Nobitex hopes to determine the task of exchanging digital currencies

Among the businesses that have formed their activities around digital currencies, we can Startup Nobitex pointed out. To get to know this startup and its services, we had an interview with Amirhossein Rad, the founder of Nobitex, which we share with you.

The new blockchain technology affects a new field every day. The entry of this technology into every field brings wide opportunities for value creation. One of the first results Blockchain were digital currencies that are still in the interest of technology lovers. The hot market of digital currencies requires platforms for the interaction of buyers and sellers, which needs attention Ideas traders and entrepreneurs have been placed. In Iran, at the same time as other countries of the world, the fever of digital currency trading rose, but after some time, this fever subsided to some extent with the issuance of an order banning the purchase and sale of digital currencies. However Startup They hope that the establishment of laws and organization will facilitate the working conditions in this sector.

Let’s start with Amirhossein Rad.

I am Amir Hossein Rad, a PhD graduate in process engineering from Sharif University of Technology and head of Nobitex Group. Before Nobitex, I worked as a consultant in process safety companies. In addition, due to my interest in discussing financial markets, I also did activities in the stock market and digital currency market.

When and with what idea did Nobitex start working?

Nobitex started its work in October last year. The main reason for the development of the Nobitex platform was the lack felt in the field of digital currency exchanges. At that time, the Bitcoin market in Iran was hot and experiencing great growth. People who bought and sold currency were facing problems, and the middlemen offered exorbitant amounts, or when someone tried to sell their virtual currency, they bought from him with a low amount.

Therefore, the need for a platform was felt to carry out direct transactions. I, along with Mohammad Ali Aghamir, as the founders, started the business in the summer of 1996. After that, Mr. Aghamir’s brother, who studied computer science at Sharif University, along with Mr. Amir Ali Akbari, who is one of the best programmers in Iran, joined us to cover the technical part of the team; Mr. Aghamir and I were responsible for business development. For the establishment of the team, we got help from the Tivan Entrepreneurship Club near Sharif University, which is managed by Engineer Soban, and on March 15 of the same year, MVP we arrived.

Currently, our team consists of 5 people and one investor. In Finva’s shared workspace, which focuses mainly on startups in the field of fintech We are established. The facilities offered by the accelerators are not enough for our work, and therefore we decided to use the services of a shared workspace instead of being in the accelerator, and now we are at a stage where we have larger numbers than what the accelerators have. Startup They put, we think.

How does Nobitex solve the problem of buying and selling digital currency?

When you want to convert digital currency to another unit such as Rial or vice versa, you have two ways:

• Go to the money changer or to someone who does not have a license and only carries the name of the money changer. In this case, you will be offered two buying and selling prices.
• Bring all the buyers and sellers into a market or a platform, and bids for buying and selling are presented in it, and the price is determined competitively, which is the style of the stock market.

What we do is to create a platform for exchanging digital currencies for Rials; But it is possible to add other currencies in the future.

What effect has the ban on digital currency exchange had on the activity of Nobitex?

Currently, our main domain is filter. We were very optimistic until the beginning of 1997, and good things were happening, and we had talked with a bank investor, and we got good feedback from the FinStars exhibition; But exactly one week after the exhibition, a circular from the Central Bank was published stating that digital currency exchanges are prohibited for banks, exchanges and financial and credit institutions; Although the central bank was legally only allowed to set this ban for banks; But this news caused us to lose our investor and also following this circular, in the middle of May, all currency exchange sites were filtered, and the filtering is still going on.

When we tried to fix the filtering, we were asked for permission from the Central Bank, which was not possible; But according to the meetings we had with the Vice President of Technology, in the next few months, the Central Bank is going to determine a framework for this issue, which seems to lead to positive events in the future.

Do you have a competitor? How do you compete?

Yes, two other competitors are operating, one of them does not have the problem of filtering and it is suspected to be related to government bodies and to have rent. This issue does not seem interesting, but there is hope in us that eventually this problem will be solved for other sites as well. Of course, currently even the Binance site is filtered, which makes our filtering more digestible for users.

Our competitive advantage in the first place is having a very strong team; Because all the members of our team are elites and Olympians. Security is very important in the field of currency exchange and the expertise of two of our technical guys is in the field of security.

In the competition, the price is decisive and due to the extensive connections we have, the liquidity in our market is usually more, and buying and selling happens more easily due to the high numbers, and the prices determined by the users are often more economical. Our other competitive advantage is the variety of digital currencies that we offer.

How is the competition with foreign websites going? Are you thinking of development?

One of the motivations for us to enter this field was the blocking of Iranian money by many foreign currency exchange sites. Our advantage over similar foreign sites is that we have determined from the beginning that the goal is to meet the needs of Iranians in order to convert Rials into digital currency, which foreign sites will not be able to do as well as we are inside Iran, with banking relationships, payment gateways. and… solve these problems; But in terms of diversity in coins and market size, we are still behind.

Our country has nothing less than other countries in terms of technical force, and if the government has support, we can even act stronger than foreign sites; But cumbersome rules hinder growth, for example, Binance has been ranked number one in the world in terms of the volume of Bitcoin transactions within a year. So this possibility exists for us as well, if they do not hinder our work.

In the end, the Iranian market has a ceiling, and our goal in the first stage is to gain a percentage of the Iranian market, and if the obstacles are removed, there is a potential to create jobs for 40 to 50 specialists.

In terms of development, the first step is to attract investors to make the product safer and more qualitative. In the next step, you can think about expanding the product and entering the neighboring countries and then the international fields. We talked with a venture capitalist and an angel, but the talks did not come to an end due to the obstacles that arose.

And the final word…

In the field of startups in our country, there are expert and talented people, as well as a lot of space for growth; But in unfavorable conditions, it becomes difficult to continue the path; Therefore, I hope that the framework and rules will be determined soon and the path will be smoother.

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