Phuong Dinh: Gen Z are a hot prospect for digital currencies

How do you attract the attention of young people in 2021? By offering them digital currency, says Phuong Dinh, entrepreneur and founder of Mijem Inc.

That’s why he has decided to integrate a Bitcoin SV cashback reward scheme into the online community he has created. Mijem is a free app aimed at college students in the United States and Canada, that allows members to buy and sell items, like eBay, but for Gen Z.

According to Phuong, a high proportion of the student demographic “have never owned cryptocurrency but would like to own one.” Indeed, a Coinbase survey conducted in 2018, found that 18% of U.S. students said they own (or have owned) digital currency, twice the rate of the general population.

The platform will be introducing a loyalty program, built on the BSV blockchain, where students who buy items using Mijem’s payment system are rewarded with points that they can redeem or convert to BSV.

Phuong explains to Charles Miller, on this week’s episode of CoinGeek Conversations, that he believes the integration of digital currency into the app will “incentivise” students to use it more.

This unique scheme, which will be rolled out later in the year, will be created in partnership with Fabriik, so users can transfer the BSV that they have earned directly into their own wallets.

Picking BSV as the app’s digital currency of choice was a no-brainer for Phuong; “It’s what the original Satoshi envisioned,” he says. He praises BSV for its technological advantages and the efforts within the ecosystem to find solutions to Bitcoin’s environmental footprint.

Mijem connects students with their peers so they can efficiently buy, sell and trade goods and services, meeting a need for those in secondary education who are keen to engage with each other.

Phuong tells Charles that when he first pitched the idea, there was immediate interest as students all need similar things and are all based in the same place (on campus) where they can exchange items easily.

He says, “They have collections of furniture that other students may need because they’re all in a similar phase in life, so they all need a mini fridge, they all need a couch, they all need similar things.”

Central to the platform’s ethos is transparency: users can see who members are, who their friends are, what ratings they have and message them, if needed.

The platform has been boosted recently by investment from Calvin Ayre, founder of Ayre Group and CoinGeek. Phuong says, “Without his investment, we would not be able to accelerate our efforts to roll out our unique Bitcoin SV loyalty rewards cashback system.”

Mijem has partnered with over 70 universities in the United States and Canada so far, but Phuong says he has plans to venture further afield in the future. With the global student population expected to reach 380 million by 2030, Mijem has a wealth of potential customers and Phuong plans to offer them BSV.

Hear the whole of Phuong Dinh’s interview in this week’s CoinGeek Conversations podcast or catch up with other recent episodes:

You can also watch the podcast video on YouTube.

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