Is uTrust the PayPal of the digital currency age? It may well turn out to be that and more. It offers a reasonable way to use bitcoin and altcoins for everyday payments. Also, it may turn out to be the missing link to the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies in general.
Overview
- Name: UTRUST (UTK)
- Token Classification: Utility Token, Security
- Circulating Supply: 450,000,000 UTK
- Total Supply: 1B UTK – eventually, only 100,000,000 UTK will be left
- Market Cap: $29 million
- UTK trading fee discounts: Buyer-side. Integrated into the dispute-management system.
Launched through an ICO in 2017, uTrust turned out to be a viable project. (For more such projects, take a look at our initial coin offerings page.)
The native token of the uTrust network, UTK is still very much in its infancy price-wise. Given the value proposition of the project, as well as a multitude of other factors our team has analyzed below, the upside here is potentially massive.
- uTrust is a full online digital/fiat currency payment system.
- Its market positioning is unique; it is a bridge between fiat and digital currency payments.
- It solves several burning issues currently preventing bitcoin/altcoin mass adoption.
- uTrust addresses volatility, scalability, merchant adoption, buyer/seller protection, and dispute settlement.
- Compliance is a major component of the uTrust recipe.
- It features automatic fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat conversion.
- UTK is an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain.
The best way for a blockchain investor to gain exposure to uTrust’s future performance is through the UTK utility tokens. One can buy UTKs through several exchanges.
The token probably qualifies as a security. It offers buyer-side discounts within the uTrust payments ecosystem and an optimized uTrust experience.
One percent of the fees it collects from merchants is used by uTrust to buy back UTK. Bought-back tokens are then burned at a rate not exceeding 50 million UTKs per year.
The potential size of uTrust’s target market equals that of PayPal (Score: 4.66)
- UTrust aims to solve an almost unrealistically large number of very real problems associated with online payments. It addresses every existing problem of legacy and digital payment systems, including:
- Steep costs
- Low transaction speeds
- Chargebacks
- Volatility
- Lack of buyer/seller protection
- Intricate onboarding processes
- Non-instant confirmation speeds
- It allows the buyer to pay with any of the supported digital currencies, even as merchant prices are set in local currency. It instantly converts payments to fiat at the best possible rate. The system then charges the merchant a 1 percent fee on the transaction and holds the money in an escrow account for buyer protection. It then releases the funds according to a preset algorithm based on seller reputation. A dispute-settlement system is also part of the package. UTrust accomplishes all the above under a single API.
- Frequent users of the payment ecosystem are the primary users of the UTK token. It makes perfect sense for this user category because of the discounts it offers. Please note that uTrust payments work without UTK too. Buyers can use their external wallets or the internal mobile wallet provided by uTrust.
- The adoption of uTrust’s payment system may provide potentially massive value to users. The impact of the UTK token in this regard is less significant. It too may, however, be considerable as adoption progresses. The token also carries speculative potential, possibly exceeding its direct use-cases.
- UTK’s market structure is well defined. Everyone using the payment solution is a potential user.
- UTrust is very keen on regulation. It is, in fact, self-regulated to the strictest possible standards. In this regard, the operator has declared itself fully compliant under all current regulatory regimes. It is also ready to adapt to all future standards. Regulation is a must if uTrust aims for merchant adoption. The security-like nature of the UTK utility token raises some questions in this regard.
UTK’s competitive advantage stems from the utility of the uTrust ecosystem (Score:4)
- The UTK token uses the Ethereum blockchain, which is generally a great choice for businesses like uTrust. The company does not seem eager to launch its own blockchain.
- UTrust seems to have a decent head start on similar payment solutions. Certainly, it is peerless in terms of the complexity of the solutions it offers.
- The recent rumors which linked eBay’s alleged acceptance of digital currencies to uTrust (since denied) have certainly placed the brand among the heavyweights of the payments industry.
The Team Behind uTrust Is Not Quite an “All-Star Superteam”. Yet. (Score: 4.66)
- That said, the entrepreneurial team is huge, and it does feature at least one “celebrity” in Sanja Kon, uTrust’s VP of Global Partnerships.
- The technical experience and track record of the uTrust team is great. There are MIT graduates, experienced venture capitalists, and international lawyers on the team.
- In regards to transparency and legitimacy, the uTrust team more than makes the cut.
Like It or Not, UTK Is, in Fact, a Bolt-on Blockchain (score: 2.83)
- UTrust’s services are impressive and their UTK token does have utility. It is, however, not essential for the functioning of the payments ecosystem. Its discounts are decent but hardly unique or even necessary. Let us not forget that UTK offers indirect exposure to uTrust’s performance.
- Utility and exposure notwithstanding, the UTK token is indeed just “another one of those”.
- UTK is not a decentralization poster-child either…to put it mildly.
- The total UTK supply is 1 billion. UTrust plans to burn some each year until the supply whittles down to 100 million.
- UTK can be transacted at some 10 public exchanges, among them Huobi and Bitfinex. Trading volumes are low.
- The UTK tokens exist and work as intended within the uTrust ecosystem.
UTrust Users Will Find It Easy to Adopt UTK (score: 3.66)
- The level of technical knowledge required to use UTK for smoother transactions is zero. Users do not have to know what makes it tick to use it.
- The only well-regarded brand with which UTK is associated is uTrust, and uTrust itself is a new player in the digital payments game.
- UTrust is generally well-regarded in social media. The same goes for UTK. That said, its social media footprint is not overly impressive.
- UTK’s mechanics are not particularly impressive. Its investment potential is closely linked to uTrust though. UTrust’s value proposition is enormous. Put two and two together…
To perform analysis of your own for this and other tokens, you can use Bitcoin Market Journal’s Investor Scorecard, a handy tool that will help you compare projects in the digital space with rigor.
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