The company brings savings clubs into the digital world via blockchain-based mobile app.
WeTrust, the innovative social network that is expected to re-imagine the finance and insurance industry, has officially launched. The network will connect social circles establishing formalized trust networks to allow people accomplishing financial goals and making profit of group savings power.
WeTrust was founded by 2 ex-Googlers and an ex-E&Y accountant who are passionate about social impact, and are self-funding this endeavor after successfully investing in bitcoin and ICOs Ethereum and Lisk. “WeTrust’s vision is to promote savings and enable communities to build trust networks that are open and transparent”, said George Li, one of the co-founders.
The network creators set really ambitious goals. The mission of WeTrust is to offer a mobile app based on the blockchain. The company aims to bring savings clubs into the digital world thanks to the technology underlying the cryptocurrency bitcoin.
WeTrust team believes that it is possible to revolutionize savings clubs (known as Rotating Savings and Credit Associations, or ROSCA) used by over 1 billion people around the world. ROSCAs bear various names around the world like chit funds in India, or cundinas in Mexico.
“ROSCAs could be the first consumer app that utilizes blockchain technology on a massive scale. This will be used by people who don’t know and don’t care about the underlying blockchain technology,” said Patrick Long, co-founder of WeTrust.
The first product of the company will be unveiled in the very beginning of 2017. It is based on concepts adopted from ROSCAs. With an initial user base and networks established, WeTrust team is going to build out blockchain credit scores/ identities, and more sophisticated products such as mutual insurance. WeTrust will also provide APIs to anyone who wants to use its codebase.
WeTrust company explains that savings pools can be united and either disbursed to members that are in need, or accumulated for future investments or emergency ‘rainy day’ funds. In fact, the notion of social finance is not new – it has been used by fintech unicorn SoFi that launched its loan process via an initial pool of funds from 40 Stanford alumni to refinance student loans from new Stanford graduates. They appreciated the idea that social ties will discourage borrowers from defaulting.
WeTrust goes on and intends to apply this idea to any group of individuals, any country, on a much larger scale.
Traditionally, savings pools have been used by people in geographical proximity, and had a considerable impact on economic growth. Despite the fact that savings pools are not that popular in countries with high rates of emigration and access to commercial banking, WeTrust believes in the potential of modern technologies combined with the fear regarding “too big to fail’ financial institutions.
“Today we have three sources of social safety nets: Government, commercial, and reciprocal. Modern tools like WeTrust can facilitate more efficient ways to organize reciprocal aid — a market with over one billion users and surging interest among those looking for alternatives to traditional financial institutions,” concluded Li.
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