As the world’s first cryptocurrency payments platform with consumer protections, UTRUST raised more than $1.5 million in 90 minutes in its pre-ICO in late August, demonstrating vast demand for a mainstream cryptocurrency payments platform. UTRUST’s plans are outlined in the official whitepaper.
Due to high demand during the pre-ICO, with most of the $1.5 million reached in the first 30 minutes, UTRUST has bolstered its infrastructure and support staff in preparation for the first round in its public ICO on Sept. 20, 2017. More than 3,000 additional people registered to buy tokens beyond the 1,100 who were able to buy during the pre-ICO.
The $1.5 million raised to date has allowed the team to secure a schedule for technical development, strategic partnerships and further marketing initiatives.
A Groundbreaking Platform
UTRUST marks the first cryptocurrency payment platform to deploy consumer protections on a mass scale; to enable global consumer adoption of blockchain technology. The platform is similar to PayPal with extensive cryptocurrency support.
Despite blockchain technologies’ advances, digital payments between buyers and sellers of physical services are largely untapped. Buyers expect a robust consumer protection system that protects their purchases and provides refunds. Sellers, for their part, are wary of cryptocurrency volatility.
UTRUST allows buyers to use cryptocurrency to pay sellers. It provides the sellers the safety and convenience of receiving funds in fiat currency, while offering consumer protection to buyers and acting as mediators.
Consumer Protection
The platform also provides the consumer protection buyers have come to expect for traditional online purchases, serving as a mediator to enable refunds and mitigate fraud, while also protecting the merchant from volatility often associated with cryptocurrencies.
UTRUST will enable merchants to sell to the growing audience of cryptocurrency holders.
The purpose of the ICO is to allow anyone to become an investor.
Buyers will be able to use the token in the UTRUST platform alongside other coins, and as a financial mechanism linking the token value to the UTRUST platform value.
ICO On Sept. 20
Round 1 of the public ICO on Sept. 20 commences at 2 p.m. GMT with a $4 million cap. The seven upcoming round will provide $50 million in funding.
UTRUST will use the funds from the ICO to create partnerships to support the platform. The ERC20 compatible tokens are produced on the Ethereum protocol, to be used for payment on the UTRUST gateway in addition to other cryptocurrencies.
The token can be used to make zero fee payments to the thousands of merchants that accept any cryptocurrency via UTRUST. The tokens can be traded against other currencies on supported exchange platforms.
UTRUST will allocate a set amount of the revenues to buyback and will destroy tokens in circulation. The demand for UTRUST tokens will increase over time. This, combined with buyback, should result in increased market value.
The team plans to have a transactional platform ready for merchants to test in the first quarter of 2018, supported by a wallet app where buyers and merchants can check their balance, transaction history and mediated resolutions. The pilot launch will feature a curated selection of merchants, which will expand in the third quarter of 2018.
UTRUST’s team includes individuals experienced in corporate management, payments, cryptocurrency development, law, finance, startups and computer science.
More information about UTRUST can be found on the official UTRUST website at utrust.io and in the official UTRUST whitepaper.
A Diverse Team
Nuno Correia, CEO, has been involved in the crypto markets since the beginning of 2011. Having founded multiple B2C businesses, Correia has a background in law and marketing.
Filipe Castro, CIO, holds a business degree from MSENG and brings experience developing electronic payment systems and other software solutions. He is engaged in developing new ventures.
Artur Goulão, CTO, brings experience in the payments industry. He has served as a CTO in a leading digital payment platform, and is currently serving as the head of development at a Swiss-based cybersecurity company. With a background in computer science from IST and MIT, Goulão brings expertise in both classical and blockchain smart contract based approaches.
Roberto Machado, CPO, has served as founder and product manager at several software startups. He has worked with international companies such as AT&T, Betfair, Airtel, and Uphold, being responsible for the vision outline, goals and product strategy of solutions used by millions
of users.
Other team members include Luis Ferreira, head of engineering; Laura Esteves, head of operations; Joao Ferreira, head of design; Nick Olender, head of sales and partnerships; and Francisco Baila, product designer.
UTRUST’s software engineers include Miguel Palhas, Gabriel Poca, Ronaldo Sousa, Fernando Mendes, Bruno Azevedo, Pedro Costa and Joao Justo.
The advisory team includes Francisco Maia, Francisco Cruz, Joao Paulo, Sergio Viana, Marc Howland, David Dryan, Daniel Pierce and Sascha Benz.
To learn more about UTRUST’s ICO, please go to utrust.io/ico
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGAaaV- aVGs&feature=youtu.be