History
In a case of bad timing, London Block Exchange (LBX) announced in November 2017 that it was launching a cryptocurrency-backed prepaid card and mobile trading platform. The “Dragoncard” was going to be issued by a company WaveCrest and combined with a mobile app would connect Britons’ crypto accounts to their daily life in the world of fiat.
At the time, Business Insider quoted LBX founder Benjamin Dives’ comments about his company’s objectives: ”We’ll bring [crypto] into the mainstream by removing the barriers to access, and by helping people understand and have confidence in what we believe is the future of money.”
WaveCrest breaks
LBX’s marketing campaign included the publication of a survey of UK cryptocurrency trading that got widespread press coverage in late 2017. Among the findings, nearly a quarter of UK millennials had invested or planned to invest in cryptocurrencies. “Millennials clearly feel left behind by the old system and are looking at cryptocurrencies as a new dawn,” Dives told The Independent.
LBX’s momentum came to a sudden halt in early January. WaveCrest allegedly violated several terms of its agreement with Visa and lost the authority to issue payment cards. Just about every company offering crypto-linked prepaid cards relied on WaveCrest and had to shut their services down. London Block Exchange was no exception.
The company focused instead on its mobile-only crypto trading platform which London Block Exchange unveiled in March. The company’s blog posts promoted LBX as the United Kingdom’s “only dedicated multi-cryptocurrency exchange for iOS (Android soon)”.
Banking in the UK
Reuters reported a deal between LBX and ClearBank a deal to provide the exchange with UK-based financial services. Citing people “familiar with the matter”, Reuters reported that the deal will make crypto trading easier for British citizens by letting them use British pounds rather than transfer money to a euro-based trading platform.
Neither LBX or ClearBank would respond to Reuters’ request for a comment, presumably because the bank does not want to be publicly linked to cryptocurrency.
Building for the long-term
In July, the decentralized cloud platform DADI announced a deal with LBX to list its DADI token, although the listing hasn’t happened yet. The announcement also outlined how LBX will use DADI’s own distributed apps when the exchange launches its Initial Coin Offering (ICO).
DADI’s CEO Joseph Denne said in the announcement “That DADI technology will be used to power a second ICO after the success of our own is also a pleasure.”
Whether that ICO is happening is unclear, as the LBX ICO link provided in the announcement does not work.
After the 2017 false-start, LBX focused on its technical infrastructure, but now the exchange seems to be revving its marketing engines. The company released the results of another survey that found the number of women interested in crypto investing had doubled over the past year. It also launched a crypto treasure hunt that sent people searching for a Ledger Nano hardware wallet holding £5,000 worth of nano.
Leadership and investors
London Block Exchanged is based out of a tech accelerator space in the London financial center at Canary Wharf. Level 39 has hosted two dozen blockchain firms including CEX.IO, Revolut and eToro.
You won’t find any executive profiles on the exchange’s website, but the leadership is not that difficult to track down.
- Benjamin Dives, founder and chief executive officer: After graduating with an electronic engineering degree, Dives became a brand manager at the consultancy Heavenly Group. Dives held a series of sales and marketing positions before launching his own software startups.
- Jono McLeod, co-founder and chief operating officer: Jono McLeod is a software developer whose career has been in the financial industry, most recently at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
- Rob McCardle, chief technology advisor: McCardle is a digital strategy consultant with a long career in digital advertising. He advises LBX in various areas of software and user experience.
London Block Exchange’s investors are unnamed, but Business Insider reported in 2017 that they had plowed £2 million into the startup. Adam Bryant, LBX’s executive chairman spent most of his 20-year financial career at Credit Suisse.
PROTECTING CUSTOMERS’ COINS
Legal and regulatory compliance
Even though cryptocurrency exchanges are not formally regulated by the British government, the London Block Exchange is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an EMD Agent.
The exchange complies with FCA guidelines. Among the requirements LBX meets, all customer funds are kept in segregated bank accounts to keep customers’ money separate from LBX’s operational funds.
An announcement earlier this year revealed that LBX will use TruNarrative’s identity verifcation services. By automating the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) process, TruNarrative will let LBX confirm the identity of customers in more than 40 countries.
A statement from Dives in the TruNarrative announcement explains LBX’s stance on KYC/AML: “We have a responsibility to ensure our customers are who they say they are – and as the grown-up, mature player in the cryptocurrency arena, we want to adopt the very highest standards.”
Coin listing policies
LBX rapidly expanded its listings over the past several months, going from 3 coins during the early beta to 11 coins now. The exchange does not explain its listing policies or provide a roadmap for future listings. However, in an Alpha Week interview, Dives did provide a high-level explanation for the exchange’s listing decisions:
“… we look at a number of variables, the most important being the technology behind it, the people and communities backing it, the problems it’s solving, and the governance. We also generally try to avoid the likes of anonymous cryptocurrencies….”
Network security
Beyond discussing 2-Factor Authentication (2FA), the London Block Exchange site does not provide any details on how it protects customers’ data and holdings.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
LBX has a knowledge base and an email ticketing system.
With a customer based comprised of many novice traders, LBX created its College of Crypto to help people get up to speed on crypto investing.
London Block Exchange reputation
The company is still new, so hasn’t had time to build much of a reputation. However, a case study on the website of branding consultancy Heavenly gives some idea of LBX’s aspirations:
“the dark world of cryptocurrencies needs a new trustworthy brand”
“Welcome to the pinstripe T-shirt”
Comments on Reddit (here and here) have been fairly positive. Besides some early glitches during the beta phase, redditors have said the experience was fairly seamless. The main criticism is that LBX’s fees and exchange rates are not as competitive with Coinfloor. However, Coinfloor focuses on institutions and sophisticated traders rather than the retail traders LBX is recruiting.
https://lbx.com/?utm_source=bounty
https://twitter.com/LBXSocialhttps://t.me/lbxcommunity
https://www.instagram.com/london_block_exchange/
https://medium.com/@LBXSocial
https://www.linkedin.com/company/londonblockexchange
https://www.reddit.com/r/LondonBlockExchange/
https://www.facebook.com/LondonBlockExchange
BITCOINTALK ID NAME: DEWI08
WALLET ADDRESS (ETH): 0x53D1Ea8619E638e286f914987D107d570fDD686B
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