The Universal Protocol Alliance, a coalition of leading blockchain organizations including Uphold, Bittrex International, Brave, Cred, Blockchain at Berkeley, and CertiK, today announced the launch of the Universal Dollar, which was first announced last October. This is the beginning of a series of tokens and stablecoins that are to be issued from the Universal Protocol Platform.
The Universal Dollar (UPUSD) is a USD-pegged stablecoin that will be available directly on Uphold and will allow customers using CredEarn to earn interest on their stablecoin.
The Universal Protocol (UP) Alliance is a growing coalition of the biggest and most respected organizations in the world of blockchain that have united around a new universal transparent reserve standard that aims to attract the next 100 million users to cryptocurrency. The combined expertise of each member organization has enabled the Universal Protocol Platform to create unique digital currency products designed to appeal to mainstream users on a massive scale.
The Universal Protocol Platform allows for the minting, custody, and storage of digital ‘proxy’ assets that allow for better digital asset products, and the introduction of a set of safeguards required for the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency.
“The UP Platform solves real usability and familiarity problems faced by the next hundred million users of digital assets,” said Brendan Eich, co-founder of Brave and creator of JavaScript.
The Universal Dollar: Transparency, Low Fees, and Returns
The Universal Dollar stablecoin is aimed at users looking for a better alternative to existing stable coin products, and those looking for low volatility and a competitive annual rate of return. In countries with high inflation or limited access to traditional banking, users can now lend their USD-pegged assets and earn interest. To earn a return, users can stake their UPUSD via the CredEarn application on Uphold. In developed countries, the UPUSD provides a transparent and secure way for users to store their digital assets held on a 1:1 basis at FDIC-insured banks.
“Unlike other Stablecoins, the Alliance seeks to flood the value substantiation process with daylight so it doesn’t operate as a Black Box. We give customers verifiable confidence that they are buying a fully-reserved Universal Dollar,” said Dan Schatt, Chairman of the Universal Protocol Alliance.
The technology underlying the UP Platform also enables the Universal Dollar to inherit some unique attributes, including:
- Key recovery: users can recover funds should they lose their Private Keys. The key will be split into multiple shares and the corresponding address embedded into the wallet. When two out of three constituents (wallet owner and one of the third parties) agree to recover the shares, the assets can be ‘called’ from the lost wallet.
- Inheritability: users can nominate beneficiaries who may ‘call’ the assets after prolonged account dormancy. The exact period of dormancy and the address will be configured during wallet instantiation.
- Detachability: users can ‘delegate’ control over their assets to a centralized exchange in order to facilitate a temporary trading session. After a session, the user can immediately take back custody and hold them in the safety of their private wallet.
- Dynamic code generation: The Universal Protocol Platform employs smart contracts to generate tokens in a generic fashion. If you trust one UP token instantiation, you can trust the code integrity of all UP token instantiations since the underlying code is dynamically generated in the same manner.
“This is the first of many tokenized digital assets we intend to introduce that will facilitate the instant and seamless conversion of different forms of value,” said JP Thieriot, Co-founder of the Alliance. “In doing so, the UP Platform will unlock the vast and untapped full potential of blockchain to transform how individuals and businesses store and transfer value, with Universal Tokens representing the next generation of digital money.”
