Utrust Online Payments of the Future

Cryptocurrency itself is a digital currency that uses encryption techniques to regulate each unit of a new currency and verify every shipment of funds that occurs. This digital currency operates independently without central bank intervention.

Although Bitcoin is the most widely discussed cryptocurrency, there are actually many cryptocurrencies types in the world. This time, Tech in Asia summarizes ten of them, which is also a cryptocurrency with the largest market capitalization based on Coin Market Cap analysis.

UTRUST is a revolutionary payment platform that allows buyers to use their favorite cryptocurrency to pay for sellers (private merchants or merchants). We provide sellers with security and convenience to receive funds in paper currency, and offer consumers the best consumer protection, by acting as a trusted mediator. We combine the best payment protection features of the current generation fiat system with innovative features from blockchain and blend unique features provided by our own token.

The UTRUST Platform aims to provide the consumer protection buyers take for granted in traditional online purchases, acting as a mediator, resolver of conflicts, enabling the possibility of refunds to mitigate fraud, while shielding the merchant from crypto-market volatility. We want to build upon the best features of cryptocurrencies, enabling fast transactions, lower fees and low cross-border transaction friction, enabling merchants to sell to a growing worldwide audience of crypto-holders. In sum, we aim to build the payment API for marketplace integration that will become the crypto-contender to PayPal.

All of those features would make for a kick ass product on its own right, the firstof its kind in the world of crypto-payments and one that could be funded by venture capital investment alone. But we decided to go a step beyond, and wanted to offer the chance for anyone in the world to become a backer, leveraging the power of an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and issue our own UTRUST token alongside the UTRUST Platform. In essence, the UTRUST token will act as an investment stake from our backers, as a transactional token, that buyers can use in the UTRUST Platform itself alongside other major coins, and as a financial mechanism linking the UTRUST token value to the UTRUST Platform value - our strategic valuecoupling mechanism.

This is an ambitious endeavor intended to build a comprehensive software platform from the ground-up, while bringing tangible value to our backers, in the form of token appreciation, and to the community of buyers and sellers, driving its future growth in the form of platform transactions. We believe cryptocurrencies are evolving to become much more than speculation and are here to stay in the minds and wallets of consumers. This is a game-changer that we know can change how merchants and buyers use cryptocurrencies and we believe that the only missing link is a platform of mediation and trust.

We will be opening a pre-ICO of $1 MM on 23rd August 2017, intended to observe community interest in our project. After the round closure, and if it matches our expectations, we will be targeting a full 7-rounds ICO starting on 1st September 2017 in order to obtain a total financial leverage of $50 MM. The funds will fuel our passion to disrupt online payments with cryptocurrency, financing development of MVP, marketing operations, merchant adoption incentives and team expansion. What we achieved so far is the result of the efforts of a diverse and highly-skilled team, targeting our ambitious roadmap. At this stage we need your support, and dare we say, your trust.

Vision UTRUST

We believe that one of the key roles of cryptocurrencies in the digital age is to facilitate transactions and serve as frictionless and secure payment method with broad acceptance. We believe current payment platforms are lacking the necessary features to drive broad merchant and user adoption; that digital tokens are more than an asset for financial speculation and that token ICOs can be leveraged to fund agile teams with the drive to build new platforms; platforms with real value, driven by growth in the transactions of goods and services, and financially sustained by a revenue from fair fees.

How to solve a problem?

Apart from the disruption and technological advances in blockchain, one area that remains largely untapped is digital payments between buyers and sellers of physical services. This is a bigger contest of industrial employee candidates, with more APIs and inheritance agreements with traditional financial institutions, banks and credit cards. Despite the benefits of crypto payments (ultra low cost, low speed and low entry barrier), buyers enjoy and have come to expect a strong consumer protection system that protects their purchases and provides refunds. Sellers on the other hand would love to earn more income but be wary of volatility issues by accepting crypto in crucial. Would not it be amazing if we could have the best of both worlds? This is the dilemma of mutual trust that we want to accomplish with the UTRUST Platform.

How is the solution?

Our solution is to build next generation payment gateways that allow shoppers to give their favorite cryptocurrency users to buy goods and services with confidence from merchants, combining protection and dispute like a tough PayPal. Our resolution wants to encourage API adoption by traders by giving them a way to receive directly in paper currency from buyers of crypto currency, protecting traders from market volatility and reducing the risk of receiving crypto currency.

"It’s crazy that most retailers still don't accept bitcoin payments" said Jonathan Johnson, Medici Ventures President, 14th July 2017

With the blockchain industry reaching the post-early stage, many technological foundations are now mature enough to build strong consumer products that reach a wider audience. Many are wondering what the next big thing at Fintech is, what the next disturbance is and where we are headed. As with any new technology, blockchain is driving changes in many traditional business areas, forcing older players to adapt their more traditional business model. From banking, insurance, equity trading, venture capital, logistics and governance, everyone is affected, with new products that redefine the way we think about money, transactions, values and trust. Since the beginning of trading bitcoin traded on private forums, exchanges and application platforms supported by smart contracts.

We've traveled a long way, but this is just the next stage - digitizing money. With a crypto market estimated at 5 trillion by 2025 according to major market analysts, we believe it's time to go beyond the token as a speculative investment platform and to utilize Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) to build platforms with tangible Value and ambition to disrupt . Looking at ICO in Q2 2017, even though above $ 1.2 billion has increased so far, this amount represents a fraction of the funds invested by more traditional Venture Capital funds among beginners around the world.

Figure 1 - Amount raised by ICOs in 2017 (YTD), in $MM

Figure 2 - ICO Investment Growth, 2017 (YTD)

We believe that this momentum will only increase, with the future growth leveraged by ICOs that build on an established layer of protocols and build the next commercial ecosystem backed by token economies. Currently the foundation of key protocols is in place to build a better, faster and measurable online payment gateway. Platforms that you can use to pay for goods and services, are free of the inheritance processor constraints built around credit cards and offer more than any other crypto-based platform today. We believe that the payment arena is one of the key use of key cryptosian values, and the UTRUST Platform will be able to create value for 3 key stakeholders: early buyers, merchants and token backers.

For Buyers

we aim to minimize the risk of fraud and fraud when transacting online, providing full payment protection for purchases and acts as an intermediary for all transactions. We aim to be the best choice for buyers, by minimizing the total cost of services for each transaction compared to other systems. This dynamic will give buyers more outlets to spend on the crypto ownership they get and then drive a variety of market offerings and sizes.

For Merchants

We have provided ways to expand their client base, and sales revenue, by targeting a broader audience of cryptocurrency holders. This market of untapped users has accumulated a large number of assets that continue to grow in valuations with limited outlets that stimulate spending. By giving traders the ability to receive money in currency, we will address one of the key complaints to receive crypto in a highly volatile economy that effectively protects traders against crypto volatility and ensures the amount received for the purchase. And on top of that we will reduce the general risks associated with traditional payment methods, remove the possibility of chargebacks and cheating stolen credit cards.

For initial token support

We have provided the opportunity to fund a platform with real value in its operating business model beyond any speculation of speculation. The Utrust Token not only plays a role in the UTRUST Platform, as a sign that is received in conjunction with other cryptoes that offer the benefits of unsteady costs, but synergistically will be linked to platforms in a strategic value clutch. Every time a buyer pays with cryptocurrency via the UTRUST payment platform, a fraction of the transactional costs are removed from the market and destroyed in the form of a token of UTRUST. This reduces UTRUST token supplies that drive further demand, platform adoption and value.

The UTRUST Payment Platform

The UTRUST Platform is a payment processor solution that enables merchants to accept multiple cryptocurrencies from buyers as payment methods while receiving in fiat currency. We aim to establish our solution as the best in the market, offering a few distinct innovative features:

• A robust consumer protection and risk mitigation to both buyers and sellers
• Pay with your favorite cryptocurrency as a buyer, receive in fiat currency as a seller
• An integrated indexed token of exchange, that can be used in the platform to reduce transactional fees.

Figure 3 - Transaction overview

In essence, UTRUST will be a transactional payment API that combines the speed and security of crypto payments with consumer protection against traditional payment systems, and fraudulent benefits from crypto payments (no stolen cards, chargebacks or hacked accounts). This will be a payment protection system designed around powerful mediation mechanisms that empower buyers to open disputes and increase if there are problems. We provide a secure chat environment for both parties to dialogue and try to solve itself while allowing trusted mediators to join as arbitrators. Escalation and mediation by this UTRUST operator ensure that the final decision (return or exemption) is achieved by an impartial third party. Our main pillar stands straight:

1. Buyer Protection

The amount paid by the buyer is held until the transaction has been validated by the platform mediator. UTRUST handles conflict resolution and reduces risk, protects consumers and assures potential buyers to get a refund in case of trouble with a purchase.

      2. Fluctuation Protection

We provide a transparent preview of ratios. Conversion from crypto to fiat is done by JIT at the best market price and added to the pool. By locking this amount, and ensuring a post-conversion suspension, we ensure the seller will get the specified amount he requested, unrestricted from the crypto market volatility.

      3. Low Fees

We charge lower than other e-commerce platforms for sellers - 1% of total transactions. Connections to multiple intelligent exchange and intelligence providers ensure the lowest possible exchange rates for buyers who send payments. 

How does the platform work for buyer and seller perspectives?

Let's see the flow of regular user interaction with the platform:

• The merchant establishes an article for sale on the market, with the specific price he / she wants to receive in their local currency. The market offers potential buyers with various payment options at the time of check including UTRUST.
• Because merchants want to target as many young online shoppers as possible, they offer UTRUST payments as a prominent checkout option, buyers can select them and enjoy the best protection of the UTRUST platform.
• The buyer sees the offer and feels very favorable at the price the merchant offers.

• When a buyer chooses UTRUST as a payment method, we may choose to use funds from the existing crypto wallet as a source of funds (eg: Bitcoin, Ethereal address), or use his UTRUST fund. If he has not created an account with us at this stage, he can do it now or just continue and pay.
• Buyers will be shown a description of the total amount to be paid, including a 1% commission and exchange conversion fee (from the number of crypto to the number of fiat). Descriptions are transparent and updated every 2 minutes.
• The buyer completes the transaction and the amount is sent to UTRUST. Our UTRUST system converts the number of cryptocurrencies into fiat and stores them in escrow until they are released to the seller. The specific duration of this period of detention will vary depending on the merchant's performance history.

• Merchants are notified of how to purchase sign-in, the amount has been sent by the buyer and is waiting for the release. If it is a trusted trader with a high performance rating, funds will soon be released. If a merchant is a newcomer to a platform with no previous history, the hold period may take several days. As a trader establishes a track record of a successful transaction, its performance rating will increase, with this decreasing hold period.

• If all goes well, the buyer accepts the article, the seller receives the funds and no disputes are opened. Other happy customers and other successful sales for merchants improve their performance.
• But let's imagine something is wrong. For example, maybe a buyer does not receive an article from a merchant because of an incorrect address. He decided to open up the dispute, raising the matter. At this stage of escalation, both parties enter into self-resolution chats, where they try to adapt friendly. This could mean merchants recognizing delivery errors and fixing these issues, voluntarily returning buyers' funds, or buyers who recognize items have been received, among many possible scenarios.
• If both parties disagree within 7 days, the buyer has the option to file a claim with the mediator. In this case, UTRUST operators join the chat resolution and act as mediators and arbitrators with the final decision on the outcome of the dispute. Proceedings with escalation will incur a fee of 2% of the amount held if the buyer's return is issued by the UTRUST mediator.

• From this point onwards, the UTRUST mediator controls the chat, collects a proof from both parties and gives a refund to the buyer or releases the funds to the seller. If a trader loses a dispute (due to fraud or fraud) then an appropriate performance degradation will occur, which will translate into a higher hold period for future transactions.

The Token

You can use the UTRUST token on the platform, spend it on merchants that support UTRUST transactions or personal buyers / sellers, you can sell coins on the exchange, privately or only for future use. The main difference from all other tokens is that it has a business model behind it. A payment system that allows you to use coins and spend it independently and a system that grows in synergy with coins. In addition, using the UTRUST token on the payment platform will have an added benefit to further stimulate its growth.

Value and Strategy

How does this strategic value clutch work?

Every time a buyer pays with cryptocurrency via the UTRUST payment platform, the percentage of transactional costs is used to buy back the UTRUST token and remove it from the market. The removed token will be destroyed. This will reduce the number of UTRUST token supplies that further drive demand, platform adoption and value for investors. The higher the volume of transactions on the UTRUST platform, the higher the potential market value of the token. Since the percentage of transaction costs is excluded from the pool in each market transaction, the UTRUST platform is more widely used (with crypto), the higher the price of UTRUST, the internal adjustment that acts as our own self-correcting mechanism. . If an investor decides to hold a UTRUST token for the long term, although it will experience fluctuations in the stock market, there is a protective layer linking it to a sustainable financial platform. This so-called intrinsic deflating machine makes UTRUST not only the safest payment platform, but a great token for investment and value storage.

The number of UTRUST tokens is projected to be reduced from an initial 1 billion to a minimum of 100 million, at speeds not faster than 50 million a year. This dynamic adjustment of this rate of burning will be managed by the UTRUST platform analytics engine in order to balance supply and demand offers while driving transaction growth.

Token Implementation

The UTRUST token will be implemented as a token that is compatible with ERC20 over the Ethereal blockchain. Ethereum is a natural choice for this project because of its adoption and broad industry standards for issuing specialty digital assets. Compatibility with the ERC20 standard leverages the existing infrastructure advantages of the Ethereum ecosystem, in terms of development tools, purses, exchanges and human resource expertise. The ability to program smart contracts with Turing-complete language enables strong foundations and flexible crypto adjustments to UTRUST domain specific requirements. For more information about ERC20.

Platform Market Fit

To understand what's missing in the online payment market, we start by collecting data from the user experience using the crypto payment system, identifying the major pain points at hand. We then look at the current solutions on the market (both in the crypto and traditional payments segment), compare the key points, and focus on top-tier market players. From this analysis, we found that the current solution in crypto payments lacks the ability to provide traders and buyers with protection features that users expect from traditional payment methods in the areas of transaction protection and conflict resolution. On the other hand, traditional payment solutions experience a high degree of fraud, with credit card chargebacks being a huge pain for traders.

By condensing our findings and comparing UTRUST with top players in the traditional and crypto world, it comes with the following comparison chart:

Figure 4 - Competitive Landscape vs other market players

Details of ICO

The initial pre-ICO target will be opened on August 23, 2017, 16:00 GMT, followed by the initial opening of ICO on September 1, 2017, 16:00 GMT and a period of 15 days, or until all the evidence is published, whichever comes first . The crowdsale maximum limit is set at $ 50 MM (fifty million), with the contribution token received at BTC and ETH. The total pool is set at 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) tokens, and will be segmented in 7 regular ICO rounds with a total of 70% pool, preceded by 5% pre-ICO sales and with 10% already allocated to private investors. Overall, all publicly available rounds will amount to 75% of the total printed proof.

The pre-ICO round will target a unit price of $ 0.03 (three cents) per token with a 5% token pool distribution. Furthermore, the ICO Round will follow a 10% distribution, with unit price per token starting at $ 0.04 (four cents) and rising on average $ 0.01 (1 cent) per round. Regarding the remaining 15% token, 10% will be detained by UTRUST, diluted 2% per year, within the next 5 years to support future project steering. The last 5% will be allocated for marketing and bounties.

The values and percentages are more detailed in the table below :

Allocation of Fund, Post-ICO

Legal Restrictions

The sale of the token UTRUST represents a contribution to the vison implementation of this product by the current and future teams. Token UTRUST represents ownership rights in the ecosystem of the UTRUST Platform, which is effective for its official public release. Although from a legal point of view, the UTRUST tokens do not qualify as collateral, and do not provide a share of equity support in the legal structure of any UTRUST entity, since the recent regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission of the US recently we are unable to receive contributions from US citizens.

Development Roadmap

Regarding the schedule for this project, the following displays each tentative milestone and target date for each stage :

After the conceptual phase and immediately after the pre-ICO closing, our team will prepare a detailed roadmap for the phased stage development. We currently aim to have a transactional API platform ready to be marketed by merchants in Q1 2018, supported by wallet apps where buyers and merchants can check their balances, transaction history and mediated resolutions. The backend interface for mediators will complement the platform, launched progressively in Q2 2018. The premier launch will feature a curated merchant option, with progressive extensions and improvements in Q3 2018.

The Team

• Nuno Correia - CEO

An early crypto-cardiac investor, heavily involved in the crypto market and community since early 2011 and managed to find several B2C businesses. Against the background of Law and Marketing, he is very fond of the future of transformative digital payments.

• Filipe Castro - CIO

MBA with MSENG and a passionate love for technology. Early career in the development of software solutions, including electronic payment systems. Experienced internationally, moving from company to small business in Scandinavia, equipped with MBA in China and short advisory role. Now moving in the business development and strategic development of a cool new business.

• Artur Goulão - CTO

Former CTO in leading digital payment platform company and head of development of Swissbased Cybersecurity Company. Excellent and highly engaged in software development and R & D related payment systems, both in the classical approach as well as Blockcain-based Smartcontract. Have a Computer Science background from IST and MIT.

• Roberto Machado - CPO

Founder and Product Manager in some startup companies before UTRUST, he has led different teams to build highly reliable software products, focusing on end-user experience. Previously, he has worked with major international companies such as AT & T, Betfair, Airtel and Uphold, responsible for outlining the vision, goals and product solution strategies used by millions of users.

• Luís Zamith - Head of Engeneering

Working in Subvisual for more than 5 years, he specializes in the development of complex web-based solutions, using Ruby and RoR. He loves open source technology and back to the community. He is a capable mentor Rails, teaching at workshops, university classes and events. He also enjoys experimenting with fun new programming languages, from Haskell to Elixir or even Crystal.

• Laura Esteves - Head of Operations

With his management background, he has contributed to various organizations in the field of technology and media, ensuring smooth implementation of operational activities and events. Analytical and driving, he analyzes and manages KPIs toward sustainable growth and operational excellence. Always with a smile on his face, he has the power to quickly turn a complicated situation into a new milestone for team success.

• João Ferreira - Head of Design

Lead Designer in Subvisual with over 5 years experience in designing all kinds of innovative web-based products. In his UX methodology, he is obsessed with a human-centered approach, focusing on producing the best experience for the end user. He digs deeper to understand the drive and motivation in using the product while looking for opportunities to empower users at every step.

• Nick Olender - Head of Sales

Technology is as important as the business problem it solves. Nick likes to open closed minds to solutions that can be created by new perspectives. He has an interest in international business strategy with an emphasis on business finance and technology applications.

• Miguel Palhas - Software Engineer

With years of Web Development experience, and High-Performance Computing background, he's constantly striving to make the web better and faster for users. He loves other blockchain and cutting-edge technologies, and they are likely to open up the future of mankind. He keeps his records as a secret. It's no secret.

For Official Information :

• Website : https://utrust.io/
• Whitepaper : https://utrust.io/#whitepaper

Created by TahuDiniHari

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