Why We Invested: Reserve

Struck | Capital + Crypto + Studio
Struck Crypto
Published in
3 min readAug 23, 2022

At Struck Crypto, we believe stable currency should be a human right.

Reserve protocol is one of those unique investments where the utility of the product matches its mission driven ethos.

Reserve is on the cusp of launching its mainnet which will usher in the release of a smart contract protocol that will enable the creation and decentralized governance of more currencies like RSV. These currencies, called “RTokens”, will have values that can be pegged to diversified baskets of assets instead of USD or any fiat currency, making them unaffected by USD inflation or any centralized monetary policy. Once that protocol is released, Reserve will cease to have control over RTokens, but will go on to participate in the decentralized governance of RTokens, applying RTokens to more real-world problems, and fostering an ecosystem of other teams that want to build with a similar ethos.

We see the impact and applications of RTokens as far reaching — from extending financial services to people who are discriminated against by the existing system, to having an alternate international reserve currency that isn’t controlled by any single nation.

Since Struck Crypto’s investment in the project in 2018, alongside world class investors such as Peter Thiel and Sam Altman, Reserve has developed a stable cryptocurrency (RSV) and a mobile application (the Reserve app) to transact with. The purpose of this combined solution is to allow easy access to spendable digital US Dollars for people living in countries with high inflation or where digital US Dollars are not easily accessible.

Reserve is currently active in Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Panama & Peru and will be launching in Mexico shortly. The app has over 600,000+ registered users (about 100,000+ weekly active users), and is accepted at 15,000+ merchants across Latin-America as a means of payment, including large merchants such as Burger King.

Once the Reserve protocol launches, its smart contracts will allow for the permissionless creation of asset-backed stablecoins. The long-term vision for Reserve is to aid in the creation of a universal stable currency that keeps its value with de minimis inflation for centuries. With a sufficiently diversified basket of assets backing this new currency, enabled through the Reserve platform, the value of this currency should follow the value of the global GDP (which only dropped 2% during the global financial crisis) vs what we currently have with the US Dollar where its value has depreciated by >26x since 1910.

The collateralized stablecoins that can be created with the Reserve platform are endless — as a firm we at Struck Crypto are excited to continue to support this project on its journey. Using core technology innovation to solve some of the world’s largest problems is why we wake up each day and love what we do and Reserve embodies that ethos in every way shape and form.

Disclaimer:

Struck Capital Management LLC is registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) as a Registered Investment Adviser (“RIA”). Nothing in this communication should be considered a specific recommendation to buy, sell, or hold a particular security or investment. Past performance of an investment does not guarantee future results. All investments carry risk, including loss of principal.

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Struck | Capital + Crypto + Studio
Struck Crypto

Founder-first capital for innovative entrepreneurs who want to change the world: Struck is a next-gen seed stage venture capital firm and venture studio