Sufficiently decentralized bank

Thesis: In crypto, I believe finance use cases are 10x more direct and easier GTM than around identity and reputation, because people are generally OK trusting massive tech companies.

Question: What does a bank account for every person look like?

  • It’s a bank account that works with any app frontend, and can easily adapted to local areas? you can take with you, with a native frontend
  • Similar to what does the Farcaster of banks look like

Q: Why is this not just an Ethereum wallet?

  • Can’t spend IRL.
  • No protections that typical banks have.

Bank account

  • Debit: Can spend at a store. How does CB Visa card work?
  • Security
    • Rules: Set rules for what can be transacted without being temporarily locked (<$100 purchase, <$500 in a day)
    • Flagging and confirmation: For flagged transactions, confirm with access to phone or email (can use zkemail)
    • Address book: Trusted address book, to know who you’re paying (eg. Zelle resolves to a name) and allowing you to bypass rules (eg. Allow me to withdraw large amounts to cold wallet)
  • Offer credit
    • You escrow USD, which is put into a yield-bearing stablecoin like USDM and is your credit limit. Learnings from BLAST.
    • We do our best to warn you, and for some transactions that we think are safe, we offer insurance on them like Pocket Universe’s transaction insurance
    • Allows you to earn yield while simultaneously using your USD. And you pay it off normally
    • Someday, offer APR
  • Accounts: Ability to separate money into different accounts
  • That you can take with you
    • As much of the configuration above is in a moveable manner (Eg. Stored in an encrypted manner onchain). At first, sign a transaction to retrieve the settings
    • Other apps can access at the same time (imagine using two different banking apps, but underlying protocol is the same)
  • Protocol is free, but pays out a fee from the yield to both token holders and the front end
  • What is the initial wedge?
    • Concierge, like what AMEX provides, if we’re targeting conference goers, influencers, etc

KQ:

  • Likes the security aspect of things
    • Why she uses AMEX card is she can dispute anything
    • Also tries not to use web3 products due to taxes

Competitors: