August 11th Town Hall Recap
By: CryptoKeith
This week’s town hall was jam-packed with several surprising announcements, creating a buzz within the unFederal social community (and rightfully so). Over the last two weeks, unFederalReserve leadership made various key moves to strategically place the team into a position for long-term success.
A 30-minute time limit (once again) could not contain all of the exciting progress updates provided by Howard Krieger. That is why this recap is here: to break down some of the key highlights and what each could mean for the project.
Let’s dive in:
Safety = Value
Howard began the town hall discussing the importance of clarity for the success of emerging businesses. With his array of experience in valuation, Howard understands that new market disruptors come with a level of uncertainty. Price follows the perceived level of certainty as he states, “As risk is reduced, price increases…” Thus is similar with unFederalReserve as a business, and other projects in the space.
This is a main reason why unFederalReserve has put such an emphasis on safety, education and compliance. As the project becomes safer and more compliant, our perceived value will only rise.
RUSSIAN/CHINESE AMA
Financial issues are also an issue globally and there are millions of people who can benefit from our projects. Both the Chinese and Russian online communities are highly involved in the crypto space and contain a large amount of crypto wealth. Howard explained,
“I think we owe to those around the world to know that this technology exists, and even though they may not benefit as a consumer … in their jurisdictions they have the same exact problems.”
$eRSDL helps with:
- Lowering costs of capital
- Higher returns on capital for non-bank lenders
- Opportunities to invest in non-correlated assets (ReserveFunding)
Essentially, more eyes can result in a more diverse skills-based community which can help attract banks and non-bank lenders to the project.
COMMUNITY FORUM
We will be creating a community forum where issues and topics shall be raised and discussed amongst the community prior to making certain decisions. This will allow for us to preflight a lot of our work ahead of going to a full vote based on what we receive. Community input means everything to us, as Howard explains,
“unFederalReserve is a product by you, for you.”
New Advisor — Ralph Fatigate
Our already stacked advisory team is receiving another big-time advisor in Ralph Fatigate. Let’s take a look into some of Ralph’s impressive accolades:
- President of a Consumer Bank
- Director of Investigations at the New York State Banking Department
- Assisted with getting Venmo compliance
- Assisted with getting Coinbase compliance
- Served on the 9–11 commission
Ralph was a key component to Coinbase gaining regulatory approval and overseeing financial institutions getting designation to be a trust under the NYDFS umbrella. Howard explains,
“…that designation is one of those necessary, glorified hurdles for anyone in the crypto space, and now we have as an advisor the DIRECTOR of investigations.”
Being the man behind the man, Ralph also brings his large network of national banks and underserved banks.
Having Ralph as an advisor gives us a huge advantage to gaining that designation, and other bit licenses, as we move forward along our road map. We are beyond excited to have Ralph join the team.
New Token Added to ReserveLending — ($MATIC)
What is $MATIC?
Rebranded as Polygon (2021), $MATIC is a layer 2 blockchain network built on Ethereum that uses a technology known as plasma to process transactions off chain. It is used for a variety of purposes such as participation in network governance, staking and paying gas fees. Polygon is designed to facilitate a future where different blockchains no longer operate as closed-off silos, but instead as networks that fit into a specific landscape.
What does this mean for us?
Just as our products allow blockchain utility for lenders, our products can also provide utility to projects such as $MATIC. As Howard puts it,
“Each token added can bring greater community growth and benefits for the business of residual token. With the tide, all boats rise.”
$eRSDL BuyBack Testing
Howard announced (in around a week), “we will be buying $eRSDL tokens out of the market to practice putting it in a non-custodial wallet and have software operate to read that it is in there.”
Remember: ReserveFunding (and other future products) will have a licensing structure where $eRSDL is paid monthly via a licensing fee. Those tokens will be bought back by unFederalReserve, tracked and stored for later use. Those coins can be used to be burned, increase/borrow APY, or provide other incentives for our users.
This testing is the first step in testing that process from start to finish.
unFederalReserve Invited to Join the Online Lenders AllianceTM
The Online Lenders Alliance is one of the nation’s largest and most prominent online lending associations. Joining the OLA adds yet another level of legitimacy for $eRSDL in the online lending world.
What does this mean for unFed?
Joining this alliance also puts the unFederalReserve project in front of the Tribal Lending Network. The tribal lending marketplace is highly restricted and people cannot bank like they can in communities outside of their reservations. They are a perfect example of an underserved market that can benefit from our project. A group out of Oklahoma has invited us to come meet with the tribal leaders to discuss their unbanked needs.
This is big news for us as we continue to satisfy the mission of serving the unserved.
unFederalReserve is Approved by Plaid
What is Plaid?
Plaid is an entity that helps facilitate connecting consumers with bank institutions to help move cashflow back and forth.
What is the benefit?
Our unFederal products will have the ability to allow retail crypto holders to easily onramp into B2B Defi, but now with Plaid and Circle approval, we will provide an onramp for non-crypto members as well.
Executed a Memo of Understanding (MOU) with a Retail Alternative Investment Platform
Here is what we know:
This Retail Alternative Investment Platform allows investors to participate in an varied array of alternative investment deals. Things like:
- Mezzanine Debt
- Term Loans
- Higher Yielding Debt
Currently they have $350 million in notes outstanding and $5 million — $20 million in excess assets at any given time.
What is the benefit?
We will be creating a vault that will allow crypto users to put their money into CeFi deals in a fund of funds structure. Now our crypto users will be able to take advantage of the alternative investment opportunities provided by this partnership. The agreement also includes reinvesting back into our platform to fund other CeFi projects.
This will come into effect Q1 of 2022 and with it Howard predicts,
“..now that we have the first, I guarantee you that every CeFi out there in the alternative investment space is going to be knocking on the door. Because if we have the rails and the means, they have the opportunity.”
The benefit of being first to market.
unFederalReserve Signs Deal with Publicly Traded Bank
An MOU has been signed between unFederalReserve and a publicly traded bank. This will allow for high net worth individuals to participate through crypto or fiat in the alternative fund strategy (discussed earlier), provide bank custody over the product and other opportunities for placing capital.
Final Thoughts
With another town hall in the books, the unFederalReserve team continues to progress in the direction of compliance, safety and show. Snagging another big-hitting advisor and securing multiple MOU’s to provide further value for investors. Howard will now be meeting with a tribal lending group and speaking at Lend360. The technical rails are being fine-tuned and the buyback aspect is in full testing mode. Be on the lookout for Howard as he will be speaking at the Bitmart AMA and LATOKEN AMA to further push unFederalReserve to new audiences. We agree with Howard when he said, “the next 60 days are going to be fun.”
