Hardware solutions for India market. Company’s recent partnership with Next Biometric marks a significant milestone for the company goal to develop and manufactures hardware solutions locally in India. Pagaria Group has achieved deployment of more than 7 million hardware devices by the end of 2020. Pagaria Group is based out of Mumbai having its sales and service outlets at PAN India locations.

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