There is a lot of talk about disruption in the crypto space. It can feel like the whole world is about to fall apart when reading materials and consuming media from the crypto sphere, but when you pull your head out of it, you'll find the world continuing as usual like nothing changed. Say you are at the grocery store for example, that gentleman on your right is using visa, the lady to your left is paying with cash and your teller will tell you the store does not take any kind of crypto for payment. Actually, she'll probably look at you with a confused expression and ask you "what is bitcoin?!"
Don't get me wrong, disruption is very present, at a very small scale though. It will not be as apocalyptic as some people imagine. I thing it will be a gradual transition, there will be drama, companies and people in the traditional space will fight back, but it will be more gradual than people imagine. In reality, the adoption of crypto currency at the moment is very small.
Nevertheless, it's a growing market, with lots of new project ideas popping up daily. Some of them are truly innovative and others are copycats. Others are just putting old ideas onto blockchain, not necessarily making anything better.
In the last month though, I've come across two ideas that I believe are brilliant. They put a new twist to an old ideas, true disruptors in the lending market if you ask me.
1. SALT
I came across this one in December. One of the hardest things about investing in crypto, I find, is having to pull that money out (converting back to fiat). Firstly, you may lose a little bit on the conversion which is painful, I've done it. Secondly, you lose your position in crypto. It is so disheartening to cash out of your crypto position only to watch it moon the next day. Thirdly, having to pay tax on the profits. Well, with SALT you can avoid all three!! How brilliant is that? Here is a video on how it works:
So with salt, you can maintain your crypto currency position by using your coins as collateral. SALT will give you the loan in fiat, and because it's a loan the tax man has nothing on you. Once you pay back the loan you get your crypto back. SALT is built on Ethereum so all of it is managed by smart contracts. Next time you have an emergency, don't cash out your crypto, use SALT and keep your position.
2. Sweetbridge
Say you would like to invest in crypto but would prefer not to use any hard cash to get in. You've made some good progress on paying down your mortgage and you'd like to pull out some of that equity for this. Well, you can go to the bank OR pretty soon, you can come to these guys. They are building an ecosystem of products. Their AssetVault system allows you to borrow from the value of your own assets. See video below for an overview of how it works:
This project is preparing to have their ICO soon. The cryptocurrency liquidity system is the first of many steps towards their goals. They're introducing an assetvault smart contract that allows users to pledge their assets. They then receive the Bridgecoin crypto asset once their collateral is deposited. What I also liked about it is that Vinay Gupta is on their advisory team. He is a voice of authority in the crypto space specifically in regards to policy.
Lending is a big money maker for traditional banks. In my opinion, these are the best disruptive ideas build on blockchain that can give the banks a run for their money.
Thanks for reading. Hope you like the projects I've shared. If you've seen other equally disruptive or better projects, do share them in the comments below.
Note: This is not financial advice.
See you on the next post!
-pinkdust
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