By COLlive reporter
Moshe Hecht was seen in the crowd of Apple adherents who lined up and camped all night outside the Fifth Avenue Apple store to get their hands on a prized purchase: The iPhone 5 for $649.
But the Jewish musician and promoter was there for another reason.
“I am here to talk to these people about our company,” he told Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper who covered the frenzy around the world.
“Who better than Apple users for early adopters of new technology such as ours and they we are giving away free coffee and donuts too, while we have their attention.”
“Profiteering,” the paper titled a photo of the Crown Heights resident who was offering “free coffee and Dunkin’ Donuts to the tech-savvy young line-dwellers, many of whom had been queuing for days.”
Hecht was promoting Kurrenci, described as the world’s first truly universal digital currency, founded by his brother Nosson Hecht.
The idea is to offer a paying method that can be used for shopping, gifting or donating. Like airline mileage points, it can be purchased or earned and is actually worth more than a U.S. dollar (thanks to discounts).
Kurrenci has been featured in a bevy of high profile media sources, including industry stalwart TechCrunch. The tech press, usually a cynical lot, has heaped praise upon praise on the paradigm shift the service represents.
“Sometimes an idea is so out there that it’s hard to even explain clearly without sounding like a crazy person. Kurrenci is one of those ideas,” wrote TechCrunch blogger John Biggs.
Kurrenci CEO Nosson Hecht, who sports Steve Jobs-inspired glasses and a hoodie that resembles the one worn by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, said “using Kurrenci is like traveling to Israel. When you step off of the plane, your money is automatically worth more. That’s Kurrenci.”
Hecht, born to a Chabad family, based the company in the Crown Heights neighborhood and staffed it with his brothers Moshe and Eli and others from the chassidic and the secular world.
“There’s lots of things people like to do with money on the Internet,” says Moshe Poltorak, Kurrenci’s head of marketing. “Gaming is huge for us — they have a virtual currency that’s stuck.”
Kurrenci is pegged to the dollar, meaning one dollar buys one unit and each unit is never less valuable than a dollar, reported DNAinfo.com.
Each merchant who accepts Kurrenci can set its value at or above a dollar each day in their store, creating a built-in discount the founders hope will both draw new business to their online retail partners and encourage consumers to spend Kurrenci over credit.
Find out more at Kurrenci.com
sink or swim moment. hope they bring in the right people to avoid navigating the deep end without a float.
um…. im still not sure whats wrong with just using your credit card
#9 I am so curious to know what “you need a virtual currency for” – please indulge us!!!
anyone that knows him,knows what ever Nosson Hecht touches turns in to gold! Hatslacha
I do not care about the creator. I care about the product. I am in need of this product. I have more than enough expertise to evaluate this product, and it comes up lacking. I am sure he is talented, but I’ve seen talented people turn out bad products – Dean Kamen is truly a genius, but the Sedgway is a dud. In addition, while I don’t want to mention names, certain Jewish music performers have put out albums that don’t cut it, but they remain talented. The fact that you don’t know what I am talking about means you… Read more »
Seems legit
lets hope it works out
Have you ever met noson? I assure you he is a genius…..btw what in the world are you talking about?
How is it worth more?
did not understand.
I am negative because I happen to need a real virtual currency solution for my own business ventures, and I got very excited when I read about this . When I signed up, which I should not have done before checking outside news sources, I realized it was “ein kol chodosh tachas hashamesh,” and far less than it is hyped up to be. There is no genius in creating scrip with a limited number of users that is sold for a dollar but can be worth more than a dollar. Some frum moisdos used to issue “chessed dollars,” and I’m… Read more »
Nosson & Co. wishing you Hatzlocha Rabba.
May the Mareh Kohein continue to inspire v’d”l
Nice idea…. good luck
why so negative?
hatzlacha !!!!
Great idea !!!!
Lc1307
Bitcoin, Liberty Reserve and others came way before them. They’ve been around since June and most of the press they generated was from their own press releases.
It’s so good to see guys trying to make it like Ryan Shapiro.. Swag bux…
I hope this guy will also see some light in what he dose.
judaism never sounded so good…:)
seems really neat!