Why Launch Pendulum on Polkadot?
Discover SatoshiPay’s journey from connecting the world through instant payments in 2014 to building a fiat-optimized Pendulum chain on Polkadot today.
The Pendulum journey started with the founding of SatoshiPay, a global fintech company. Pendulum is perhaps the most ambitious project from the SatoshiPay team since inception. SatoshiPay has launched products such as B2B cross-border money transfer services, a Stellar open-source wallet and micropayment processing services. So how does this lead to Pendulum’s fiat-optimized blockchain being built on Polkadot? Read on to find out.
SatoshiPay Story
In 2014 SatoshiPay founder and crypto pioneer Meinhard Benn set out to make micropayments fast, global and easy. Initially SatoshiPay focused on Bitcoin payments, but as BTC grew in popularity the higher fees and congestion on the BTC network made it inefficient for micropayments. Then SatoshiPay pivoted towards building products to support borderless fiat payments. In 2019 the multi-signature wallet for stellar was launched and 2020 saw SatoshiPay process more than 1,000,000 euros in borderless content payments.
More recently SatoshiPay has begun development on Dtransfer to support international business payments instantly through one convenient platform, while reducing costs up to 95% and scaling operations globally. Partnering with Stellar opened up access to Stellar’s extensive host of synthetic fiat assets for SatoshiPay projects to integrate within their payment services. However, Stellar currently does not have smart contract compatibility. So Pendulum aims to become the missing link between fiat and DeFi, allowing fintech companies to build financial services on top of the blockchain. To achieve this, an interoperable smart contract layer zero blockchain is an ideal foundation. Enter Polkadot.
Why Polkadot
Polkadot offers high cross-chain interoperability, economic scalability and comprehensive security. If Pendulum was to start from scratch then it would need to spend ample resources on security. Polkadot allows parachains to benefit from its security and still maintain independence over their governance. With Polkadot’s advanced smart contract compatibility, an entire fiat DeFi ecosystem can be developed on the Pendulum chain including AMMs, lending protocols, forex optimized money markets and more. Imagination is the only limitation. The roadmap includes cross-chain bridges linking Pendulum to Ethereum and all major crypto ecosystems, while Spacewalk, the trust-minimized bridge between Stellar and all substrate chains, is already under development.
Additionally, becoming a Kusama and then a Polkadot parachain offers projects the opportunity to grow a grassroots community via the crowdloans and auctions processes. Community members stake their KSM and DOT to vote for a project to win a parachain slot and then often become early advocates and active community members.
How Polkadot Benefits
Pendulum aims to become a critical piece of Web3 infrastructure bridging fiat services with Polkadot and all of DeFi. Therefore, Polkadot stands to benefit from more integrations and railroads connecting it with multiple traditional finance and blockchain communities, like the Stellar<->Pendulum Spacewalk bridge for example. Compliant stable tokens can bring deep forex liquidity to the Polkadot ecosystem.
“We can bring value to the Polkadot community by opening the gate for compliant stable tokens and by collaborating on projects that bring new technology to the ecosystem.” — Dr. Torsten Stüber, CTO of Pendulum
Next Steps of the Journey
The goal is to become a Kusama parachain by summer and then a Polkadot parachain by 2023. Wen Kusama crowdloan? Crowdloan details are coming very soon and participation will offer the chance for the community to access the PEN token. In the meantime make sure to set up your Polkadot wallet and learn how Polkadot crowdloans and auctions work. Follow our socials to join us in swinging the pendulum from traditional banking to DeFi.
About Polkadot
Polkadot is a sharded protocol that enables blockchain networks to operate together seamlessly.
About Pendulum
Building the missing link between fiat and DeFi through a fiat-optimized smart contract blockchain based on Polkadot’s Substrate. Allowing traditional finance fiat services to integrate with DeFi applications such as specialized forex AMMs, lending protocols, or yield farming opportunities. Developed by SatoshiPay.
Keep your eyes on the Pendulum!
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