Crypto Emergency App Guardian Circle Sees A Huge Surge In Monthly Downloads Due To COVID-19
Guardian Circle, the crypto-based emergency app, has seen a huge surge in monthly downloads due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Crypto-based emergency app Guardian Circle has seen a huge surge in monthly downloads due to the coronavirus crisis.https://t.co/KmQHkIEYHD via @cointelegraph — AladiEx (@Aladiexchange) April 15, 2020
It has been reported that more than 5150 new users downloaded the app in March, which represents monthly growth of 2582% for the three-year-old app that had struggled to attract attention in peacetime. In January, a little over 300 new users signed up.
However, while the current crisis has seen the app’s popularity increase, it’s also threatening the project’s future.
The official website explains that the app helps create a micro-economy around an emergency response in regions where it is needed most.
It has been analyzed that functions include panic buttons, crash detection, voice interfaces and heart rate monitors, among others, enabling private security and medical response to control a geo-fenced service area as well. Also, users are incentivized with rewards in the cryptocurrency $GUARD.
Mark Jeffrey, the Co-founder and CEO of Guardian Circle, said:
“Up until COVID-19, our marketing challenge had always been: ‘How do we get users to think about a future crisis situation’? People don’t like thinking about emergencies: it’s not fun. It’s not ‘Words With Friends’ or ‘TikTok’. With COVID-19, that challenge has now vanished.”
Likewise, Jeffrey said that emergency apps are not used daily and so the cryptocurrency element helps keep it in users’ minds.
He added:
“The $GUARD crypto was a non-crisis-related-way to interact with our users.”
It has also been analyzed that while the health emergency has increased downloads, the economic effects of the crisis are threatening its viability.
Jeffrey said:
“As our runway has always been based in crypto, our piles of Bitcoin and NEO have depleted in value with the COVID-19 crashes. I’ve been supplementing corporate expenses with my own personal money to cover costs. Bottom line? We have about six months left as we are right now, barring any new curve balls thrown at us.”
Moreover, Jeffrey said that the project had found a partner, with whom they will sign a deal to run a combined product, which will hopefully enable them to attract new venture capital interest.
On their users’ geographic distribution, Jeffrey said that one third is in the US, the rest are scattered throughout the world. The app has also high concentrations in India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Brazil, Egypt, and Iraq.
Also, Jeffrey believes that overall the current crisis will be positive for cryptocurrency.
Thus, he said:
“The COVID-19 crisis is causing tremendous strain on the legacy banking system worldwide — far worse than the 2008 crisis. This strain has not yet been felt by the average person, but it will be in the coming months. At that point, we may see a sharp increase in usage of Bitcoin as a store of value. We may also see other cryptos come into use for cash-like faster, smaller payments.”
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: GPB News
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