The Goldfinch Manifesto.
Everyone can participate.
For too long, the financial system has been fragmented and owned by everyone except the users. But crypto offers a reset, and it’s triggering a financial renaissance.
There is permission to re-imagine how financial systems work from the ground up. The builders are not just big banks, and not just silicon valley veterans, but individuals around the world — anon and not. This fact underscores a key value of both crypto and of Goldfinch. We believe that everyone can participate. And when you participate in the global economy of the future, your access and opportunity should be equal. This is the promise of crypto, and this is the future we want to help bring forth at Goldfinch.
Goldfinch’s mission — our role in this transformation — is to expand access to capital by creating a single global credit marketplace. That means everyone from the smallest businesses in Nigeria to the largest institutions in New York will borrow from the same capital markets, and that all investors will be able to access those opportunities.
Where we’re headed
When people first hear about Goldfinch, they often don’t realize just how ambitious it is. Or more accurately, how ambitious it could be, if the world is ready. So let us start by saying something outlandish. We think it’s inevitable that all private debt will move on chain. All of it. The whole multi-trillion dollar market of it.
Eventually, for people running companies, it will seem silly to get a loan from a private bank rather than a crypto protocol. Going to a bank will be like bartering your goods with your neighbors instead of using the internet to sell them online.
Even more, the whole market will grow. People who could never access capital before will have an option with crypto. New businesses will flourish in new communities because crypto will reach them when banks couldn’t or wouldn’t.
It’s going to take years, the same way it took years for online stores to become the obvious option — or the only option for many new types of stores. It might be a long path, but we’re convinced it will happen. Eventually, if you run a business, and you need a loan, you’ll use a protocol.
As the world’s debt inevitably moves on-chain, Goldfinch will be that protocol, a marketplace to power all of that activity. And we have a responsibility to make sure everyone can take part. The protocol can achieve this goal from the start by expanding access to capital in emerging markets, where crypto can truly empower financial inclusion.
In this future world, Goldfinch will organize trillions of dollars of global debt. We’ll build it on a foundation of day-to-day productive activities. Not crypto speculation or financial engineering. Just simple economic growth. And a lot of that growth will only be possible because Goldfinch exists. Because Goldfinch will reach people who could never access capital before.
And for the providers of that capital, it will be an easy choice. Goldfinch will span all global activity, so it will offer an incredibly safe, diversified, reliable yield for stablecoins.
Already, we see the earliest signs of this working. In just over one year, Goldfinch grew to over $100M in active loans across 28 countries, and hundreds of thousands of end borrowers. Yet this is just a tiny drop in the bucket of where we’re really heading.
The Goldfinch thesis
At the heart of Goldfinch’s design is a much broader thesis on the shifting global economy. It is formed on two core beliefs: that over the coming decade, low real bond yields will drive investors to demand new investment opportunities, and that over this same period global economic activity will move on-chain, making every transaction programmable.
Together, these two beliefs lead to the conclusion that investors will move to these now-programmable, globally-accessible transactions, financing vast portions of the global economy while they do so. This will dramatically expand access to capital by removing the barriers to access faced by most of the world. You can learn more about the market conditions leading to these beliefs, and the data backing up this thesis, in our post on our core vision for Goldfinch and the future of finance.
With the transactions between consumers and merchants openly programmable, and a wave of demand from investors driving funding to these opportunities, the foundations for a whole new paradigm are created. Imagine if it wasn’t just huge banks that could provide credit for these transactions, but anyone in the world, or even a smart contract. This will lead to a new system where anyone is able to extend a loan for any transaction, anywhere.
“It might be a long path, but we’re convinced it will happen. Eventually, if you run a business, and you need a loan, you’ll use a protocol.”
The financial system is going through a renaissance. It will be entirely re-written over the next decade, and we have the opportunity to rethink how it works. To create one that’s more fair, transparent, accessible, and owned by those who participate. Goldfinch is the marketplace to facilitate this by bringing the world’s lending and borrowing on-chain.
How do we get there?
Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. At Goldfinch we strive to help move the world’s financial system forward by solving the most challenging problems, from decentralized credit via “truth through consensus” to NFT solutions for identity and liquidity.
Unsure of how this will work? Read on for our next post in the series, on how we first take action by starting with emerging markets…
Join Goldfinch in building this future — today is just the beginning. If you’re ready to dive into how Goldfinch works, start with the protocol overview. Want to stay tuned? Subscribe to Weekly Updates on Substack.
