ZED White Paper

ZED NETWORK IS A PLATFORM CONNECTING MONEY TRANSFER OPERATORS WORLDWIDE
ZED Network is purpose-built for remittances.
For small to medium sized MTOs that can't effectively compete with larger MTOs, ZED offers a Platform as a Service (PaaS) built on a distributed ledger that reduces costs and transaction friction.

Abstract
The 21st century has seen more rapid migration than any other time in recent history with the pace exceeding that of population growth.

There are currently 250M+ immigrants that live in a country other than the one they were born in, a whopping 60% increase since 2000.

As the world gets more and more connected, the need for simpler, faster and more cost efficient money transfer continues to grow.

According to World Bank, global remittance hovers around $600B per year. Western Union and the next 3 top Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) control about 25% of the global remittance market.

The other 75% (or $450B+) is spread out among a long tail of thousands of small to medium sized MTOs, many of whom are single corridor providers, unable to grow past their initial market and scale up to compete with the Top 4 giants.

The lack of competition and inability to challenge the large Money Transfer Operators is directly responsible for the cost of remittances staying high at around 8%.

There are many challenges facing smaller MTOs including banking, cash flow and technology.

Banking Problem
The majority of the cross-border money transfer is currently processed through SWIFT, a reliable yet archaic technology that provides for slow, expensive and tedious transfers with lack of transparency.

Nowhere is the dependence on banks as dire as in the case of Money Transfer Operators whose very existence depends on their banking relationship.

Most banks won’t sponsor MTOs due to the compliance overhead. Others are shutting down MTO accounts to de-risk their portfolio.

Consequently, the top 4 MTOs have significant advantages over smaller MTOs that are constantly under the threat of losing their banking relationship.

Cash Flow Issue
In addition to banking challenges facing MTOs, they also have a significant barrier in the opportunity cost of having funds tied up in multiple currencies at various financial institutions around the world.

Technology Challenge
MTOs have limited IT staff with little technology resources . Many don’t even have a web or mobile apps despite high demand by their customers. What limited resources they do have are spent on compliance requirements.
MTOs are therefore unable to innovate and pose a viable threat to their larger competitors.

In order for MTOs to grow rapidly and scale, they need a turnkey solution for global payouts using an easy, fast and cost effective integrated global network of licensed entities

ZED has a solution that succinctly solves this problem for the remittance companies.

ZED offers a compliance-friendly solution enabling Money Transfer Operators to leverage leading blockchain technology and scale their business.

For small to medium sized MTOs that can't effectively compete with larger MTOs, ZED is a SaaS platform built on a distributed ledger that reduces costs and transaction friction.

Unlike the current SWIFT system, ZED eliminates dependency on banks in favor of a global, distributed network of licensed MTOs to create a faster, cheaper and more transparent money transfer network.

We are creating a comprehensive money transfer solution that includes a wallet, a web app, mobile apps, and a robust back office with a suite of reports for compliance and monitoring purposes, available to MTOs on a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model, free of charge for the first year and at nominal costs in subsequent years.

It is possible that in time, ZED wallet may essentially become the bank account for these MTOs that will pay their payout partners, suppliers, employees and contractors using ZED.

At the heart of ZED Network is ZED currency which is a Cryptocurrency built on a mining-free, distributed ledger. There will be a maximum cap of 100B tokens authorized, 21 Billion of which will be sold to accredited investors and MTOs to buy and use solely for utility purposes of facilitating remittances worldwide.

In the same manner that SWIFT connects banks together on a global basis, ZED Network will seamlessly connect licensed MTOs in multiple countries to become a single point of integration for multiple currency pairs.

Some of the features of ZED Platform include:

Decentralized Platform - ZED Network is built on Stellar distributed ledger network and validators will be run by community members external to ZED Network. These servers are maintained by different individuals and entities.

Distributed Ledger- ZED Network is built on a consensus of replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data geographically spread across multiple sites, countries, or institutions. There is no central administrator or centralized data storage.

Risk Mitigation- ZED is not an anonymous currency. We target accredited investors in the U.S., Canada and multiple other countries and will perform Know Your Customer (KYC) on each MTO and ZED token investor worldwide. Furthermore, any exchanges offering ZED will be required to perform KYC validation for each ZED user on ZED Network. Every transaction on ZED is encrypted and recorded on the Stellar Network blockchain that traces back to the genesis block.

No Mining - ZED Network does not require mining, therefore transactions are designed to be faster and cheaper than BTC and ETH

Currency Fluctuation- ZED is intended as a free flowing currency which will inevitably result in some price fluctuation. However, the platform is designed to provide quick transfer of ZED currency from Sending MTO to Receiving MTO and we employ hedging strategies to reduce this risk.

We believe that are well positioned to succeed:

Management Team - ZED management team consist of seasoned executives with decades of experience in technology, money transfer, B2B and consumer applications.

Market Segment - ZED hopes to expand in the emerging market countries in Asia, Middle East, Africa and LATAM where cryptocurrencies can thrive in the vacuum that exists for financial inclusion.

Licensing - It is our belief that as a network operator, facilitating payments between two licensed MTOs, ZED will not be required to have its own Money Transfer License. However, should any of the government jurisdictions require it, we will be in a position to apply for or acquire Money Transfer Licenses worldwide.

#ZED #Cryptocurrency #ZED_Network

https://www.zed.network/
White Paper : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aBhsROQL5Cz2om7Six4sGKPLeUiNNAqVT_u0Vju-quY/edit#heading=h.1946w2x0xt96
ANN : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2304383.0