1: Why Are We Doing This?

This is the first part of a blog series exploring our adventure into the crypto-space.

Is now the right time for a GBP stablecoin? Although there maybe be a few assets out there that claim to be directly tied to the British pound, no single project has had large scale success. A number of key factors must be considered and developed to align with the projects goals.

When Raoul and I began discussing how we could make a GBP stablecoin, we looked at what is important for the end-user. If we are to achieve mass-adoption, the user experience is extremely important. Crypto should not be hard to understand nor should it be the preserve of the young or technically-minded. So we agreed that a dashboard would be needed, one that allows eGBP users to be KYC verified and purchase eGBP quickly. We discussed how, as part of the onboarding journey, we could offer eGBP debit cards, making it easier to manage your finances and spend in the same way people already do. We intend to unhook fiat GBP from its current fiat tether and allow it to become a true crypto asset that can be used in the same way as traditional money.

So, the dashboard would be just like your online banking service, where you can review transactions, send funds to an exchange or other recipient and apply for and manage financial services. A debit card would compliment your eGBP account. The eGBP account can not only send funds to another blockchain account, it can also send funds directly to another fiat bank account. By developing on/off fiat ramps for eGBP supported by our international bank, we are able to directly swap fiat for eGBP.

It is important that when we launch officially, that we are available to trade on several key exchanges as a trading pair for popular assets such as BTC, ETH and DOGE. By providing liquidity to exchanges, we hope to earn revenue to continue developing and expanding eGBP’s reach. We are a business after all, so we must make a profit to continue our growth goals.

We also discussed how important transparency is. We believe that this is an extremely important factor in the trustworthiness and adoption of a stablecoin. We plan to include monthly audits made available for public inspection and develop on-chain attestation. All to allow eGBP users to verify the financial backing of their digital asset.

As we move forward with FCA regulation, we have time to develop our strategy, build our team and get the word out about what we are doing. Becoming FCA regulated has many benefits, but is a very costly exercise, as we have found out. Since we have been given a rough timeline of 6 months for this regulation to be achieved by our financial team, we have set a target for Q3 2022 to be the point at which we want our initial offering of functional dashboard with KYC, to be operating. Then we will move to other phases of development to enable fiat swap via on/off ramps, cross-chain expansion, debit cards and offering financial services.