Over the next three days, our Bitcoinist team will be covering xDay 2023, an event organized by MultiversX at the Romanian Parliament Palace. Formerly known as Elrond, the project was rebranded in 2022 to focus on the Metaverse, one of the hottest trends in cryptography.
During the event, the head of product for MultiversX’s Native xPortal “SuperApp” Sergius Biris revealed new features to expand the ecosystem. The project aims to integrate new users into the network by providing social interactions, a bridge with other blockchains and more to compete with Elon Muk.
xPortal follows Elon Musk’s ambitions
Since last year, when Musk acquired Twitter (under the name “X”), the entrepreneur has gradually tried to turn it into something more. The social media app allows users to receive tips, subscribe to their favorite content and interact with non-tradable tokens.
These features highlight the relevance for users to operate with a single hub. MultiversX and xPortal want to compete with Elon Musk by giving users access to these and other features announced during the conference, such as gamification, access to the metaverse and NFTs to provide a “multifaceted digital experience”.
Unlike X and Musk’s efforts, the team behind xPortal believes they have a critical advantage: their product is live and has over 1.5 million users already traversing and interacting with the MultiversX ecosystem.
Additionally, MultiversX has a vision to remove any friction from integrating into its ecosystem. Thus, xPortal announced a new fiat to crypto on and off-ramping feature and a feature that allows users to exchange their tokens.
For European users, xPortal will enable peer-to-peer fiat payments with the traditional banking system, SEPA and SWIFT, earlier next year. During the conference, Biris stated:
The features released today, most notably debit cards, have been a long time in the making. Today’s release elevates xPortal from a crypto wallet to a financial super app. We have thus created a bridge to an interconnected future where the lines between crypto, fiat and emerging technologies like AI dissolve, bringing an unparalleled user experience.
The new features also included tools for developers and creators to leverage the MultiversX ecosystem. The xPortal app already allows them to release their products for quick download by users, similar to Apple’s Appstore and Google’s PlayStore.
Converting Web3 and Crypto to “Money”
The conference was held under one core vision: users want to leverage technology, so crypto projects must focus on security, scalability, and building accessible products. Rather than “Web3” or “Web4”, xPortal is about turning crypto into “money” available to anyone.
Sergiu Biris, Head of Product at xPortal, spoke to us during the event in an exclusive interview and shared the vision of the project:
They need to be able to do anything, whether it’s crypto or fiat, they don’t need to think Blockchain is that, blockchain is not money. We’re trying to break down those barriers between crypto and fiat because in our vision, money is just money. And that’s why we want to make it easy for everyone to do what they need to do with their financial needs through the app.
Cover image by MultiversX, chart by Tradingview
