UPA Q1 2021 Report
Building the world’s leading token factory
Welcome back to the Universal Protocol Alliance’s status updates, which now come at the end of every quarter. Since the beginning of the new year, the UPA team has been diligently working to make sure that UPA is positioned to deliver on our promise to tokenize and transparently substantiate every asset class, and build out the world’s leading tokenization platform ushering in a new era of finance in which every citizen anywhere can participate.
Under the guidance of UPA’s new Chairman, UPA had some work to do before we could move forward. We needed to go back to basics and make sure that the UPA Whitepaper mission is being realized, that our products (current and planned) are what users and the market want, and we had to work through some UPT related matters including its distribution and the creation of an automated buyback program.
In this quarterly update, we summarize that work.
- UPA Whitepaper Review
- Current UPA Product Lineup
- Product Roadmap
- UPT Utility, Distribution and Buyback Program
- Other News Across the UP Alliance
Each is discussed in turn.
UPA Whitepaper Review
At the start of the year, the Universal Protocol Alliance members met to discuss how to achieve the original UPA whitepaper mission and plan and whether it needed to be changed in any way since the intervening months have seen a great deal of innovation and change in the crypto community. The UPA members agreed that we can keep the original plan essentially unchanged — although we need to evolve the roadmap and go forward to plan and properly resource the central team.
Original Whitepaper Mission.
The Universal Protocol Platform is a culmination of the efforts of an alliance of like-minded cryptocurrency companies and blockchain pioneers (“UP Alliance”). Our ambition is to help decentralized ledger technology achieve mainstream adoption as a universal method for transferring value over the internet. The project addresses three major challenges facing the blockchain industry:
- The lack of a common language required for optimal innovation and mass adoption.
- The lack of conventional user safeguards characteristic of assets in mature financial markets.
- The lack of focus on practical products with mass-market utility
The original Universal Protocol Alliance whitepaper can be downloaded at www.universalprotocol.io.
Current UPA product lineup
Over the last 3 months, the UPA team and its member companies have been busy developing the next generation of UPA stablecoins and tokens. In determining trails we want to blaze next, we reviewed our existing purse of stablecoins, so we could extract what has worked and how we can expand the utility of our products.
UPT — Universal Proxy Token
The Universal Proxy Token is the native token of the Universal Protocol Platform. It is the underlying utility token for Universal Protocol, and blockchain users use it to make transactions with the additional tokens and stablecoins that UP releases throughout the year. Currently, UPT can transact with UPUSD, UPEUR, and UPBTC.
Each Universal Protocol token will have a set of common properties and operate under a universal and transparent reserve standard that can be audited and verified through a transparency page. We intend to release new proxy tokens quarterly for existing popularly traded cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.
UPUSD — The Universal Dollar
The Universal Dollar (UPUSD) was our first stablecoin to be released in our family of Universal tokens. It is a stablecoin that is pegged to the US Dollar at a 1:1 rate and is fully transparent so you can see the underlying asset in the Uphold reserve.
UPEUR — The Universal Euro
The Universal Euro is a 1:1 Euro-pegged stablecoin, our second to be released. This stablecoin is aimed at global consumers who want to interact with additional choices of revenue streams not based on the US Dollar. People whose assets are tied up in Euro markets may be able to benefit from a higher rate of return than many of their national banks offer.
“The Universal Euro offers the same commitment to code quality, investor safeguards and transparency as other Universal Protocol Tokens. UPEUR is architected with institutional-level security in mind and works seamlessly with the Universal Protocol Token (UPT), designed to allow for quick, low-cost conversion of UPEUR to fiat currencies, UPUSD, UPBTC or other digital assets. UPEUR is backed by some of the biggest names in the blockchain industry, all supporting various aspects of the UPEUR ecosystem and we’re thrilled to make this stablecoin a core component of UPA,” said JP Thieriot, CEO of Uphold.
UPBTC — The Universal Bitcoin
The Universal Bitcoin is the second tokenized financial product to be released by the Universal Protocol, after the native token, UPT. UPBTC is a proxy token for Bitcoin, the first tokenized cryptocurrency we have released so far. It allows users of Bitcoin to seamlessly take the value of their Bitcoin assets and render them accessible and convertible through a single blockchain network.
Universal Carbon — UPC02
Our major endeavor over the last several months has been building UPC02 into a global powerhouse for tokenized carbon credits. UPC02 became the world’s first tradable carbon token on a public blockchain, which can be bought and held as an investment, or retired to offset an individual’s carbon footprint. Each token represents one tonne of CO2 emissions that has been averted by a certified REDD+ project preventing rainforest loss. Consumers are protecting forest that sequesters carbon emissions, all while maintaining critical rainforest habitats globally, leading to increases in biodiversity. UPC02 is backed by a Voluntary Carbon Unit, a digital certificate issued by Verra — an international standards agency.
“This year may go down as the key inflection point for climate change. The year it went from a far-off issue enshrined in distant accords like Kyoto and Paris, to an existential threat affecting the lives of tens of millions of people. In recent months, we’ve seen Australia and California on fire, ever more powerful hurricanes, PresidentJoe Biden announcing a Climate Administration, and companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Nike voluntarily committing to carbon neutrality,” says Matthew Le Merle, Chairman of UPA and co-founder of Fifth Era.
Bitcoin Zero — BTC0
After we launched UPC02, we realized that in digitizing carbon credits we have a tool to address broader opportunities. Simply put, we can use a digital carbon credit (UPCO2) to then allow any person, entity, product or platform to itself also achieve net-zero emissions. Just as when digitized music enabled the iPod that allowed our music to be truly portable, iTunes allowed us to buy and download it, and eventually, real-time streaming brought music to the world, so too by digitizing carbon credits we can use technology to democratize environmentalism to allow any other digital product, wallet, exchange, etc. to also combat their own negative carbon footprints.
In order to address the concerns of the sustainability of the crypto world, we decided to pioneer a new approach — net-zero emissions for existing coins. Our pilot product for this endeavor is Bitcoin Zero (BTC0). It is a real bitcoin in an ERC-20 wrapper designed to cover the net-zero emissions by retiring UPCO2 tokens at minting. While the Bitcoin Network is increasingly turning to renewable energy sources, its carbon footprint remains a major drawback to many. That is why we launched BTC0.
Bitcoin Zero highlights:
- Consists of 1 Bitcoin and 10 UPCO2 tokens burned and the underlying carbon credits retired at minting to compensate for its carbon footprint.
- Allows Bitcoin to be traded on the more energy-efficient Ethereum Network.
- Each UPCO2 token represents 1 tonne of CO2 averted by certified REDD+ rainforest projects.
- Fully substantiated and transparently minted.
BTC0 is backed on a 1:1 basis by Bitcoin held in custody and the minting and substantiation process is transparently written to the Ethereum Network.
Community Help
In terms of current products, the most powerful ways for the UP community to assist would be with additional listings at digital exchanges and wallets. We believe UPA products are better in many ways than those from other protocols, however, we do not have a broad enough distribution footprint for them.
Product Roadmap
We have been busy working on the product roadmap for this year and have listened to the community’s requests for new tokenized assets. We are working on the following:
- Additional precious metals-backed crypto commodity tokens
- Additional carbon credit-backed crypto commodity tokens
- Additional network tokens powered by UPA (along the lines of the Brave token and our involvement in it)
- Partnerships with NFT platforms and providers so that we can bring UPA token factory technology to bear on this exciting area of digital assets. We will be announcing more on this in Q2 including NFT partnerships currently being negotiated.
We can’t provide more specific guidance at this time, but expect product launches in the coming months.
UPT Utility, Distribution and Buyback Program
This next topic has used up a disproportionate amount of the UPA team’s time and resources during Q1 2021. But it was necessary. We can now confirm:
- UPT is being used as the gas of the UPA token factory as was originally planned. All of our tokens are issued with UPT as the currency used for minting and processing fees, and we prefer and are able to take such fees in UPT now.
- UP coalition members are launching additional UPT benefits for the community members. This is not something that UPA manages itself, and indeed if any other community member would like to offer any benefit for community members who are using UPT we encourage it but cannot oversee it.
- We have received the necessary legal opinions in connection with UPT.
Given these three important milestones, UPA can now also confirm:
- UPA, which administers the UPT registry, will now permit the distribution of UPT to original owners including in the USA.
- UPA has now put in place a UPT buyback policy. Essentially, excess quarterly cash flow to UPA will be used in the following quarter to buy back and burn UPT through an automated buyback program. We have been diligent in ensuring that this automated buyback program will not allow for any direct management once it commences in each subsequent quarter.
- Finally, we expect to onboard a few new Alliance members over the next three months, which will further expand on the utility of UPA products.
We appreciate your patience. There was a lot for us to review in Q1 and also a lot of work to do to get UPA where it needed to be.
Other News Across the UP Alliance
Uphold
Uphold to launch crypto card in Europe after Optimus acquisition. Uphold is changing the way people trade cryptocurrencies. Uphold has also recently completed its acquisition of broker-dealer JNK Securities.
Bittrex Global
Tokenized Certified Carbon Credits. UPC02 becomes first tradeable carbon token listed on Bittrex Global.
Ledger
Bitcoin wallet firm Ledger expands to cater to institutions. Hardware wallet maker Ledger adding DeFi support to mobile app. Nexo taps crypto wallet firm Ledger to secure $4 Billion in AUM.
CertiK
CertiK’s COO on the future of blockchain security and the normalization of crypto-insurance.
Trovio
Infinigold raises $6.25M and rebrands as Trovio. Trovio to list first net-zero gold ETF.
