When the World Wide Web was first created, a payment protocol was built in, but never used. At the time, when connecting to the internet meant setting your 9600k modem to call an ISP, the idea of doing transactions there did not seem reasonable. That protocol died a quiet death.

Ever since then, as the internet speeds and connectivity have exploded, the world of payments has been playing catchup. There seems no doubt that eventually we will be living in a world of cashless payments.

Eric Solis is the CEO and Co-Founder of MovoCash, Inc., a payment service that is attempting to lower the bar for cashless, and bankless, payments. Using Movo, people can now load up virtual accounts that they can then spend with virtual prepaid debit cards, a variety of ‘pay’ options, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay, or even to just via email or cell phone.

And of course, for crypto-HODLers, Movo can be charged with Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash.

We asked Eric tell us a little about himself and Movo:

Please tell us your name and a little about yourself.

My name is Eric Solis. I call myself a “full stack entrepreneur” because I take out the trash, mop the floors, dust, move furniture and I can do most of the other stuff you’d expect from a founder/CEO.

How did you come up with the idea for MovoCash?

Through conversation with other CEOs, I heard them describe a stubborn problem they were having with the latency of money. I thought about their problem by imagining the credit card rails as a communication network as well as a payments network. Through this journey, MovoCash was born.

Can you explain the technology behind MOVO and MovoChain?

Yes, it is robust interoperability. We mash up processing, bill pay, double entry ledgers, peer to peer, point of sale (POS), bank ledgers and more with blockchain and cryptocurrency conversion in a way that nobody has done before.

Can you explain what makes MOVO different from other digital banking tools?

We take digital banking to the next level by giving you the ability to issue prepaid debit cards to your family and friends right from your mobile device.

How is the user experience different?

We enable users to issue prepaid debit cards to themselves and others in denominations they choose.

Most people think of a card transaction as vertical, being between a customer and a merchant. We lay the rails horizontally and allow users to accept Visa payments for peer to peer transactions. We call this peer to peer to POS. We eliminate the need to send money back to a bank by turning the value into instantly spendable MovoCash.

We spin up a digital banking account in real time complete with a routing and account number. This information can be used for direct deposit with an employer. This is a huge advantage for the underbanked consumer.

Cross functional P2P. This means that you can take a value like Bitcoin and send money to a friend using MovoChain, who does not know anything about Bitcoin or MOVO and they can receive and use a Visa debit card in minutes after they claim their funds.

Do you believe MOVO will help shape digital banking in the future?

Yes and the future is now. We are already disrupting the way people think about using a 16 digit card number. Previously, a card meant that one held a piece of plastic with a 16 digit card number on it. Now that same 16 card number can be tethered to a mobile number, email, social ID or bitcoin and used as a token.

Do you foresee a completely cashless future in the near term, or are we still a long way out from that, considering adoption, security, etc.?

We have not found the ubiquitous form factor yet. Until a cash like redemption capability manifests, we will not completely do away with cash. Near-field communication (NFC) holds promise, if we can generate the token from the client side and not the merchant side. I believe MovoCoin converted to a token that communicates via NFC could be a viable solution.

Are there any additional features planned for the future?

MOdallion will be a fiat denominated crypto currency that will interchange into multi currencies around the world. MOdallion will be easily converted back to the country of origin and loaded to a digital card for ubiquitous redemption using NFC at installed POS systems globally.