Founder: Nicolas Burtey
Date Based: September 2019
Location of Headquarters: United States
Variety of Staff: 11
Web site: https://www.galoy.io/
Public or Non-public? Non-public
Final week, Galoy launched Lana, software program that permits banks to simply accept bitcoin as collateral for loans.
Lana helps neighborhood and challenger banks (the banks with which Galoy is trying to work) to supply bitcoin-backed loans to numerous forms of clients.
“Some banks might want to use it to sell to retail, and some might want to use it to sell commercial customers or high-net-worth individuals,” Burtey instructed Bitcoin Journal.
In providing such loans to a big selection of shoppers, Burtey believes that the excessive value of borrowing at present related to such merchandise will come down.
“Today’s interest rates are 12% to 15% if you want to get a loan using your bitcoin as collateral,” stated Burtey.
“The rates are high because there are so few financial institutions offering this type of product. We see an opportunity now that the regulations are allowing banks to do things with bitcoin,” he added.
“We think a lot of banks will want to enter this market.”
If Burtey is appropriate in his prediction that banks are eager to supply bitcoin-backed loans, this is not going to solely decrease charges for such loans, however it should additionally introduce open-source Bitcoin software program into the world of banking, which might provoke a brand new development within the trade.
However extra on that in only a minute. First, some background on Galoy.
Galoy’s Historical past: From Blink Pockets To Lana
Based in September 2019, Galoy had intentions to allow banks to make use of bitcoin from the beginning, but it surely needed to maintain off on doing so as a consequence of an unfriendly regulatory atmosphere.
So, as a substitute, it centered its efforts on creating and supporting Blink pockets (which was initially known as the Bitcoin Seaside pockets and which Galoy just lately bought), a custodial Bitcoin and Lightning pockets predominantly used at first in El Salvador after which in Bitcoin round economies globally.
“Galoy’s mission was to onboard banks to Bitcoin five years ago,” stated Burtey.
“But the regulatory environment was so bad during the last five years that we decided to create Blink. The reason we are now focusing on our original mission is because with the end of Choke Point 2.0 and the repeal of SAB 121, we think now is the perfect time to help banks adopt Bitcoin.”
Burtey spoke about his work in creating and rising Blink fondly and shared that he needed to cease engaged on the venture solely as a result of it could be too troublesome to proceed managing it whereas additionally aiming to serve a brand new kind of clientele.
“Blink is a B2C (Business-To-Customer) play, and it’s hard as an early-stage startup to focus on too many things,” defined Burtey.
“Galoy is a B2B (Business-To-Business)-driven business, and we want to work with banks and financial institutions,” he added.
“It’s good to be focused on just one thing.”
And, as talked about, that one factor will now be Lana.
How Lana Works
Lana is software program that Galoy helps banks combine and handle for a subscription payment. With this software program, banks can problem bitcoin-backed loans underneath the phrases they create.
“We’re not the ones deciding how much interest will be charged or anything like that,” defined Burtey.
“We give banks the platform to do this, and then they can figure out their cost of capital, the duration of the loan, the liquidation price for the bitcoin in the loan and the rate at which they want to lend,” he added.
“We’re giving you software, and helping you run and automate that software.”
One thing else that Galoy doesn’t do for banks is custody the bitcoin offered as collateral for the loans they problem. Every of the banks with whom the corporate works is chargeable for choosing their very own custodian.
“You can go to BitGo or Fireblocks or each loan can have its own multisig,” stated Burtey. “We’re agnostic on custody.”
With that stated, Lana helps banks monitor the bitcoin in custody in order that banks can concentrate on whether or not or not collateral is nearing liquidation ranges.
“A key piece of this product is risk management,” stated Burtey.
“Bitcoin is volatile, and the bank will need a tool to show that it’s taking calculated risk. So, we’ll provide banks with a dashboard to monitor this risk,” he added.
Who Will Use Lana?
Galoy is concentrating on neighborhood banks and different smaller monetary establishments with this new product principally as a result of they suppose these smaller gamers will profit most from it — and since the massive banks possible received’t want such a product.
“We don’t think JP Morgan will really want to work with us,” stated Burtey. “They’re probably building something like this themselves, whereas a smaller bank, a credit union or small company probably isn’t.”
Burtey additionally understands that smaller lenders’ incorporating Lana versus constructing one thing comparable themselves can save these monetary establishments a big quantity of effort and time.
“Our goal is to say, ‘Look, you can develop this internally, and it will take you six months, a year or longer depending on how much you know about Bitcoin,’” stated Burtey. “‘Or we have a lending product as a service for you, and you can launch it much more quickly.’”
And as Burtey and his group onboard their first spherical of smaller banks, they’ll not solely be making historical past in enabling extra banks to simply accept bitcoin as collateral for loans, however they’ll probably be altering the trajectory of banking usually by introducing open-source software program to it.
Open-Source Bitcoin Banking
Burtey’s long-term imaginative and prescient for Galoy is to do way more than simply assist banks problem bitcoin-backed loans. He’s trying to introduce open-source software program into banking as extra banks start to embrace Bitcoin.
Nonetheless, it’s essential to notice that Lana isn’t open-source simply but. It’s fair-source software program, and, underneath such a license, code turns into open-source after two years.
“It’s a delayed open-source system, but it’s all available on GitHub,” stated Burtey. “You can go and try it, test it, and play with it on your own.
Under the fair-source license, no company other than Galoy can sell the product to a bank right now, allowing Galoy to profit while still building with auditable code.
“We sell the deployment, and we help banks to plug in to their custodian,” defined Burtey. “We’re building in the open — but we also want to generate revenue.”
Past serving to banks implement Lana, Burtey’s needs to develop open-source “core banking software,” as he’s trying to disrupt the “core ledger” oligopoly.
“The core ledger is where banks store the account data, customer information and transaction details,” stated Burtey. “It’s the source of truth for banks.”
And solely three corporations — FIS, Fiserv and Jack Henry — have the core ledger market cornered.
“These are all like hundred billion dollar companies that you’ve probably never heard about because all they do is focus on selling software to banks,” stated Burtey.
“Our long-term goal is to disrupt this industry by making something that is open source,” stated Burtey. “Today, there is no company that does core banking with the idea of open source, and so we’re working towards this.”
Burtey envisions a world by which open-source software program could make it a lot simpler for somebody to start out a Bitcoin financial institution. (For those that wince on the phrases “Bitcoin” and “bank” being utilized in tandem, may I remind you that it was the legendary Hal Finney himself who wrote that bitcoin-backed banks would function a scaling resolution.)
“To start a bank today is a very expensive and complicated process,” stated Burtey. “You have to pay $100,000 plus just to purchase the core ledger technology.”
Burtey then referenced his personal expertise in beginning Blink pockets, primarily a bitcoin financial institution run on open-source code, earlier than persevering with.
“I just went to El Salvador and started what was effectively my own bank because I wanted to,” stated Burtey.
“We need to reinvent how core banking software is being made in the world of Bitcoin, and I think this is where open-source becomes relevant,” he added.
“This is really why I think the world of banking and Bitcoin will be very different from the world of banking with fiat, and I think we’re one of the companies at the forefront of this.”
