Terra Project Spotlight — Kash
The recent launch of Anchor on Terra has fulfilled TFL’s vision of implementing the three primary financial primitives on Terra — payments (CHAI + stablecoins), investing (Mirror), and savings (Anchor). The three applications can now serve as a foundation for a thriving DeFi ecosystem on top of the Terra network.
Moving forward, we believe the most effective way to strengthen a blossoming community and dynamic DeFi landscape on Terra is to welcome and support third-party projects looking to wield Terra’s unique set of advantages. The goal? Create an inter-chain financial system that is more inclusive, transparent, and powerful than TradFi.
As a result, we’re pleased to present the inaugural issue of Terra’s Project Spotlight series.
Terra’s Project Spotlight will illuminate projects building DeFi applications on the Terra network. This could be projects funded by community pools (Terra, Mirror, Anchor), Terraform Capital teams, influencer outreach programs, DeFi apps built by established brand names in the crypto market, solo developer initiatives, or whatever project has community support and improves the Terra ecosystem. The Terra Project Spotlight will be an ongoing series to highlight how teams interact with the Terra blockchain — sharing their visions, experience, features, product development, product-market fit, and more.
We hope this series provides the Terra community with valuable insights and transparency into the growth of what has become such an exciting financial atmosphere. To kick off the Project Spotlight series, we will cover Kash — a decentralized mobile banking app that brings secure financial blockchain products to the mainstream economy.
What is Kash?
Kash is one of the first Terraform Capital projects to receive audit funding to build an application sourced from Terra’s network features. Built by the Intellabridge Technology Corporation, a public company trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange, OTC and Frankfurt exchanges, Kash is a front-end mobile application that is integrated with Terra’s stablecoins for remittance payments, Mirror for globally accessible investing, and Anchor for stable, high-yield savings.
Kash uses a progressive web app (PWA) interface so that users on mobile devices can easily access Kash and store it on their home screen by simply logging in via Google or Facebook. PWAs are distinct in that they offer features of modern web browsers but are barely distinguishable from the UX of mobile applications — a major benefit for users who may not have direct access to mobile application stores.
Kash draws from Terra’s foundation of financial primitives to bring powerful financial tooling to financially disenfranchised users worldwide — particularly inflationary-prone countries. The Kash team shares Terra’s vision of empowering financial freedom by developing decentralized financial products on top of a suite of fiat-pegged stablecoins collateralized by Terra’s native asset LUNA.
In the screenshot above, you will notice the savings, checking, and investments tabs at the center. These features use TerraUSD (UST) and are integrations of Mirror and Anchor — along with UST stablecoin payments. Kash is specifically tailored for a simple user experience, and as noted by Intellabridge’s team:
“It’s easy to make simple things difficult but difficult to make something simple.”
The open Alpha of Kash is now live, with the mainnet version expected for the end of Q2. You can check out the website and demo of Kash’s Alpha version below!
Kash website: www.kash.io
Kash app: https://app.kash.io/
We plan on supplementing Kash’s vision of a globally-accessible gateway to DeFi primitives via the provision of resources like marketing, strategic networking, and access to various TFL resources that help maximize the application’s reach of its target demographics.
Why Kash?
Recent macroeconomic turmoil in the wake of COVID-19 has induced numerous financial and economic collateral effects that are often obscure and difficult to identify in the short-term.
In many global regions, however, economic turmoil and a lack of access to financial tooling is endemic. Economic woes experienced by Western nations in the fallout of central banking’s stranglehold on global finance often pale in comparison to the situation faced by people in regions where inflation, stringent capital controls, onerous tax structures on foreign equities, and a dearth of banking options are commonplace.
For example, inflation discussions in the US are often highly polarized despite inflation expectations for 2021 (following massive stimulus packages) at only 2–4 percent. Comparably, Venezuela’s annualized inflation rate for 2021 is expected to be around 438 percent. Distinct differences in monetary policy and standing within the global financial system clearly contribute to the disparity, but it’s time to tackle the problem in countries like Venezuela head-on rather than debating political semantics.
Enter Kash.
The best way to compose a picture of the potential market-demand for Kash is via cursory glimpses at 3 countries where the collateral effects of inflationary monetary policy are beginning to protrude as broader instability.
- Argentina
- Lebanon
- Turkey
Argentina
Argentina has one of the highest adoption rates for crypto in Latin America — a byproduct of several factors. Argentina has been in recession year-over-year (including a 10 percent GDP contraction in 2020), which has exacerbated government currency controls restricting the purchase of USD and circumscribing inflows of foreign capital. Corralitos, illegal money exchange pop-ups, have stepped in to alleviate pockets of demand, but tolerance for pseudo-dollarization is waning.
The devaluation of the Argentine Peso continues its slide, with current year-over-year inflation rates at 40.7 percent making the Argentine preference for dollars as a means of salvaging value unsurprising. Centralized exchanges in Argentina have seen very high demand, mainly for Bitcoin as a means to access USD — even with BTC’s volatility. However, due to this demand, the government is increasing the regulation of centralized exchanges, which opens up the opportunity for DeFi.
Lebanon
Since anti-government protests erupted in October 2019, the currency has lost nearly 90 percent of its value, with year-over-year inflation peaking at 145.8 percent in December 2020.
Inflation forecasts are at 77 percent for this year, and GDP contracted 25 percent last year (already contracted 15 percent in 2019). Concrete metrics are sparse for crypto adoption among Lebanese, but similar to Argentina, demand for the USD has surged, with no-KYC crypto on-ramps likely serving as a primary vehicle to accessing USD-denominated assets.
Turkey
Turkey posted a 15.61 percent annual rise in consumer prices in February. Recently, the Turkish Lira fell 15 percent after the central bank governor was fired — highlighting how the FX uncertainty and instability can lead to sudden moves in the currency. Consumer prices have steadily risen since the end of 2020, signaling trepidation for a currency (Lira) entering the inflationary gauntlet.
Again, in instances where inflation rates drastically outpace paltry bank savings rates and government-dictated capital controls follow, citizens will intentionally circumvent capital restrictions as a means to salvage value and put food on the table. The USD, as the primary reserve currency of the world prone to minimal yearly inflation, is often the best choice.
Its availability, reputation, liquidity, and network effects entrench its position as a viable option for inflationary-prone regions that have yet to be usurped.
Welcoming Kash — Optionality for the Masses
Historically, stringent capital controls (while detrimental in many areas) have worked well at blocking access to foreign currencies and goods. However, blockchain-native stablecoins are a zero-to-one innovation in this regard. Nowhere else can you find censorship-resistant, fiat-pegged analogs of TradFi currencies that are more composable, have a faster settlement, and are broadly liquid across globally fragmented venues — either centralized or decentralized.
In the case examples of inflation-prone countries above, a shortage of options for accessing USD for payments (e.g., remittance), savings, or investing creates a simmering market demand by Argentines, Lebanese, and Turkish citizens for stablecoins like UST. Terra’s stablecoins are decentralized, fiat-pegged alternatives to conventional fiat currencies that are not prone to censorship, confiscation, or tethered to central banking interest rates.
UST derives its native features from Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin design and is deployed as a locus of gravity for extracting DeFi-native yield uncorrelated to TradFi.
Previous hurdles to accessing Terra’s stablecoin suite primarily revolved around a lack of fiat → crypto gateways and intuitive front-ends that embed Terra’s 3 apps for financial primitives. Those barriers are quickly being eroded.
With Kash, residents of nations experiencing the pitfalls of excessive inflation have a simple and accessible option to wield USD-denominated savings at 20 percent APY, rapidly access and send UST payments globally, and invest in major asset classes like US tech equities that circumvent onerous capital controls.
All of this can occur on Kash within a user-friendly interface sourced from a burgeoning inter-chain DeFi ecosystem — Terra.
DeFi’s usability problem is often a downstream consequence of its underlying complexity and poor UX. By sourcing DeFi’s high-yield savings and payments from Terra, Kash simplifies the front-end experience and garnishes it with a sleek UX that anyone can use on a mobile phone.
For people in countries like Venezuela, Argentina, Lebanon, and Turkey, that’s a powerful vehicle to tilt at government-induced economic woes and join the DeFi movement. Kash is a tool for empowering financial access to the masses — something we proudly support.
What’s Next?
We’re thrilled to support Kash on its journey to a vehicle for the mass adoption of DeFi in financially disenfranchised regions that achingly need alternatives to the status quo.
But the power of DeFi cannot be unleashed with one application! There’s a whole world of financial innovation sourced from DeFi waiting to be discovered that can positively impact people around the world. We look forward to spotlighting future projects building on Terra and welcome any and all inquiries about how to improve the Terra ecosystem for the net benefit of different types of users everywhere.
Terra is a welcoming and forward-thinking community founded on the notion of helping DeFi technology reach the masses. If you’re interested in building something creative or interesting on the Terra network, please feel free to reach out! There are various ways you can reach out, iterated below, to tap into a growing network of ambitious entrepreneurs, talented professionals, and unwavering community supporters.
Who knows, maybe you could be the next project featured in Terra’s Project Spotlight…
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Application form to build on Terra:
Terraform Capital application form:
Terra community pool + Agora research forum:
Mirror community pool + community forum:
https://forum.mirror.finance/latest?order=activity
Anchor community pool + community forum:
