A series on the objective reasons that keep us building for DeFi, Web3, and the Metaverse (aka the Future)
Traditional finance, true ownership of money, inflation, banking system, security, and the metaverse. Not everything is as it seems to be.
So, over the last couple of months, Utrust has provided our community, with several articles to explain why technology is the ultimate way to guarantee a fair and more inclusive financial system — the reason Why We Build.
I. To make true ownership possible
📰 Blog | 📹 Video
II. To overcome inflation
📰 Blog | 📹 Video
III. To make security an absolute
📰 Blog | 📹 Video
IV. To end unbanking and underbanking
📰 Blog Post
V. To make security an absolute
📰 Blog | 📹 Video
The truth is that every good thing comes to an end, and so, after five articles, the series is now complete, and we are compiling it all into one piece, so you can easily find it and peruse it at your leisure.
Look at this as your ownership guide, and the easiest way to cruise on this matter, without having to fish for the most relevant information. We did it for you.
We hope you enjoy it and find it useful.
Part 1 ☝️ To make true ownership possible
Entire systems have been built with the sole purpose of ensuring that whatever it was people were using as money reflected actual value and could be verified as such.
But later, we collectively decided that it was impossible to use valuable materials (such as gold or gold coins) without paralyzing the economy.
In the system that we inherited, fiat money is backed by nothing and control over its introduction to the economy barely exists.
So if fiat money has no intrinsic or use value (by definition), and there are no reserves or valuable materials or anything else to back it…
👛 Physical money is on its way out
The truth is money is now mostly digital. In the USA, for example, over 90% of people’s money is already fully digital.
And the doubt arises: if most of the money exists only in digital form, in a bank database, what rights do you have to it?
Do you actually own it? How can you prove it?
Whenever you deposit money into any bank you surrender your legal title to the cash. The bank can do whatever they want with it (invest it, lend it out, put it into a fund, etc).
This is called fractional reserve banking (how the vast majority of banks operate and it’s 100% legal). As long as the bank has a minimum amount in reserves, enough to ensure that they can respond to normal withdrawal patterns, then whatever’s in your checking account counts as money. This is what’s called a deposit liability.
Since the bank is responsible for paying it back, the debt counts for money, regardless of the fact that no bank has the reserves to effectively make good on all those promises.
Do you effectively own that money, then?
🗝️ Your keys, your money
Satoshi Nakamoto, whether a person or a collective, rebelled against world governments’ decisions to tackle a banking crisis with an uncontrolled supply of debt-backed money.
He made it so Bitcoin could operate outside of a banking system, independent from the whims of governments or any other institutions.
What we are building at Utrust seeks to replace this flawed system, built over trial and error and riddled with legacy problems that run deep to its core, with a solid system, built from scratch with the Internet in mind.To own your own money isn’t just a metaphor. It’s a technologically guaranteed fact.
Part 2 ✌️ | To overcome inflation
Inflation is a general increase in the price of goods and services. It can stem from issues pertaining to supply, demand, or both. Severe inflation has equally severe consequences.
Some of these consequences are obvious.
Prices are all connected, so a change in the price of a single item will impact others.
Other consequences of inflation aren’t so immediately evident.
Why would inflation cause, for example, a mortgage crisis?
Because central banks only really have one move up their sleeve to control inflation: raising interest rates.
If you increase rates too high, though, you will start cutting into a kind of loan that people tend to have hanging over their heads for long periods of time: mortgages.
If high inflation is so dangerous, and if we have very few tools to help curb it once it gets out of hand, why do we love “low and stable” inflation so much?
🏦 Centralized institutions have no answer for deflation
Deflation, or persistently falling prices, is the opposite of inflation. It may seem like that’s a desirable scenario, but it can have a number of very dire unintended consequences.
To put it simply, both inflation and deflation cause transfers of wealth.
While inflation transfers wealth from the people who own liquid assets (i.e. money, your savings) to borrowers (including governments), deflation does the exact opposite. In fact, one of the reasons deflation is so heavily associated with political unrest is the relation between deflation and debt.
As we mentioned before, fiat is strongly related to debt. Over 90% of all US Dollars in circulation exist only as what’s called a deposit liability, an IOU from banks to you, the final user of fiat currency.
🤫 Inflation keeps fiat stable
Lowering the value of money consistently, while never allowing things to get out of hand, is how we make sure that banks, central and commercial, can continue operating.
The consequences of this for everyday people, however, are dire.
🛟 Crypto is a real alternative
When the system was built to prevent saving, and to make it almost impossible for everyday people to actually own their funds, crypto works in the opposite way:
No middlemen:
Banks, central or commercial, have no influence on the value of blockchain-based currencies. It’s pure supply and demand.
Full transparency:
All transactions are recorded on a public ledger that can be viewed by everyone.
Different coins and tokens have their own economic models:
Tokenomics and incentive models are publicly available (here is ours) and users can make informed choices.
What we are building at Utrust seeks to replace this very human system, built over trial and error, with legacy problems that run deep to its core with a solid system, built from scratch with the Internet in mind.
Our willingness to create a system where your money isn’t programmed to be worth less every year is absolute.
Part 3 🤟 | To make security an absolute
Sufficient security is impossible to achieve using centralized technology.
Skimming. Phishing. Physical theft. Data breaches. Malware.
There are so many ways fraudsters and other miscreants can get a hold of your funds exploiting obsolete technology it becomes hard to keep track.
But why is that?
💳 Credit card technology hasn’t changed in decades
The first internationally accepted credit card was introduced in 1948. In 1966, BankAmericard became the first licenced all-purpose credit card. Not a lot has changed since in terms of the underlying processes.
There were some improvements in the mechanics on the buyer’s side. But the bank’s side has remained virtually unchanged.
It all leads back to your credit card account, so no matter how you show your banking information in public, you really do have to share it.
🧌 Fraud is more prevalent than you may think
There are a number of ways credit card fraud can happen, and it probably happens more than you think.
Credit card fraud has more than tripled its damage in the United States just in the last few years. In terms of money, the situation is even more appalling.
What we are seeing is a sixfold increase in the amount of money lost to credit card fraud from 2020 to 2019, which followed a four times increase in the previous year as well.
Cold hard numbers?
$28.58 billion lost globally in 2020
Why is this happening?
🧨 There are too many gaps in the armor
There are too many scamming methods and techniques, from malware to data breaches and even physical theft of the credit cards.
Is crypto a magical solution for all of this? No.
Will using crypto make you immune to scams if someone manages to trick you? No.
What crypto does, though, is provide you with extremely potent security that is built into the very core of blockchain technology.
🔒 We need Internet-native security
If you are using a payment service like Utrust (soon to be xMoney) to take care of your payments with crypto, you are skipping a number of intermediaries that have a huge amount of power over your activities.
The current system has been built over decades of trial and error, of trying very hard to get things right with the technology and the resources available at any given moment.
What we are saying is that we can do better now. We now have the technology to revolutionize these systems.
Part 4 🖖 | To end unbanking and underbanking
🪙 There are more unbanked people than you think
We tend to associate unbanking (even underbanking) to rural areas. And those are not the only areas affected. In fact, the number of people in the western world that quite simply can’t afford to have a bank account are stark.
The world bank estimates one third of the entire population of the planet is not getting access to the system.
But why?
It’s not just about a basic bank account. There are a number of traditional financial services such as banks, credit unions, or other financial institutions that fall under this umbrella.
This can include a lack of access to basic banking services like savings and checking accounts, credit cards, and loans. All of these have different consequences and different barriers to entry.
There are many reasons why people are kept away from the system: lack of access to financial institutions; trust issues; fees; credit…
Being underbanked can be even worse than being unbanked. Not having full access to the financial system represents a significant challenge to financial stability and security.
📢 Being unbanked is a huge problem
Exclusion from the banking system means limited access to financial services, first and foremost: Without a bank account, individuals are unable to access traditional financial services, such as loans and credit.
Which limits the ability of:
- Starting a business (investment)
- Purchasing a home (mortgage)
- Building credit history (essential for loans)
- Getting most jobs
- Applying to almost any kind of housing (to rent or to own)
- Accessing higher education
- Purchasing a car
- Etc..
And that’s saying nothing about how difficult it is to save and achieve financial stability.
One of the hardest and yet least discussed issues, however?
Participating in the digital economy.
🧱 We are building a better alternative
Crypto and blockchain technology have the potential to address many of the issues faced by the unbanked and underbanked populations.
As our CEO, Sanja Kon, often says, fixing payments is probably the single most important issue we can solve to help the most people the most.
We want to eliminate the need for anyone to hold that power.
Here’s what we can do that banks can’t: trust in the financial system; access to financial services; lower fees; affordable credit; financial literacy.
Part 5 ✊ | To bridge all universes
All our focus is on how humanity is preparing for the greatest of journeys, expanding every one of our lives to multiple digital universes, shaped and built by our own imaginations.
🌐 The metaverse is more than you can imagine
The metaverse as we see it portrayed in legacy media is the idea of massive Web2 corporations. Closed worlds, commercialized by corporations, ad-based, where you are a user yet own nothing.
This is a vision of the metaverse devoid of all imagination, freedom, and creativity. It goes without saying that it is a vision entirely incompatible with the ethos of Web3.
But the metaverse belongs to no one.
And even though it’s like a combination of the internet, video games, and virtual reality, all rolled into one, the true concept goes beyond that.
The metaverse can be many things. In many ways, it already exists. Part of our lives is already online. Our banking, dating, socializing, shopping, gaming, and many other aspects of what constitutes our universe in any possible definition of the world is already happening on the Internet.
So, we can’t simply leave it in the hands of any single person, entity, government, or corporation, we must build it on-chain.
Ownership of our universe must belong to us
The blockchain must be the backbone of the metaverse. It’s the technology that makes sure everything runs smoothly and securely.
Features that would ruin the metaverse concept and its potential:
🟥 Control over information
🟥 Limiting innovation
🟥 Unequal playing field
We can’t afford to build a dystopian scenario.
⛓️ There is no multiverse without a blockchain
Here are some key aspects where a blockchain-based metaverse can technologically ensure its own freedom and quality of life:
Here are some key aspects where a blockchain-based metaverse can technologically ensure its own freedom and quality of life:
🟩 True ownership of what is ours
🟩 Limitless possibilities
🟩 An economy to sustain it
On this universe and the next.
A proprietary metaverse controlled by a single company or organization is a serious danger. Our digital lives are becoming more significant to us every day, and we cannot allow ourselves to forego control over them.
We can do better now, if we just build it. This is what drives us, motivates us, and has become our mission.
What we are building at xMoney is a necessary evolutionary step. As our digital lives become more mature and significant, so too must our dealings with the Internet. Our system was born on the Internet, not adapted to it.
If you own a business and you are ready to experience the speed, reliability, and security of crypto payments, here is where you can find everything you need.
If you don’t but you are ready to embrace true ownership of your financial future, the Superapp that will serve as your bridge is already here.
We know Why We Build and we’ll keep on doing it.