Blast will be at TwitchCon on 27 to 29 September, 2019, to show this gathering of streamers, gamers, and fans the fun and easy way to build a financial future in the background of their gameplay. At this annual convention devoted to the live streaming video platform, Twitch, Blastwill highlight new features of its financial savings app for both PC and mobile gamers at their TwitchCon.
By merging savings and gaming, Blast makes savings happen automatically. It takes a boring but essential life activity, the need to build a savings account, and makes it simple and accessible for anyone from the casual to the most hardcore gamer. Created by gamers for gamers, Blast was founded on the belief that by linking gaming and finance together, people can more easily gain a financial footing for the future.
Blast founder and CEO Walter Cruttenden, who also co-founded Acorns, the number one micro-investing app in the country with over five million customers, see Blast as a way to bring access to a better financial future to a younger and wider audience. By partnering with behavioural economist, Dr Shlomo Benartzi of UCLA, Blast has found a way to get younger people to improve their behaviour in order to engage with a boring activity, such as saving money, more frequently by associating it with a fun experience, such as gaming.
“There is a savings and investment problem in America, with about 40 per cent of the population unable to cover a $400 emergency expense. Through the founding of Acorns, we made saving money easier and accessible for everyone but saw that some people were still scared of the stock market or found it boring to put money away for a rainy day, so we thought of merging gaming and savings. Blast was born to help younger people develop better monetary behaviour by simultaneously engaging in a frequent activity that they already enjoy,” said Cruttenden.
With Blast’s new iOS app, the company has taken its revolutionary feature, Game-Based Savings, and expanded its functionality. Gamers can now easily save money from a gamer’s personal bank account to a free Blast savings account all through gameplay. By completing specific actions in some of the most popular PC games, gamers will be able to take advantage of this revamped feature as well as new aspects of the app like Goals, Goal Boosts with Plasma, and more.
Benefits of the Blast app include:
- Game-Based Savings: A savings feature that allows a gamer to easily save their own money from a personal bank account into their free Blast savings account as they play games on their phones or PC. Blast savings accounts accrue 2per cent APY interest.
- Goals: Gamers can set specific savings goals in the Blast app. Save for the things you want most as you track your progress.
- Goal Boosts: Blast assists gamers with meeting their financial Goals sooner, with Goal Boosts, a point reward system that allows players to earn Plasma for playing games.
- Security: Blast uses bank-level security and 256-bit encryption to ensure all financial transactions remain safe and secure.
Blast has gained traction within the gaming community on a single platform, Android, and its upcoming iOS launch will help even more gamers gain a financial footing in an easy and fun way.