A message from Artur Goulão, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at UTRUST2017 has been an incredible year for the development and consolidation of the blockchain landscape and, if you are reading this, it probably means that you are fortunate enough to join us on this unbelievable journey.
Since the beginning, our vision for UTRUST has been crystal clear — to create a reliable platform that is capable of processing crypto-to-fiat payments efficiently. UTRUST will combine the speed and security of blockchain technology with the protection and credibility of the more traditional payment systems.
Countless projects have tried to claim the title of “PayPal of Cryptocurrencies” without even having the most basic understanding of the fundamentals that are key to succeeding in the online payment industry. In my previous experience as a CTO for a successful online payment processor, I realized the importance of not only hiring strong developers but the significance in having a team who can grasp the intricate dynamics in the implementation of online payments.
One of the major challenges faced by our industry is that both, centralized and decentralized payments, require a third-party to deal with the mutual trust issue that surrounds the relationship between online merchants and their consumers. Moreover, the vast majority of existing online merchants do not understand cryptocurrencies and are reluctant to use them due to their inherent volatility or bad reputation.
The crypto payment solutions in existence, and even those currently being developed are nothing more than a wire system, an enhanced Western Union if you wish. While this model has been relatively successful for personal (peer-to-peer) transfers, it is not suitable for commercial transactions between strangers.
As a Payment Professional, I often struggle to understand the business model that some of our “competitors” have decided to pursue. All of them claim to be the “PayPal of Cryptocurrencies”, but in fact are more comparable to Western Union, as they fail to solve the very problems that UTRUST aims to work out to really make blockchain payments feasible.
https://medium.com/@UTRUST/a-message-from-artur-goul%C3%A3o-chief-technology-officer-cto-at-utrust-ecb243e45bab