You had to give Digital credit, though.
"The mobile phone becomes a digital credit card which makes it really worth hacking," said Mr Lyne.
"Our goal is to become the preferred digital credit card for millennials in Southeast Asia," he told TechCrunch.
Oriente is aimed at providing digital credit and financial products in Southeast Asia, a region of 650 million people where the digital economy is predicted to triple over the next six years.
In just the past month, Indonesia-based Kredivo — which operates digital credit — and SME-focused Aspire Capital have raised significant capital using a data-driven similar thesis.
The company launched its 'Kredivo' service two years ago to help consumers pay online in Southeast Asia, where credit card penetration is typically low, and it is essentially the combination of a digital credit card and PayPal.
Nwokah sees Mines' end user market as "the more than 3 billion adults globally without access to credit," and its direct client market as big "banks, retailers and mobile operators…who want to power digital credit tailored to these markets".
Though the majority of today's payment transactions are digital – credit card swipes, online bill pay, tap-and-pay at point of sale, etc. – there are still a few places where cash has yet to die out.
FinAccel, a Southeast Asia-based startup that offers a digital credit card service in Indonesia, has closed a $30 million Series B round as it begins to consider overseas expansion.
"When we order Prime items from Amazon that we don't need in the standard two days, we choose the slower shipping option, which gives a $1 Amazon digital credit.
