[HN Gopher] Launch HN: Karsa (YC W25) - Buy and save stablecoins...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Launch HN: Karsa (YC W25) - Buy and save stablecoins
       internationally
        
       Hey HN, we're Shahryar and Dale, the co-founders of Karsa
       (https://gokarsa.com). Karsa makes it easy for anyone in emerging
       markets to buy and save in stablecoins to protect against currency
       instability and inflation. Here's a quick demo:
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C160H4yB08w#t=11.  Over a billion
       people live in countries with severe inflation and are unable to
       protect their wealth due to strict capital controls. The banking
       systems in most of these countries are designed to prevent access
       to assets like dollars--good luck getting a foreign currency
       account.  Working in the crypto industry, we spent a lot of time
       thinking about how it can solve problems for people in the real
       world. Eventually, we saw a real, grassroots use-case emerge--one
       outside of the US entirely: people in developing countries started
       to use crypto exchanges like Binance to hold dollar-denominated
       stablecoins, which preserved their wealth from inflation. However,
       these exchanges primarily cater to traders and are still too
       complex (and crypto-focused) for average users, hindering mass-
       market adoption.  We knew this was a problem we wanted to work on
       after speaking to our family and friends: when Shahryar tried
       explaining crypto to his uncle in Pakistan, it was all jargon until
       he explained stablecoins, which immediately clicked. For someone
       who is (1) earning in a currency that's inflating 20-30% year-over-
       year, (2) who's structurally limited from dollar access, and (3)
       makes payments abroad regularly, this makes a massive difference.
       Karsa looks and feels like a bank/currency exchange to an average
       user--they choose an amount and buy dollar-denominated stablecoins
       at a market price. But under the hood, we route our supply from a
       network of verified peer-to-peer stablecoin traders, whom buyers
       are making their deposit payments to.  (1) A seller sets their
       price and deposits money in an escrow smart contract (programmable
       rules-based code, can only return or release funds between seller
       and buyer).  (2) A buyer gets matched with that order upon setting
       their criteria, and has to send a fiat payment (e.g., bank
       transfer, payment app, etc.) to the seller's local account + upload
       a photo for verification.  (3) We verify the fiat payment with the
       seller directly, handle any disputes, etc., and then release the
       escrowed stablecoins to a digital wallet we've created for the
       buyer.  How is this different? Structuring it as peer-to-peer
       allows us to actually be global from day one and circumvent
       government interference--in most of these markets, centralized
       products (i.e., requiring a bank account in the relevant country)
       often get shut down. This means that in many of the regions we
       operate in, we're the only way anyone can reasonably get access to
       stablecoins.  However, we've abstracted away the 'P2P part'. In
       other exchanges, buyers and sellers engage in chats for each
       transaction (to confirm details, etc.). This is onerous for sellers
       and off-putting for new buyers. Instead, we sit in the middle,
       matching price orders and managing verification, appeals, etc. with
       sellers directly--much less work for sellers, and a simple process
       for buyers.  We've also abstracted away as much about crypto as
       possible--no crypto knowledge, wallet / key management, etc. is
       needed. User funds are held in self-custody crypto wallets, meaning
       your money is always yours--unlike a centralized exchange (e.g.,
       FTX) there's no way for us to access, freeze, or lose your funds.
       We currently take a 1% transaction fee, though we eventually intend
       to adjust it proportionally to regional FX rates. Over time, we
       want to support more of the average person's financial stack, and
       are exploring highly-requested features including freelancer
       payouts, spending via a card, US treasury yield, etc.  You can
       check us out at https://gokarsa.com. We would love to hear any
       feedback, questions, or ideas. And if you know anyone in emerging
       markets who'd be interested (naturally, we're not really focused on
       serving US users), feel free to connect us with them at
       shahryar@gokarsa.com!
        
       Author : Shasnani
       Score  : 62 points
       Date   : 2025-01-30 16:59 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
       | theogravity wrote:
       | This makes sense. If I live in a country with hyperinflation, I'd
       | want to have my money in a more stable currency like the USD.
       | 
       | Congrats on the launch. I wanted to note that I'm using mobile
       | safari on an iPhone Pro 15 and the header text collides with the
       | tagline to the point that it's illegible.
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/nsave
         | 
         | https://www.nsave.com/
         | 
         | (no affiliation, no crypto)
        
       | apexkid wrote:
       | Congratulations on the launch.
       | 
       | My question is that how will you deal with future government
       | regulations. In developing world, the government does not like
       | crypto and may impose laws like upfront taxation to discourage
       | people from investing.
        
         | raztogt21 wrote:
         | The developing world governments lack the resources to impose
         | and execute laws successfully against crypto (or any other
         | area).
        
           | Lionga wrote:
           | Good old straight to the point we want to be criminals
           | because we can.
        
             | MrMcCall wrote:
             | They only want the profits, but you're on the right trail.
        
             | FpUser wrote:
             | No. We just want fruits of our labor not to evaporate next
             | day.
        
             | gigatree wrote:
             | If finding a way to have less of your money and labor
             | stolen by the government makes you a criminal then lock me
             | up
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | Thanks!
         | 
         | While we want to have constructive conversations with some of
         | these governments (I actually believe it's possible),
         | ultimately we can't stop hostility / regulations against
         | crypto. What we can do is offer our service and be transparent
         | about what it is -- and then users in those countries can make
         | decisions for themselves about whether they can/should engage.
         | 
         | I'm hopeful, however, seeing countries like Turkey and a couple
         | in LatAm that have significant crypto adoption without overt
         | government hostility -- when adoption reaches a critical mass,
         | I expect to see more governments relax restrictions.
        
           | cdblades wrote:
           | If a government in a country you operate in explicitly makes
           | services like yours illegal for people to use, will you stop
           | operating in that country?
        
       | Lionga wrote:
       | So your only use for stablecoins is to avoid regulation so you
       | can kind of look like a bank but without any proper
       | regulation/security just with lots of more potential issues
       | (looking forward to find you on https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/
       | ) while the poor users should know as little as possible
       | (abstracted away) that they actually do not have dollars but just
       | IOUs from some random startup?
        
         | tock wrote:
         | Thats the point. This is a usecase for people living in
         | countries with shitty governments.
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | I can totally see where you're coming from on this, but I think
         | the way users on these countries see it is entirely different
         | ---a couple notes in response:
         | 
         | - Users in these countries already use exchanges like Binance
         | almost like a dollar checking account -- this, as you probably
         | know, is far more risky (past AML violations, entirely
         | centralized point of failure, etc.). There's no better or safer
         | alternative at the moment, and these people aren't typically
         | huge fans of the current banks they're using, nor the
         | regulation that they have to deal with.
         | 
         | - We don't have any intention to hide how the product works, or
         | claim that it's a real bank.'Abstraction' in this case means
         | minimizing wallet, key, and asset management during the user
         | flow.
         | 
         | - The stablecoins we're offering (USDC & USDT) are more widely
         | used and known in these countries than in the US. I actually
         | don't even have to explain it to half the folks because they
         | already understand the value prop and are comfortable with them
         | (FWIW, USDC is a fully audited and soon-to-be-public US
         | company).
        
           | tock wrote:
           | USDT is pretty shady :p
           | 
           | But yeah USDC is as good as it gets.
        
       | sebmellen wrote:
       | Self-custody crypto wallets are such a horrible idea for your
       | average user that it's cruel to even provide this service.
       | (Especially for people who may not have access to reliable
       | devices.)
       | 
       | I would seriously reconsider this part of your value add.
        
         | EmpireoftheSun wrote:
         | Hi, Can you elaborate on this.I am new to crypto
        
           | Joel_Mckay wrote:
           | Crypto is a dollar backed fiat currency substitute, or
           | outright scrip.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip
           | 
           | Precious metals like gold are also a terrible investment, but
           | do offer liquidity when currencies fail. For a single person,
           | no more than 1.7% of your portfolio should contain such leaky
           | holdings.
           | 
           | In terms of investment, wait till the market crashes and buy
           | freehold residential real-estate in larger growth cities with
           | cash. This is the safest investment for amateurs. =3
        
             | TeaBrain wrote:
             | >Precious metals like gold are also a terrible investment
             | 
             | Both gold and silver have appreciated more in value than
             | the S&P 500 since the start of this millennium.
        
               | Joel_Mckay wrote:
               | Typically, it tracks around inflation... but some people
               | have cultural traditions around bullionism.
               | 
               | Keep in mind I heavily invested in ubiquiti at $12/share
               | after their early legal trouble, so am probably not the
               | type of investor you'd want to study. lol =)
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | Would love to hear more from you on this -- why do you feel
         | self-custody is a concern? For context, we're using Privy
         | (https://docs.privy.io/guide/security/), which encrypts (and
         | never stores) the private keys, and users simply log in with
         | email/phone etc. auth (so no need for key management).
        
           | Joel_Mckay wrote:
           | Keep in mind any centralized authority is subject to
           | disclosure laws like the patriot act.
           | 
           | i.e. people can jack your phone/sms line for around $23, or
           | access any email server on US soil for free.
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVyu7NB7W6Y
           | 
           | This is why 2FA is actually more dangerous in some
           | situations.
        
             | Shasnani wrote:
             | We're planning on enabling passkeys! Agreed that phone 2FA
             | is not ideal, just the current setup.
        
               | Joel_Mckay wrote:
               | Unless people are using a public key system like Kyber
               | hardened gpg public keys its mostly security theater.
               | 
               | i.e. people may feel safe in the complexity, but are open
               | to the same shenanigans of any unregulated exchange.
               | 
               | Children in Japan figured out magazine faces worked on
               | cigarette machines too.
               | 
               | Have a nice day =)
        
         | benatkin wrote:
         | To me this is a centralized take.
         | 
         | The alternative is just trusting someone in the space. With
         | that you have stuff like FTX, MtGox, and even ones that haven't
         | failed where there are plenty of stories of KYC trouble on
         | Reddit.
         | 
         | > people who may not have access to reliable devices
         | 
         | A very good point but that's where education comes in. I'm glad
         | Karsa seems to be teaching people to fish rather than just
         | giving people fish.
        
         | mrb wrote:
         | " _Self-custody [...] wallets are such a horrible idea..._ "
         | 
         | And yet, billions of people do this everyday with (non-crypto)
         | wallets holding banknotes in their pants pockets. And for the
         | most part, it's fine. A crypto wallet on your phone in your
         | other pants pockets is similar. It's actually superior because
         | at least you can make a backup to protect from
         | loss/destruction.
         | 
         | Self-custody wallets are fine.
        
       | jimbru wrote:
       | What countries do you operate in? Seems like in the US you'd be
       | considered an MSB.
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | We're serving customers in Africa, LatAm, & South Asia at the
         | moment -- but yes, nonetheless, we'll be pursuing an MSB and
         | are planning on using infrastructure providers with MTLs to
         | make sure we're fully licensed to handle this activity.
        
       | rich_sasha wrote:
       | > (2) A buyer gets matched with that order upon setting their
       | criteria, and has to send a fiat payment [...] to the seller's
       | local account + upload a photo for verification.
       | 
       | It is quite neat... But since you don't handle the cash, how will
       | you deal with fraud? Or even normal bad luck? Bank transfers do
       | get lost and require chasing banks, and you will be out of the
       | loop here.
       | 
       | Also, I guess bank transfers between poorly banked countries are
       | probably a constraint? If I live in a country with
       | hyperinflation, am I definitely able to send fiat to a seller?
       | 
       | AML would seem basically impossible, but I guess that's no
       | different to Binance...
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | Yeah, there's definitely edge cases that make this difficult --
         | though these are the same problems that users may already face
         | on existing P2P exchanges -- now we're just getting more
         | involved in the customer service and support :D.
         | 
         | The best risk mitigation here is having trusted, verified
         | sellers that we've met + a robust support functionality that
         | allows users to indicate any issues. To be honest though, in
         | some of these countries, the domestic payment systems (e.g.,
         | UPI in India) are quite reliable.
         | 
         | Re AML -- we do KYC, and we discourage / don't present cash as
         | an option. That way the payments happen through more
         | transparent channels.
        
           | ADeerAppeared wrote:
           | > we do KYC
           | 
           | And what then, is stopping governments from simply demanding
           | you hand over a list of your customers? They will seek to
           | enforce those currency controls you are subverting.
           | 
           | Your entire sales pitch here is based on a lack of
           | transparency to "evil oppressive governments", whereas the US
           | government (at least, once it gets it's shit together again
           | in a few years), will just delete your company for helping
           | the North Koreans evade sanctions if you don't have quite
           | robust AML.
        
       | MagicMoonlight wrote:
       | If they want stable currency they could just buy dollars. Why
       | would they want to buy a high risk currency instead? The only
       | possible outcome of this is you rigging them.
        
         | maxilevi wrote:
         | In some countries its illegal to buy dollars due to currency
         | controls.
        
           | snarf21 wrote:
           | Can't the same countries also just make all the on-ramps and
           | off-ramps just as illegal?
        
             | donatj wrote:
             | It's easier and safer to use a VPN than it is to meet a man
             | in a dark alley for some dollars.
        
               | dowager_dan99 wrote:
               | you still have to fund your stablecoin account somehow -
               | how do I get local currency from my pocket into the
               | ether?
        
               | Shasnani wrote:
               | You'd use our platform!
               | 
               | User A sends local currency to User B's fiat account.
               | 
               | User B sends stablecoins (earned via salary, trading,
               | mining, etc.) to User A's digital wallet (that we've
               | created for them).
        
               | thaumasiotes wrote:
               | Assuming you get banned, is your plan just "never visit
               | any country where we do business"?
        
               | Shasnani wrote:
               | Hahaha we've had this conversation internally a couple of
               | times.
               | 
               | Definitely a few places that we'd probably avoid. But
               | also plenty of others (e.g., Kenya, LatAm, Turkey, etc.)
               | that have been quite friendly and would be fine to visit.
        
               | goatsi wrote:
               | Does user B need any sort of exchange/money transmitter
               | license?
               | 
               | Do you check the laws for this in each country you are
               | available in?
               | 
               | Do you notify user B of this fact and the potential legal
               | risks?
               | 
               | Do you verify if they have the license?
        
               | Shasnani wrote:
               | User B is sending a peer-to-peer transaction, akin to a
               | Zelle or Venmo. In most other countries, these peer-to-
               | peer payments (PIX, UPI, etc.) do billions of
               | transactions per month. And since you're sending your own
               | funds, you're not a money transmitter. If we do work with
               | any larger entities (e.g., an OTC desk, liquidity
               | provider), we'd certainly be cognizant of the relevant
               | licensing.
        
               | threeseed wrote:
               | And what are the legal implications for User B.
               | 
               | Because if you are involved in washing illegally earned
               | money in many places that's a criminal act.
        
         | echelon wrote:
         | As I understand it, stablecoins are three things:
         | 
         | 1. a means of bypassing US sanctions
         | 
         | 2. a means of bypassing the US dollar / Western order during
         | international trade
         | 
         | 3. a means of transacting without Visa, Mastercard, Chase;
         | cutting out banks and fintechs and their margins.
         | 
         | Stablecoins are pitched to investors as #3, but are more
         | frequently used as #1 and #2.
         | 
         | If stablecoins catch on and can build a large network, it poses
         | a real threat to American hegemony. You wouldn't need the
         | dollar for international trade or settlement. You could trade,
         | move large balances, etc. in stablecoins and never need to hold
         | dollar reserves.
         | 
         | It's wild to see the US funding and developing this tech.
        
           | benatkin wrote:
           | It's individualism. Wild, but not so surprising to me. For
           | instance, I want people to be able to choose what OS they use
           | on their computers and I'd be happy to see more desktop and
           | laptop computers sold without Windows included even if it
           | hurts the US economy.
        
           | Gothmog69 wrote:
           | Stable coins hold dollars (bonds usually) IIRC they are
           | amongst the largest US bond holders
        
           | Shasnani wrote:
           | I see this take a lot, and there's some truths to it, but I'd
           | like to take the other side of the argument.
           | 
           | These stablecoin issuers are enormous buyers of US
           | treasuries: "Tether Holdings owned $97.6 billion worth of US
           | Treasuries in June 2024, a new high. Hence, Tether now owns
           | more US Treasuries than the governments of Germany, the
           | United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Australia. Hence, Tether is
           | now the 18th largest holder of US Treasury bonds"
           | (https://medium.com/coinmonks/tether-usdt-is-the-third-
           | larges...)
           | 
           | Dollars are also more dominant as a reserve currency in
           | stablecoins (~97%) than they are in real-world trade
           | (https://digitalchamber.org/stablecoinreport/).
           | 
           | I.e., we see stablecoins as extending dollar dominance, not
           | reducing it.
        
             | bonzini wrote:
             | Weren't tether's numbers sort of shady?
        
               | vscapitalx wrote:
               | Short answer: yes but not anymore.
               | 
               | They have a shady past but quickly realized they had
               | lucked into a WILDLY profitable business. That first 10%
               | of their existence is debated constantly and is what you
               | see referenced constantly online when Tether is labelled
               | as shady.
               | 
               | They make a disgusting amount of money and it keeps
               | snowballing. This annoys people who want them to implode
               | for earlier crimes.
               | 
               | For context they are more profitable than Blackrock.
        
           | nurumaik wrote:
           | So, you take a cryptocurrency with a parent company able to
           | freeze any account with all the funds instantly because they
           | don't like it
           | 
           | And this company is US-based
           | 
           | And you use it to avoid US-sanctions
           | 
           | I'm really not sure that it works like that
        
           | alfiedotwtf wrote:
           | That's a bad take.
           | 
           | The biggest usage of stablecoins would be as a hedge on
           | crypto itself. Don't like where the current market, park it
           | without needing to off-ramp and then on-ramp again when the
           | conditions change.
           | 
           | And now that you're in crypto-land 24/7, no need to skip
           | weekend movements because offices are closed or accounts
           | don't get updated until Monday morning.
        
         | benatkin wrote:
         | The word stable doesn't appear once in the post except for
         | within the word stablecoin. It's important to get past the
         | name. It's a pegged coin, the attempted stability is in terms
         | of it being pegged, and people need to do their research on how
         | well a coin achieves that just like with all of DeFi.
        
         | Jolter wrote:
         | TBF I think 1% is less than most currency exchanges charge.
         | 
         | Plus what the post says about restrictions on foreign
         | currencies for a lot of people in developing nations.
        
           | thaumasiotes wrote:
           | Well, if you're going to a little booth in the airport, or
           | having a foreign cashier bill you in your native currency,
           | sure, you're going to get fleeced.
           | 
           | I have a Capital One credit card that was advertised as "no
           | foreign exchange fees", and its exchange fee is 1%. I wish it
           | would stop lying about the absence of fees, but I can live
           | with the 1% fee.
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | So the entire premise is that you really can't just 'buy
         | dollars' in the majority. of these countries, hence the need
         | for stablecoins.
         | 
         | And I don't think I would characterize this as a high-risk
         | currency; it's essentially a digital receipt for a dollar,
         | backed by US treasuries (https://www.circle.com/transparency).
        
           | davidlee1435 wrote:
           | adding onto this, i as a citizen of <high inflation country>
           | who buys dollars from the national bank are probably holding
           | digital dollar receipt anyways, since most foreign dollar
           | holdings are held in nostro accounts at US correspondent
           | banks.
           | 
           | if you trust your banking system to be a better custodian of
           | your money than Circle, you're one of the lucky ones.
           | billions of people in the world don't have that kind of
           | luxury (see: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68778636),
           | hence a part of the reason why stablecoins have grown to a
           | little under a quarter trillion
        
         | roywiggins wrote:
         | ymmv on that, unless you're buying physical cash to put under
         | the mattress:
         | https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/2/3/lebanon-us-dollar...
         | 
         | (even if you can set up dollar-denominated accounts at a
         | domestic bank, that doesn't mean your claim will be honored.
         | stablecoins aren't dollars but they might be more stable than
         | your average dollar-denominated bank account in some countries)
        
         | jjallen wrote:
         | You really think it's trivial to buy AND hold dollars safely in
         | every country around the world?
         | 
         | Even I as an American has known so many people from countries
         | like Argentina where just maintaining your bank balance is
         | basically impossible due to inflation and currency controls.
         | 
         | Believing that this is easy or solved is a very Americentric
         | viewpoint.
         | 
         | Unfortunately with money there will always be good and bad guys
         | with it. We all need it. Have to do the best we can with not
         | assuming everyone is a criminal re money laundering.
        
         | woah wrote:
         | Did you even read the post? They are buying dollars
        
       | nextworddev wrote:
       | Is this compliant with US sanctions and AMl policies?
        
         | EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote:
         | Obviously not. I wonder why this stablecoin scam still exists,
         | it violates every possible financial regulation out there.
        
         | jgilias wrote:
         | Obviously yes. They just use USDC and USDT, and both of those
         | regularly freeze addresses attributed to OFAC-sanctioned
         | persons and entities.
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | Absolutely following all US Sanctions and AML policies (setting
         | up more rigorous KYC, transaction screening, MTLs etc. as we
         | speak). We're a US company and intend on doing this the right
         | way.
        
         | MacsHeadroom wrote:
         | The Chief Compliance Officer of Circle, makers of the USDC
         | stablecoin, sits on the board of the Illicit Virtual Asset
         | Network alongside U.S. government representatives from the FBI,
         | DEA, etc.
         | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241002200546/en/Cir...
         | 
         | So obviously yes.
        
       | mjamil wrote:
       | Shahryar, have any of your relatives in Pakistan bought
       | stablecoins through this platform? How do you do KYC for a
       | Pakistani customer?
        
       | mariocesar wrote:
       | Not available for Bolivia!
       | 
       | Currently, we have restrictions, as there's a limit of 50 USD on
       | USD transactions per week for each bank. There is a constant
       | growing interest in USDT and crypto here, especially since the
       | middle class is quite aware of it due to the limited availability
       | of USD in the country! It would be nice to explore this further,
       | but it's a bit disappointing that it's not an option right now :/
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | Hey, I'm going to add support for this immediately! I'd love to
         | chat a bit more and hear about the situation there; do you mind
         | reaching out with your contact to shahryar@gokarsa.com?
        
           | mariocesar wrote:
           | Thanks!
        
       | jgilias wrote:
       | How does the self-custody part work if all the crypto stuff is
       | abstracted away as much as possible? Will people realize that if
       | they mess something up you won't be able to help them? What's the
       | chance of messing it up?
       | 
       | Kudos for getting this out, serves a real need for a huge amount
       | of people.
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | Thank you, we hope it does help a lot of people.
         | 
         | We use privy, one of the best-in-class wallet providers that
         | basically creates a self-custody wallet, but uses
         | email/phone/social auth (and encrypts/shards the actual keys).
         | So you wouldn't be at risk of losing them like you would with a
         | vanilla wallet (you can of course export the keys if you're
         | more crypto-savvy)
         | 
         | We're doing a pretty slow and steady rollout to catch where
         | users are running into issues, but it's a pretty controlled
         | environment re: messing up. You could accidentally send money
         | to the wrong address if you wanted to transfer to another
         | wallet, but that's not a core functionality (located on a side
         | page) and certainly not one that the average person is using.
         | Outside of that, there isn't really anything else you could
         | severely mess up.
        
       | samwcurry wrote:
       | milady
        
       | nothrowaways wrote:
       | Surprised to see this backed by YC.
        
         | alfiedotwtf wrote:
         | Trillion dollar industry with interesting problems. What's the
         | issue?
        
       | nothrowaways wrote:
       | This is money laundering a.k.a black market and is illegal in
       | many countries.
        
         | epa wrote:
         | Thats not fully true. These flows do have regulation that can
         | be solved.
        
           | threeseed wrote:
           | Can you be more specific about how this can be solved.
           | 
           | Because I fail to see how countries e.g. Venezuela are going
           | to allow some US startup to undermine their currency and
           | distort their financial system.
           | 
           | It's amazing to me that people think they can disrupt a
           | government without them retaliating.
        
             | JamilD wrote:
             | > allow some US startup to undermine their currency and
             | distort their financial system
             | 
             | How is it undermining a currency and distorting a financial
             | system to allow people to exchange their OWN hard-earned
             | money for another currency?
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | We're fully pursuing all KYC/AML/Sanctions restrictions.
         | Couldn't operate as a US fintech company without doing this.
        
           | threeseed wrote:
           | I love how you're doing it _after_ you launch.
           | 
           | That sort of nonchalant attitude will serve you well in the
           | future I am sure.
        
       | steeeeeve wrote:
       | global from day one and circumvent government interference
       | 
       | --- There are banking laws all over the world that need to be
       | considered and followed, the US in particular has a set of
       | banking laws that differ in each state unless you are an actual
       | bank that follows federal regulations.
       | 
       | Ignoring or being purposefully ignorant of the laws is a bad
       | path.
        
         | jgilias wrote:
         | They are not holding people's money. That's the whole point of
         | it. So most of the banking stuff really wouldn't apply to them.
         | 
         | Now, when it comes to facilitating money transfers, or
         | facilitating forex. Yeah, this they'd need to look into. But
         | the idea seems to be that they're a P2P marketplace bringing
         | individual sellers and buyers together, but not really touching
         | any of that money themselves.
         | 
         | Sort of like, is Uber a taxi firm? Different jurisdictions see
         | this differently.
        
           | Shasnani wrote:
           | Correct! There's certainly a lot of regulations to navigate,
           | but we are strict about NEVER touching the fiat in any
           | country; just connecting buyers and sellers.
        
           | threeseed wrote:
           | > They are not holding people's money
           | 
           | If you are facilitating the movement of money you are still
           | governed by financial regulations.
           | 
           | Regulators aren't stupid. Trying to be clever will not get
           | you anywhere.
        
       | NotYourLawyer wrote:
       | The crypto grift continues.
        
       | bcye wrote:
       | This sounds really cool!
       | 
       | I know Stellar used to/is quite active in this space, though
       | probably without a lot of the abstractions still. Are you
       | implementing an entirely new smart contract or protocol for the
       | order matching or relying on existing systems in this space?
        
         | Shasnani wrote:
         | Thanks!
         | 
         | Frankly, the order matching will be pretty simple at the
         | beginning: Match buyer/seller payment methods, make sure buyer
         | order >= seller's available amount, then pick lowest price
         | option. We just have to query the escrow contract on chain to
         | make sure the seller amount is available.
        
       | marxisttemp wrote:
       | As silly as so much of the cryptocurrency/blockchain space is, I
       | am intrigued by these use cases where political instability and
       | lack of monetary infrastructure genuinely calls for some of the
       | properties of blockchains.
        
       | Xiol32 wrote:
       | Did you not get the memo? We doing AI now.
        
       | wswin wrote:
       | Even more power to the US, why not gold?
        
       | efitz wrote:
       | How do I invest?
        
       | pknerd wrote:
       | It's quite weird you wrote in Hindi for INR but in Roman Urdu for
       | PKR. ChatGPT could help you to come up with a decent Urdu text.
       | 
       | And that Roman Urdu is not correct either.
       | 
       | `lmy ddlr khw'ntt.
       | 
       | pny rqm ddlr myN mHfwZ khryN. tyz, mHfwZ wr bGyr srHdwN khy Hd
       | bndy.
        
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