A message from Artur Goulão, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at UTRUST
2017 has been an incredible year for the development and consolidation of the blockchain landscape and, if you are reading this, it probably means that you are fortunate enough to join us on this unbelievable journey.
Since the beginning, our vision for UTRUST has been crystal clear — to create a reliable platform that is capable of processing crypto-to-fiat payments efficiently. UTRUST will combine the speed and security of blockchain technology with the protection and credibility of the more traditional payment systems.
Countless projects have tried to claim the title of “PayPal of Cryptocurrencies” without even having the most basic understanding of the fundamentals that are key to succeeding in the online payment industry. In my previous experience as a CTO for a successful online payment processor, I realized the importance of not only hiring strong developers but the significance in having a team who can grasp the intricate dynamics in the implementation of online payments.
One of the major challenges faced by our industry is that both, centralized and decentralized payments, require a third-party to deal with the mutual trust issue that surrounds the relationship between online merchants and their consumers. Moreover, the vast majority of existing online merchants do not understand cryptocurrencies and are reluctant to use them due to their inherent volatility or bad reputation.
The crypto payment solutions in existence, and even those currently being developed are nothing more than a wire system, an enhanced Western Union if you wish. While this model has been relatively successful for personal (peer-to-peer) transfers, it is not suitable for commercial transactions between strangers.
As a Payment Professional, I often struggle to understand the business model that some of our “competitors” have decided to pursue. All of them claim to be the “PayPal of Cryptocurrencies”, but in fact are more comparable to Western Union, as they fail to solve the very problems that UTRUST aims to work out to really make blockchain payments feasible.
1 — Buyer Protection
Ultimately, what makes online payments viable is the layer of protection that guarantees a secure environment between online buyers and sellers. In traditional payment solutions, such as PayPal or credit cards, we take this protection for granted (disputes/claims/chargebacks).
Now imagine that a stranger is selling his laptop online, only offering Western Union and bank wire — would you take the risk, or would you rather pay with PayPal and have buyer protection?
The answer is obvious: most buyers would choose PayPal as it includes an added layer of safety in your payment — it is the main reason why it is so widely used.
In the existing landscape, UTRUST seems to be the only cryptocurrency payment solution that fully understands the importance of buyer protection and is committed to ensuring that it is available for all the eligible transactions on our platform.
2 — Seller Protection From Market Volatility
One of the main barriers to mass adoption by merchants is the inherent volatility of the markets. From their perspective, when you have a functional business model to protect, some risks are not worth taking.
UTRUST has identified the problem and created a very simple, yet efficient solution: all payments are immediately converted to Fiat (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.) and sellers get the outstanding amount as they would from a regular payment gateway, with zero risk of depreciation due to volatility.
In most cases, sellers don’t even understand what cryptocurrencies are and our solution gives them the option of not having to — it’s a win-win situation where buyers can use cryptocurrencies and tap into a previously unaccessible market without any need for sellers to change their business model.
UTRUST is the missing link that will bring trust to day-to-day consumer crypto-transactions and become one of the catalysts to drive forward the mass adoption of blockchain technology in the payments industry.
Artur Goulão
CTO at UTRUST
