The cryptocurrency hype cycle has been through a rollercoaster over the last few years. Renewed popular interest toward the end of 2017 took the internet and social media by storm, leading many to write the trend off as a risky craze not unlike the dot-com bust of the 1990s. Despite those reservations, some industry leaders see the rise of blockchain, the extra-secure ledger system underlying cryptocurrency, as just the fundamental shift needed for rapidly growing digital economy.

“The market is ripe for disruption. … Blockchain in a decentralized model with the right partners and coalition could change the game,” said Al Burgio (pictured), founder and chief executive officer of Fusechain Inc. A young blockchain technology company, Fusechain was founded to support a new open-source project called DigitalBits that Burgio is confident could disrupt the cryptocurrency and loyalty card industries.

Burgio spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at theCUBE’s studio in Palo Alto, California, for the official announcement of Fusechain’s DigitalBits blockchain project. They discussed the potential successes and pitfalls of cryptocurrencies and how Fusechain is proposing to shake up the industry while providing a solid foundation for growth.

Disrupting a disruptor

Fusechain is focused on building applications that are interoperable with blockchain to support enterprises that will be working with DigitalBits — an open-source project, blockchain protocol, and future cryptocurrency managed by Fusechain that Burgio feels is primed for market disruption. The company is looking to monetize the building of software as a service-type models around these applications and support businesses in streamlining digital events.

“DigitalBits is an infrastructure protocol focused specifically on loyalty rewards,” he said. “We’re building applications that businesses are going to need so they don’t have to go build them themselves.”

DigitalBits was developed to be open enough to allow a range of businesses to join or support the project in various ways, whether through pre-existing products and platforms they want to be interoperable or consumer-focused loyalty programs. “There are basic examples of the product in market already … multicoin wallets. If they want to enlist DigitalBits as another cryptocurrency that their app supports, they can support the project in that way,” Burgio said.

Though the current crypto craze has created some fierce competition, Burgio is assured DigitalBits will stand out through its focus on improvements in the consumer space. “We felt that it needed to be rapid transaction… seconds as opposed to blocks every 10 minutes, like a bitcoin for example,” he said.

With the benefit of hindsight on the successes and failures of its predecessors, Fusechain has the advantage of developing a more advanced, integrated relationship with merchants. “We wanted to fit blockchain technology into loyalty as opposed to fitting loyalty into blockchain,” Burgio said.

The company plans to improve upon existing processes by reducing the friction in multi-merchant transactions. “In order [for] customers to be able to earn while shopping online … the merchant is having to pay the operator [a recurring fee] … before the consumer has done anything with those points … at a big cost to them,” he said. DigitalBits can offer a savings of as much as 80 percent in these transactions, according to Burgio.

Even with its promising potential, many are still skeptical of cryptocurrency. Though wild market fluctuations and the ever-present risk of scammers may be inspire some hesitation, Burgio insisted the new platform is no more dangerous than historied financial infrastructures. “With anything super exciting, there’s always scammers. … This is not something exclusive to blockchain tokens. … We see this in the traditional capital market systems and equities that are out there today,” he said.

Ultimately, Fusechain plans to spin DigitalBits into a foundation with sound policies and governance that prevent against bad actors.

While the wave of cryptocurrency may worry some, Burgio is looking forward to what the future holds for blockchain. With the potential to solve for so many issues that have historically plagued businesses, it seems that the technology is only poised for further growth.

“The technology itself is highly powerful, and it’s already evident that it’s touching a number of different industries,” Burgio said. “Blockchain as a technology … is truly revolutionary.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations.

Photo: SiliconANGLE