Introducing Akropolis: Blockchain Protocol for The Global Pensions Crisis

We’re putting the world’s pensions on the blockchain to help address the looming global pensions crisis. Using the blockchain will introduce new set of incentives, cost efficiencies and transparencies to benefit individual pension savers.

The Problem: A looming pension deficit apocalypse

Regardless of intent to reform on the part of many governments, the World Economic Forum predicts that the worldwide pensions savings gap will grow from US$70 trillion today to US$400 trillion by 2050 — five TIMES the global GDP.

“I first heard about the pension time bomb in 1996. More than 20 years later, still nobody is doing anything about it. Akropolis is the first time I’ve heard anyone come up with a positive, thought-out approach to the pension time bomb. I’m in.” (Ian Grigg, Akropolis Advisor, EOS, Block.One, R3 Distributed Ledger Consortium)

As observed by a many a sector analyst, most of the world’s state pensions systems function like glorified Ponzi schemes, diverting the savings of younger investors to support the obligations to the older demographic. But like Ponzi schemes, these pension systems can avoid collapse only if the number of people working outpaces those retiring, which is no longer the case. Moreover, these funds must return more than inflation for the beneficiaries to remain independent of state support and maintain their standard of living.

With these flaws, aging populations and mismanagement, the collapse of these systems is mathematically inevitable. We can only avoid this collapse by radically redesigning how the pension systems work.

The solution: a pension savings ‘akropolis’

“I don’t understand pensions. Experts have no clue either” (Andrew Haldane, Bank of England, Chief Economist)

At the center of every major Roman town was an ‘akropolis’, a fortified hilltop structure which served as a last line of defense. In dire times, the city would secure its wealth within its walls. The akropolis ensured that once the tide of war had receded, the city would have the funds to rebuild.

We’re setting out to build a modern pensions akropolis with a team of leading experts in pensions and blockchain technology. We’re redesigning pension schemes using the blockchain to pass the benefits of technology back to pension savers’ investment pots - even in dire times.

We’re creating a pensions fund infrastructure that will make pensions what they are supposed to be: a means of ensuring a safe-and-secure financial future. By design, Akropolis will show individuals how pensions are invested and guarantee that money is never used to pay other people’s debts in an unsustainable glorified Ponzi scheme.

We’re creating a blockchain pensions infrastructure designed to provide a resilient, future-proof alternative to the current failing system.

How it works: A Smart Pensions Infrastructure

The over-arching objective of the protocol is to ensure that it is future-proof and that the key participants in the pensions ecosystem are incentivised to take positive actions for the benefit of both end users and the ecosystem. The blockchain enables iron-clad accountability, transparency and immutability, helping to minimise bad actor behaviour and reward good actors.

We are already in discussions with our early trial clients and partner institutions, some of which will be announced later, some shall remain private.

Akropolis will serve individual users via a mobile app with features that encourage easy saving. Institutional clients will easily onboard and manage their existing assets via our enterprise web app, with all of our solutions backed by the blockchain and smart contracts. Akropolis’ technical architecture platform is a combination of on-chain and off-chain architecture.

Who is Akropolis? A Global, World-Class Team of Experts

We have attracted the best world-class talent at a unique intersection of pensions and blockchain technology. We’re inciting a pensions revolution, aiming to diffuse the global pensions crisis time bomb.

Together, we have:

• 70+ years experience of shaping pensions systems across Europe, UK and Asia, including starting and rolling out new operations
• $5.0bn+ transactions closed as buy-side principals and fund managers
• 20+ years of legal, compliance and regulatory experience
• 15+ years experience of building and shipping large-scale financial infrastructure solutions and blockchain solutions meeting high regulatory standards
• deep experience of a highly competent team of scientists with background in blockchain R&D and decentralised systems design

Find Out More

We are currently fundraising in a private presale and finalizing a white paper that details our vision for the Akropolis protocol and how it will work. We will soon be releasing updates on our token structure and partnerships.

For updates on our token sale, please visit our website, sign up to our newsletter or join our telegram channel.

If you have questions about our project, would like to get involved in our community, or have any information or experiences you would like to share relevant to our work, please drop them into the comments section or reach out to our team through our media channels. We’d love to hear from you!