Though the cryptocurrency space has grown, there still exist gaps between the legacy world and the cryptocurrency world.It is one of the major reasons why many compliance issues exist in the first place.Joshua Scigala and his team at Vaultoro decided to do something about this and launched thestandard.io Thestandard.io is world-changing decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that is bridging the gaps between the traditional finance world and the cryptocurrency space.One of the projects they aim to start with is an algorithmic Euro stablecoin.A world-first, this will bring balance and more liquidity inflows to the cryptocurrency space among other advantages.
We reached out to Joshua for more insight into this and other issues.Here is what he had to say.
Joshua Scigalia Co-Founder TheStandard.io E-Crypto News: Congratulations on the launch of your Euro Stablecoin! What’s next for thestandard.io? As they say, Cypherpunks don’t beg for change from governments, they write code, so that’s what’s next :).The biggest reason that there is no real Euro stablecoin is because of the negative interest rates from the ECB.Once negative interest rates hit the US, all of the regulated 1:1 fiat backed stablecoins will have real issues.This is why we believe algorithmic stablecoins are the only future.E-Crypto News: What are the benefits of having a Euro stablecoin within the cryptocurrency space? The amazing thing with crypto currency is that you can send some value to anyone around the world instantly, 24/7 and you can make it programmable! This is why we are seeing more and more people asking to be paid in crypto currency.
The problem that most freelancers are seeing is that it’s too volatile on a day to day basis which makes it hard to handle and account for.This is why a stablecoin protocol that issues a Euro peg makes a lot of sense.But the euro is only the first.Eventually we hope to have every major currency available using The Standard Protocol.E-Crypto News: Please, can you give us details about the Euro stablecoin infrastructure? Sure, so a traditional stable coin is a company that puts 1 euro in a bank account and issues a cryptocurrency token to represent that euro.The problem with that is that you have to trust that the company has that currency and that the bank that is holding that backing currency is not working with those funds.
The Standard breaks this mold.It enables anyone to lock up volatile [crypto currencies like bitcoin] and ethereum as well as gold secured by participating vaulting facilities into smart contracts.Once those assets are locked in, people can generate up to 85% of that value in the Euro Stablecoin called Standard Euro.
Effectively we have created a gold-backed but Euro pegged stablecoin.A new version of the gold standard.Once you have generated your Standard Euro you can use it or trade it for real euro.
Now a user can save in gold and crypto but still have money to live on as they have not sold their asset savings but borrowed against them.Here is an explainer video that is easy to understand.E-Crypto News: What measures have you put in place to ensure that the Euro stablecoin is not susceptible to inflationary tendencies? The great thing is that because users still hold their underlying assets in gold and cryptocurrency they love inflation.Why? Because they have borrowed against their savings and have to pay back the euros.
So let’s say you borrow 1000 euros from yourself and buy a new electric bike.Great.Now you wait 10 years and due to inflation 1000 euros now only buys you a carton of milk.Effectively you can pay yourself back and unlock your gold and crypto assets for the price of a carton of milk.As a bonus your assets might have risen in price! E-Crypto News: What is the valuation model or method that you’re using to value the assets that under gird the Euro stablecoin ecosystem? The value of the underlying assets are derived from average global markets.For the gold we use the global gold spot price and for the crypto currency we use a global average.E-Crypto News: How is thestandard.io working to create the best “gold standard” for the world? We are continuing to build one of the strongest teams in the world from the top crypto experts to some of the most well published economists in the world to help us bring this project to life.
When developing new economic theory and systems one must take a holistic approach.Combining fields such as ethicists,, game theory, computer science and economics to flesh out what we hope will be the closest to perfect money, stable, asset backed and denominated in a unit that everyone understands.E-Crypto News: Please, can you tell us more about savings withinTheStandard.io’s infrastructure? Saving is out of the question for the vast majority that live paycheck to paycheck.Some manage to save but only in fiat which is being inflated away.Our goal is to make it super easy for anyone to save in rare assets like allocated gold bullion or crypto but still have liquidity to pay for living expenses.So people would save every week in the assets, lock them up in a smart contract that they control and then generate liquidity by borrowing against their holding.E-Crypto News: Please, can you tell us more about loans within TheStandard.io’s infrastructure? When you use TheStandard you lock up crypto or hard assets like gold that a person might have secured for them by a participating vaulting facility.
Traditionally you would need to go to a bank or a trusted third party but this is about to change.TheStandard enables anyone to generate stable [cryptocurrencies from the hard] and soft assets they own.All by utilising a smart contract called a smart vault.
Smart vaults are computer programs that run in a vast network and are secured by the Ethereum blockchain.E-Crypto News: What measures are in place to ensure liabilities don’t surpass assets within the ecosystem? Great question.Firstly if a smart vault becomes close to becoming under collateralized (85%) it would automatically execute a liquidation process of the underlying assets.
The first that can buy the underlying assets up to 15% under spot are the hard asset custodians holding the physical bullion on behalf of the client.Any crypto assets within a smart vault gets sold to Standard DAO token holders 15% under spot price.By doing this, these companies have to buy Standard Euro off the open market to buy the liquidated assets.This removes the generated Standard Euro from the circulating supply as well as the underlying assets.E-Crypto News: What are your thoughts on the recent efforts to regulate the cryptocurrency space? Regulating crypto currency is a futile act.It’s evolving far too fast for any lawmaker to keep up.
It’s like saying we need to regulate every webpage that is created.
This would be impossible.
The other thing is that it can have unseen consequences to put rules about something before it’s mature.For instance, when cars were first invented, the british horse and cart, veterinarians, and horse shoe industry got together to regulate cars so much that no one would buy them.This meant cars were only legally allowed to go as fast as someone could run.This caused the USA and Germany to win the fledgling auto industry as Britain could not compete.
In terms of crypto currency, what is possible is to regulate the exchanges that deal with crypto currencies in certain geographical regions E-Crypto News: How did you get started with cryptocurrencies and their allied technologies? I was always interested in alternative economies.Back in 2002 my wife and I released the world’s first swap website where people could swap clothes online.It was great but we could tell right away that the market was inefficient.If I loved your jeans but I did not have anything that interests you then the deal would fall through.
We started to look for some type of credit system that if I swapped for your jeans you could give me a credit that can be used on the whole site.But then we would just be another central bank issuing “money”.How much do we issue, how do we stop inflation and so on.I came across what the cypherpunks were doing online and in particular amsterdam.
The problem was that they could not fix the double spend problem.Meaning digital things can be copied.If I ask you to send me back an MP3, I don’t know you haven’t made a copy of it.I gave up on the idea and people kept on swapping.
Then in late 2010 I was still subscribed to various publications to do with cryptography, the Chaos computer club and cypherpunks when boom Satoshi’s whiite paper landed on my table.WOW! She has cracked it! Peer to Peer digital cash that does not need a central bank, government or private company to exist! They fixed the double spend problem! The first digital asset that cant be copied just got invented! E-Crypto News: Do you think that cryptocurrencies will replace retail banking? How do you think this will occur? Please, can you give us a scenario? Absolutely, it is inevitable.When the internet went after the post office with email, the post office was lucky because it could fall back to parcel delivery but now that the internet is going after banking there is nothing that they can do that cryptocurrency can’t do more efficiently.
The problem with crypto currency is that it is too volatile for most people to stomach.
There are many people like traders that love volatility but for the average Joe, they need stability.
For This reason I see a huge future in Stablecoins.But I can’t stand the thought of most stablecoins because they are simply the old system wrapped in a new technology.This is why we are creating “The Standard”.
We aim to build a peer to peer decentralised finance protocol that creates fiat pegged stablecoins backed by people voluntarily locking up their hard and soft assets to create the cryptocurrency.This solves every problem I ever saw with retail banking and cryptocurrency.E-Crypto News: What are your thoughts on the explosion of the DeFi space? DeFi is one of the most important revolutions in the crypto currency space.But for me it is currently a house of cards all sitting on top of a few large players like the Maker DAI, USDC and Tether.
If there’s a black Swan event that pulls down lets say the Maker protocol this could have terrible consequences for billions of dollars of value.This is another reason I feel that TheStandard.io is important, it helps to decentralise DeFi at a foundational level.The Standard is really DeFi infrastructure.E-Crypto News: Please, can you tell us more about the standard token? Unlike central banks, where a small group of people sit behind closed doors steering the economy.
The Standard is governed openly and democratically by thousands, if not millions of people around the world.Anyone holding The Standard Token (TST) will be able to help out and for doing so they get well rewarded.E-Crypto News: Please, can you explain to us how the standard token governance model works? Anyone holding Standard tokens is able to log in using an Ethereum wallet like MetaMask.
Once in they can buy any liquidated crypto assets that the system is selling 15% or more under spot price.They can also vote on the stability fee as well as vote on how the treasury should be spent.They can also submit proposals to the DAO.For instance, let’s say you are a youtube creator, you could submit a proposal to produce an educational series on how the Standard works and how much it would cost the DAO.This will then be voted on and if the majority of Standard token holders think that this will be good for the ecosystem then the treasury will automatically send the budgeted funds to the youtube influencers account.
This can also be done using vesting to make sure people deliver.E-Crypto News: Please, can you tell us more about your backers? We are a core group of old bitconers that want to help build the future of stablecoins.
We have all invested time and money into bootstrapping it.We are currently in talks with some larger VC’s as well as angel investors.Our pre-market distribution will be allocated to these people and will be available to Vaultoro.com members and VC’s that would like to participate.E-Crypto News: How do you think we can prevent the undue influence of individuals and organizations on the prices of cryptocurrency markets? This is a hard one because humans love the cult of personality.
People are social creatures and so tend to move in herds.If a leader tells everyone to go one way, a lot of people will do it.The biggest issues I see is that governments have done a lot over the years to derisk everyones lives as much as possible.This is great for safety but it’s terrible as people fall for scams as they have forgotten what risk looks like.What we see is that when an influencer yells DOGECOIN and millions follow, eventually millions get burned.Sometimes people need to touch a candle to understand not to touch it again.
Next time they will think twice before following that leaders call to action.What I’m saying is that people will slowly learn that they must do their own research and not just listen to influencers.E-Crypto News: Where do you see thestandard.io in the next ten years? I see The Standard as being the new gold standard of stablecoins.I see a whole suite of fiat pegged stablecoins like YEN, USD, AUD, EURO, PESO and so on.I especially see these in highly inflationary places like argentina.I also see more and more wallets plugging into the standard.
The website has only one interface but will issue debit cards and integrate other protocols like Aave, balancer so people can earn interest with Defi as well as take out DeFi based insurance.This is a revolution in not only Central banking but also retail banking.We also have a plan to open Vaulting facilities on all major continents so that the DAO has even more control and transparency on the underlying hard assets.E-Crypto News: Do you have any secrets that you want to tell us? Care to spill the beans? Not yet, we are making some deals with big players in the industry but they need to stay under wraps until they are fully signed.These are game changers and will accelerate our plans greatly.I can, however, say that you will be the first to know 🙂 E-Crypto News: If you had three wishes and a Genie that could make them come true, what would they be for thestandard.io? I would wish to make The Standard so popular that everyone in the world becomes bank independent and starts saving in real assets without inflation diminishing them.
This would help so many people in so many ways that I would tell the genie that he can keep the other two wishes 🙂.
