AliceFi: Introduction to a Decentralized Financial Service

How you can get 8% of annual interest while saving cryptocurrency

Yoonjae Yoo
AliceFi
5 min readMay 2, 2019

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All of us are engaged in economic activities and are afforded reasonable wages accordingly. Then, we spend money buying clothes, paying rent, eating out and so on. Consumption promotes economic activity and more currency is circulated when the economy is activated, so we are paid higher wages and become richer. It’s not difficult to have your own house after saving a few years. No? Is this different from the reality?

These scenarios above might have been possible 20–30 years ago. When the global economy grew at an incredible pace, a larger proportion of people were prosperous. The unemployment rate was low, wages were growing, and interest rates remained high too.

History of U.S. Fed interest rates

Do you see in the graph above that it shows the highest interest rates of up to 20% in the 70s and 80s? It was not a foolish dream to buy your own house at that time due to the high interest rate and economic boom. It wasn’t very easy to buy a house, but anyone who saved their salary earnestly could have tried it by earning interest.

The Age of Negative Interest Rates

But for people in their 20s and 30s these days, buying a house is literally a “dream”. It has become nearly impossible to buy a house in major cities, even if saving all of your earnings while working for 20 years without spending a penny.

Today is the era of negative interest rates. Common sense would say you deposit your money and get interest, but in reality you deposit your money and potentially incur an additional fee. Saving is not a realistic approach. You have to wait for a lottery win or start your business from the ground. Where did all the problems start? And is there any escape?

I am not going to talk about the global financial crisis that started in 2008. It is a fact that everyone knows, but it is hard to solve in the short term. Governments, including the United States, have taken every possible action to return to positive economic conditions. But these measures did not have much impact, and the global economy is in a slowdown. It’s not so easy to turn around the economy.

Do I have to pay for an additional fee while depositing my money?

One alternative offered by Alice

AliceFi is a blockchain-backed decentralized financial service. It has been developed by an ambitious tech startup in Seoul, South Korea and the service is starting small in May 2019. We cannot revitalize the global economy nor lower the house prices of large cities. But we are presenting an alternative approach.

We provide a cryptocurrency savings service that provides up to 8% annual interest rates.

Today, it’s not very effective to save your money in banks because they offer interest rates that are too low or negative. Savings need to regain their meaning again. We deserve higher interest rates. It may be hard to buy a house right away, but at least a certain amount of interest must be provided to create a path for people. That way, even if it is difficult today, we can pledge tomorrow.

Because AliceFi is a blockchain-based financial service, it can provide higher savings rates. Unlike traditional banks, you do not have to authenticate your identity and create an account for savings.

Download AliceFi app that will be open at the end of May 2019, and just deposit DAIs, one of the leading stablecoins pegged to US dollars. Because your interest is calculated day by day, even if you withdraw your savings after one day, interest will occur!

Maybe some people will be skeptical of AliceFi because the interest rate is unrealistically high compared to banks. You might doubt if that interest rate will only apply at first before it gets lowered, or that in future you won’t be able to get your money back at all.

It’s fair to be skeptical of cryptocurrency platforms, because some of the crypto services from 2017 to 2018 faded away without returning customers’ money.

However, on AliceFi, a blockchain-based service, customer funds are managed transparently at any time. All source code with deposit/withdrawal terms is open. Backend for the savings service is written in a smart contract, pre-distributed on the blockchain. In such an environment, even if the operators get compromised, there is no way to take away the assets of customers. The risk of embezzlement, illegal withdrawal, balance manipulation, and other malfeasance is gone.

Once deposited, the amount is tied to a smart contract, and it is not owned by anyone thus cannot be withdrawn by anyone else. If the original owner requests a withdrawal, calculated interest is added to the total amount and it is given to them. This is a major advantage of decentralized financial services. You don’t have to trust anyone while interest is paid exactly as agreed beforehand. This is the beginning of innovative finance!

Join AliceFi Savings Reservation

In fact, AliceFi’s vision is a bit broader. That is an all-in-one financial platform that offers not only savings but also various financial services such as loans, exchanges and insurance. And it is supported by blockchain technology, diminishing the need for a centralized subject with a high concentration of trust, thereby maximizing operational efficiency. All of the profits generated by increased efficiency are delivered to customers. That is why AliceFi savings can provide a much higher rate than traditional banks.

But AliceFi will not start with all of these aspects all together. Decentralized finance will become a reality, but it will take time for the full infrastructure to take shape. Therefore we decided to start the savings service that we deemed most necessary at this point in 2019.

As soon as the AliceFi app (Android / iOS) launches in late May 2019, the savings service will begin. Anyone can download the app and start saving immediately, at the annual rate of 7%. So how do you get an annual rate of 8%? Only those who are enrolled in the advance reservation list will receive coupons that will receive the benefit. Please join us in advance reservations below!

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