The future of money was always meant to be decentralized, with the inception of Bitcoin – that’s what Satoshi Nakamoto said anyway:
“A lot of people automatically dismiss e-currency as a lost cause because of all the companies that failed since the 1990’s. I hope it’s obvious it was only the centrally controlled nature of those systems that doomed them. I think this is the first time we’re trying a decentralized, non-trust-based system”
Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency
So how did the outcome of this original vision wind up in the hands of a number of vast centralized exchanges, one of which reported 2,800% profit increase in its second quarter? Many of the key values of the cryptocurrency community – inclusiveness, privacy, freedom and individual control – seem fundamentally at odds with the way the tools to engage with it have developed, especially for those wanting to trade fiat funds into crypto in the first place.
Of course, there are many decentralized exchanges appearing on the market in 2018, but the motivations vary, and some of them are focussed purely on the security benefits. LocalCoinSwap is kicking back against the status quo at a more strategic level, by launching a truly decentralized exchange platform supporting every fiat currency – without onerous and invasive verification processes, or discrimination about geographical location. Their vision for decentralization goes much further than de-risking, and gets back to the roots of trustless inclusivity:
“We’re committed to opening up crypto to everyone”, explained Nathan Worsley, LocalCoinSwap Chief Technical Officer, to NewsBTC. “We’re never going to get the mass adoption the market needs if people have to create accounts at a dozen different centralized exchanges to trade different coins… And those exchanges, not only are they creaming off huge amounts of profits from fees, they’re all really inflexible about who can use them – which currencies they accept, who’s allowed to be verified on their system, and so on, It’s not surprising that still, less than 1% of the global population has got on board with investing. That’s just deepening inequality, and deferring the time when buying and selling everyday things with crypto becomes the norm”.
LocalCoinSwap doesn’t just talk-the-talk when it comes to decentralization. They’ve built their product around it:
“We’ve decentralized the ownership of the platform itself” Nathan continues. “Our tokens are actually shares in the business. 70% of the entire share value is up for distribution during our presale and ICO, with the development team retaining only 10% (locked for a year). These are genuine shares, which will act as proof of stake within the exchange itself, paying out profits accordingly and appropriately.”
“But it isn’t all about the investment and the reward. We’re also decentralizing the decision-making within the exchange.”
“Whilst our business plans are solid and carefully-planned by our team of developers and advisors, we know we’re operating in one of the most fast-moving and exciting technological environments of recent history, in a continually shifting landscape of regulatory environment of social change. As such, agility and flexibility are fundamental to our growth and success, and we’re allocating 10% of our shares from start to a Community Venture Fund. Our shareholders – the users of the platform – will vote on new directions for the business to take, from adapting marketing and user tools to new languages to strategic partnerships and adoptions of secondary marketplaces on top of the underlying P2P platform”.
And whilst the exchange plans to open in August with trading fully enabled on the top 10 cryptocurrencies, the inclusive and decentralized ethos recognizes that this is far from the full picture. From the very start, new tokens will be welcome.
“We will offer more cryptocurrencies than any other true P2P exchange, from the day we begin to trade. But going forward, we’ll welcome new ventures to partner with us too, and offer their tokens on our platform. They will buy their way in – assuming they pass our advisory board’s quality filter – by offering airdrops to our shareholders, in direct proportion to their holdings.”
“We have a dedicated development team whose sole purpose is the programming and implementation new crypto and fiat currencies – so we will never, ever end up resembling the big monopolized exchanges presently dominating the market, and operating no differently from the established financial institutions that the cryptocurrency movement set out to disrupt in the first place”.
People get involved in cryptocurrency for all sorts of reasons, and for many, making a quick profit will probably be at the heart of it. That’s fine, it’s all about choice after all.
But if you share the philosophy that the greatest advances in uptake, growth, AND success will ultimately come from an approach of inclusiveness and diversity, LocalCoinSwap’s approach to decentralization might appeal to you.
You can find out more ahead of everyone else, by joining the presale on March 15th – and in the meantime, you stay in touch with the team directly on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter and register on their Website.