Following the announcement of Dato’ Lee Kim Yew’s Horse Currency meant to serve as something of a rewards programme for Country Height’s various properties, the tycoon returns to fintech headlines with a related venture—a crypto-wallet.
Named the Unicorn Wallet, Lee Kim Yew claims the wallet will be the first of its kind in the country, though little information has been released on why he opines as so. The tycoon has spent about US$10 million on the Unicorn Wallet’s development, which will undergo a six-month testing period before the company will release the wallet to the public.
The Unicorn Wallet is reportedly developed with the goal of turning it into the AliPay of blockchain, and will store and transfer cryptocurrency among subscribers and merchants as an alternative means of payment. The wallet would support real-time payments of online purchases, hotel bookings, bills, peer-to-peer transactions and serve as a digital asset exchange.
Lee Kim Yew has also confirmed that the wallet will trade in cryptocurrency exclusively.
These reports seem to indicate that the Unicorn Wallet will serve as something of a digital cryptocurrency debit card, and since it will trade in cryptocurrency exclusively, perhaps require merchants to accept the contentious currency as payment. We would question the efficacy of this idea, considering that the cryptocurrency boat has sailed sometime in early last year, and prices of cryptocurrency remains volatile to this day—which would be significant inhibiting factors for merchants.
As a matter of personal opinion, it seems like Country Hills is a year too late to truly capitalise on this idea.
There is also the possibility that the Unicorn Wallet could function like the recently embattled TenX where cryptocurrencies are immediately converted into fiat currency in-app and allow for instant use. However, as Lee Kim Yew indicated that the platform will handle cryptocurrency exclusively, this does not seem likely.
This development comes after Mines 567 Sdn Bhd, owned by Lee Kim Yew, invested 19.99% equity into Crypto S11 Digital Pte Ltd. The digital company is now developing the wallet and will serve as its operator as well. While Crypto S11 Digital was incorporated in Hong Kong, certain reports indicate that they have since moved their core company to the Virgin Islands, perhaps owning to their relationship with cryptocurrency and the uncertain legal footing cryptocurrency has in most nations.
The official launch date for the platform would be announced later.
In general, Fintech News sees this development by Country Heights with curiosity. With such a big developer like Country Heights backing a large-scale cryptocurrency wallet project, it could go a long way into promoting cryptocurrency application beyond just HODLing. But if it all goes south, then Country Heights could take public trust in blockchain and cryptocurrency down with it. Country Heights is also known to dabble in controversial financial activity before despite their property success.
Featred image via Lee Kim Yew
