Space Summary
The Twitter Space SafePal: Owning Your Crypto Adventure w/ Fiat24 hosted by arbitrum. Explore the world of secure crypto ownership with SafePal, Fiat24, and the Arbitrum Foundation. Discover how these entities focus on decentralization, security, and growth within Arbitrum technologies like Arbitrum One and Nova. Learn about the importance of user-friendly interfaces, educational initiatives, and collaborations in driving innovation and adoption in the blockchain industry. Dive into discussions on scalability, security, and decentralization as key pillars for blockchain integrity. Join the conversation on enhancing crypto practices, promoting wider adoption, and building trust through robust security measures and intuitive interfaces.
For more spaces, visit the Unique Projects page.
Questions
Q: What solutions does SafePal offer for secure crypto ownership?
A: SafePal provides hardware wallets and mobile apps for secure crypto storage and transactions.
Q: How does Fiat24 facilitate fiat-to-crypto transactions?
A: Fiat24 offers a user-friendly platform for converting traditional currency into cryptocurrencies.
Q: What is the primary focus of the Arbitrum Foundation?
A: The Arbitrum Foundation is dedicated to decentralization, security, and the growth of Arbitrum technologies like Arbitrum One and Nova.
Q: How do educational initiatives contribute to safer crypto practices?
A: Educational programs raise awareness about secure crypto handling, reducing risks for users.
Q: Why is collaboration essential in the blockchain industry?
A: Partnerships between projects enhance user experiences, driving innovation and usability in the blockchain space.
Q: What role does scalability play in blockchain technology?
A: Scalability is crucial for accommodating increased transaction volumes and maintaining network efficiency.
Q: How important is decentralization for blockchain integrity?
A: Decentralization ensures network security, resilience, and transparency in blockchain operations.
Q: Why is crypto security a priority for digital asset adoption?
A: Robust security measures build trust among users, encouraging broader adoption and participation in the crypto ecosystem.
Q: How can user-friendly interfaces benefit crypto adoption?
A: Intuitive interfaces make crypto experiences more accessible to a wider audience, driving mainstream adoption.
Q: In what ways do projects like SafePal drive innovation in crypto ownership?
A: SafePal's secure solutions contribute to advancing safe crypto practices and user confidence.
Highlights
Time: 00:29:12
SafePal's Secure Crypto Solutions Exploring the features and benefits of SafePal's hardware wallets and mobile applications.
Time: 00:35:44
Fiat24's Fiat-to-Crypto Platform Understanding how Fiat24 simplifies the process of converting traditional currency to digital assets.
Time: 00:42:18
Arbitrum Foundation's Focus on Security and Decentralization Insights into how the Arbitrum Foundation contributes to blockchain advancement through security and decentralization.
Time: 00:50:03
Importance of Educational Initiatives in Crypto Discussions on the role of education in promoting safe crypto practices and awareness.
Time: 00:58:29
Collaborative Innovations in Blockchain Highlighting the benefits of collaborations between projects like SafePal and Fiat24 in driving industry innovation.
Time: 01:05:17
Scalability and Security in Blockchain Tech The significance of scalability and security in maintaining efficient blockchain operations.
Time: 01:12:40
Decentralization for Trust in Blockchain Exploring how decentralization enhances transparency and trust in blockchain networks.
Time: 01:22:09
Crypto Adoption and Security Measures The link between robust security measures and increased adoption rates in the digital asset space.
Time: 01:30:55
User-Friendly Interfaces for Mainstream Crypto How intuitive interfaces drive wider adoption by making crypto more accessible to all users.
Time: 01:42:33
Innovative Practices in Crypto Ownership Examining how projects like SafePal drive innovation and confidence in crypto ownership.
Key Takeaways
- SafePal offers secure crypto ownership solutions for users.
- Fiat24 provides a platform for convenient fiat-to-crypto transactions.
- The Arbitrum Foundation focuses on decentralization, security, and the advancement of Arbitrum technologies.
- Exploring Arbitrum One and Nova for enhanced blockchain scalability and security.
- Crypto security and usability are crucial aspects driving innovation in the digital asset space.
- The importance of user-friendly interfaces for wider crypto adoption.
- Educational initiatives play a key role in promoting safe cryptocurrency practices.
- Collaborations between projects like SafePal and Fiat24 enhance user experiences in the blockchain industry.
- Understanding the significance of decentralization in maintaining blockchain integrity.
- Scalability and security remain top priorities for blockchain technology advancements.
Behind the Mic
Introduction and Opening Remarks
Gmgmdh. Gm. Yeah. Everyone. Hello. Hello. Bringing up the Safepal account. Yep. I sent over a co host invite to Fiat 24 if you guys want to accept that. Awesome. Well, I think we have everybody here, right? Yeah, I think so. From Safe house, and yes. Yep, we are all here. Sweet. Well, thank you, everybody, for coming through and joining our spaces. We have fiat 24, we have Safepal with us, and we also have chase from offtown Labs. So super excited to dive into everything we're going to talk about. Really excited. But, yeah, we'd love to kick it off with an introduction from you guys.
Introduction by Veronica from Safepal
Sure. Yeah, I guess. Go ahead, Veronica. Yeah, thanks. Thanks. Yeah, I guess I'll go first. Like, hi, everyone from the arbitrage community. Great to be here. This is Veronica speaking. I'm the CEO and co founder of Safepal. We built safe, easy to use, open source, audited wallets for you to store, manage, swap, trade, and grow your crypto assets. So the company was founded in 2018. We've been here for six years building, delivering products, and now we are serving more than 15 million users global wide from 200 plus countries. We also proudly support the whole arbitrum ecosystem. Really thrilled to join the conversation today to share more about what we have built on top of it and how we are collaborating with Fiat 24 to bring innovative solutions to all those who are looking to bridge between crypto and Fiat world seamlessly.
Introduction by Naio from Fiat 24
Yeah. Thanks, Veronica. So this is. Hi, everyone. Good evening. Good morning. And I'm Naio two, one of the co founders of Fiat 24 project. So obviously 902 is not my real name, but is my Fiat 24 NFT number, which doubles my also Fiat 24 bank account. Anyone with Fiat 24 account can transfer Fiat money directly to me using this number. Talking about VR 24, in a nutshell, is a financial institution directly regulated by the swiss bank regulator. But what set us apart is that the way how we operate the bank, a standard bank, use a centralized server to store the client ledger and rely on a so called core banking software to operate the bank. At FIA 24, we use blockchain, specifically arbitram, instead of a server, to record the client ledger. And we use smart contract to replace traditional core banking software. However, from a client perspective, both user experience and the service offered are indistinguishable from what those are of traditional bank. So, being a protocol, we can easily be integrated in crypto wallethood or any other DeFi protocol. So the collaboration with Cipal is a very good showcase. Thank you.
Introduction by Chase from Off Chain Labs
GM, everyone. I'm Chase. I work on the partnerships team at off chain Labs, I lead a lot of our infrastructure partnerships. So with wallets like Safepal, with fiat onramps and a number of others, it's great to be here. Off chain labs, if anybody doesn't know, is the core builders of the arbitram tech. Yeah, great to be here. Great to excited to chat. Welcome, welcome. Sweet. Well, appreciate the intros and yeah, I think we can jump into discussing the first topic we have as a decentralized wallet suite. It's pretty unique approach to have a C defi like service in your offerings. So what was the main motivation for integrating a service? And what are some of the USP's or solutions safepal is looking to provide?
User-Centric Approach of Safepal
Yeah, so we have always been putting user demands in the first place, like 100%. Like all of our products, roadmap and pipeline are surrounding solving the real pain points that people are facing with in crypto worlds. Nowadays, whenever they are using crypto, they are transferring crypto, trading crypto. There are a lot of different obstacles hindering them from going mass adoption. I think on and off ram would be one of the most outstanding pain points that people have nowadays when they are trying to connect with the web three world with the blockchain ecosystem. So we do want to introduce a safe, transparent, of course compliant and also easy to use solution right from the wallet in a native way. So when we found Fiat 24 and found out what they are offering, were very excited because this is actually the first innovative solution that is building a banking gateway through an on chain approach, which kind of maintain the transparency and maintain the credibility of the blockchain philosophy, but also have all of the good sides, have all of the bright side of the banking system that is connecting with the traditional financial world to allow you to open up a fully compliant swiss bank account under your name.
The Benefits of the Fiat 24 Banking Gateway
So that means with that bank account, you are able to move your assets in and out of the crypto world and transfer them back and forth between crypto and other fiat currencies. Such as? Such as like Europe and also a bunch of other currencies. So we find this very attractive. Like, it's rare to find a decentralized wallet like us introducing such a banking gateway inside a wallet, because most of the other companies are probably doing prepaid cards.
Unique Banking Solution
But what we are offering is pretty unique because it's a banking account backing the user experience. People can move their crypto in and out and under the same name of bank accounts, they are able to transfer to their other bank accounts in a 100% compliant way. So that is actually solving a real pain point that people are having nowadays. That is to find a secure and compliant way to bridge the gap between crypto and fiat. And what fiat 24 has built on top of arbitram is also amazing because each of the bank account is tied to a unique NFT on arbitrage. So this is actually leveraging the transparency and the decentralization on the arbitrage network to build a fully on chain experience for people. So every transaction actually go through on chain record.
Innovative Mechanism
So this is actually the first time that we have seen such kind of a mechanism. So we do believe that this is actually the best solution as possible to bridge and to solve the problem that people have nowadays. And that is exactly echoing with our target to solve the people's pain points of bridging both worlds, of having that kind of smooth experience, jumping in and out whenever they want and however they want. So, yeah, without. It took us just a very short time to decide that we should partner together and we should build something natively inside this API wallet that people can straight see it, they can open it, they can apply for it right from the wallet in a native way without jumping out of the system, without jumping out elsewhere.
User-Friendly Experience
They can complete the whole process inside the wallet. They can pair with their visa card right from the wallet, everything in one place. And since they have crypto assets in the wallet, so they can easily move back and forth between the accounts, it's just a few clicks away. So we do believe that this is the best, most ideal situation or user experience that we can introduce. So we are very excited to introduce to the community. And indeed, we've been seeing active growth in the EU regions after we open it since this march. Yeah. So that's a little bit sharing regarding why we have partnered with Fiat 24. And what is this about? See if fiat 24 has anything to add on.
Collaboration Insights
Well, thank you so much, Veronica. So fully agree with you. So I believe that crypto wallet is the ideal place to switch crypto to fiat. Back and forth talking about this question. So CD five is a very interesting term. I believe it stands for decentralized finance. It sounds a little bit conflicting, but that is exactly what we are. So we are centralized in the sense that we are regulated and we are responsible for all of our clients, but at the same time, we use decentralized technology to run our operation, which gives us a cutting edge advantage. So without being decentralized, I think we won't have this collaboration with crypto wallets.
Regulated Financial Space
We could safe serve, centralized app, or we offer banking as a service to other traditional banks. So, being decentralized, being built on top of arbitrage, give us a new opportunity to be more closer to the defi ecosystem. I want to add. Sorry, I'm based in the US, so unfortunately, I'll probably be one of the last people to be able to benefit from this. But a lot of my trad five friends are constantly asking, like, when am I going to be able to pay with crypto over the counter? Or it'll never happen because it's too volatile. They don't even know that stable coins existed.
Adoption of Crypto Payments
you know, when am I going to. When will crypto be accepted at, like, the grocery store? I said, well, you can already do this all over the world, and, you know, with Safepal and Fiat 24, like, you can do this today, you can have cash in a fiat account, or you can have cash in your wallet, and it's all within the same banking app. And if. If a world ever comes, wherever there is a super app, like a WeChat in China, in the US, you better believe it's going to have a crypto wallet attached to it.
Future of Crypto in Finance
I think if Twitter had a half decent crypto wallet, most of us on here would probably use one app. Yeah, well, unfortunately, in the regulated financial world, there is the US and the rest of the world. So being a financial institution, we have to choose which market we serve the first. So given the fact that we are based in Europe, so we have chosen to start with the rest of the world and leaving us for later stage. So this is the current situation.
Anticipating US Market Entry
Yeah, well, one day it'll be here in the US. True. Yeah, one day. But, yeah, I think this is a good segue into talking about how you guys are leveraging arbitrum's technology and Fiat 24. You guys can go first, but, like, maybe you guys can explain how the banking service works together with the account credentials and why you guys selected arbitrum. And maybe safeout, you guys can chip in as well.
Journey and Technology Choices
Yeah, well, it has been a long journey for us. We started in 2018, and so. But first of all, we only consider chance within the EVM family because we believe that, you know, other layer ones can't compare to EVM in terms of ecosystem varieties. So, second, you know, FIA 24 is a protocol that is used frequently. So every time when the user swipe their card or make any transactions, it's recorded on the blockchain.
Operational Dynamics
So according to Visa or Mastercard regulation, when clients make a transaction. As an issuer, we are supposed to give feedback within 1.5 seconds. So we rely on smart contract to read client account information and update ledgers within that 1.5 2nd window. So that's, you know, when choosing blockchain, TPS and gas fee are very crucial to us. Our first version was actually deployed on Ethereum layer one back to 2020, just in time of the DeFi summer.
Challenges of Early Deployment
At the peak time, minting FIA 24 NFT could cost up to $200 in gas fee. So later in 2021, we moved completely our smart contract to Abi Chong. This not only dramatically reduced the transaction time, but also brought the gas fee down to a more acceptable level. However, as our transaction volume grew in the beginning of this year, so before the Dankoon upgrade, were spending like thousands of dollars daily subsidizing gas fee for our clients.
Benefits Post-Upgrade
But after the upgrade, were really surprised to find that the gas fee were reduced less than one 10th of what it used to be. So it helped us a lot. I do believe that with the current capacity of abidjong, it could fully support a payment system of a small to mid sized country. So this is really amazing.
Technological Advantages
So yeah, sure, I'm happy to appreciate the kind words there. I think everything you said rings true, especially with I think speed is the most important. Arbitram has 250 millisecond block times. That's faster than Solana, faster than Ethereum mainnet by what feels like decades, and even other l two s on average have a block time of 2 seconds. So still eight times faster.
Game Play and Transaction Speed
And still, if you're playing a game, or if you're checking out at the grocery store, sitting there and standing awkwardly while the cashier thinks that you might be, your card is about to get declined if it's waiting 2 seconds? That's assuming you get included in the next block, can be a little bit awkward. But 250 milliseconds is literally the blink of an eye. So the speed is what I find to be especially crucial. And of course having lots and lots of stablecoin liquidity as well, whether it's USDC or USDT.
Liquidity in Uniswap
Yeah, that's true. So we heavily rely on the liquidity of Uniswap pools v three. So luckily that uniswap on Aritron, the liquidity is quite positive. So we barely see some like liquidity issue using arbitram version of Uniswap.
Security in Digital Transactions
Yeah, and talking about security, digital security, right? How do safepal and Fiat 24 ensure the security of transactions and user data when leveraging arbitrum's technology? Well, I think there are two types of security concerns. So the first one is related to technical security. What I can say is that Fiat 24 account is as secure as your private key because both your account access key, so the NFT and your account balance, the ERC 20 token, are stored in your crypto wallet. So if your crypto wallet doesn't get hacked, your Fiat 24 account should be safe.
Data Restoration and CD-FI Benefits
But interestingly, even if your crypto wallet goes, you know, get hacked and you may lose all of your stablecoin like UNDP UNDC. But we can still restore your Fiat 24 account with your balance. So this is the advantage of being CD five. And the second security concern is about client data, as you mentioned, what I can tell you is that we store all of our client data on swiss soil and adhere to swiss banking regulation, so even foreign authorities can't access our client data without approval of swiss authority. So this is how we operate.
Customer Data Handling by Safepal
Yeah, I think standing from Safepal's point of view, it's a very cautious and delicate process regarding how we handle the customer data. Right. Because to open up the bank account, people would have to go through the onboarding process. There will be KYC involved. So for a decentralized wallet brand like Safepal, we don't tend to store, access or control any of the user data, including wallet data or other personal information, even email, like, we don't touch any of those.
Cautious Data Management
So thanks to the CDFI structure that Fiat 24 is building here, as explained just now, we are not actually directly accessing any of the customer data. So all of these data will go straight to Fiat 24 for further processing, while Safepal would be decoding the on chain information based on Fiat 20 four's instructions. So this way, we get to protect the privacy of the customer data, we get to comply with the necessary regulations, and also we get to provide and make it work within the Safepal wallet of whatever that Fiat level is offering to the end users.
Innovations in CDFI
So this is actually a very cool structure that we are experimenting here, and it's proved to be working. So we are thrilled to see that this is actually a very big innovation in the CDFI, actually in the whole web three landscape. That's a little bit add on in regards to the security part. So for every users, all of their data would go to Fiat 24 for processing. And CPA doesn't touch any or direct, actually access any of the customer data.
Personal Insights on LTI Program
So that is a one liner regarding like, how CPEL is in the position of security in the whole product structure. Yeah. Interesting. And switching topics. I know you guys have been involved in the arbitrum, Daos lip, the long term incentive program and yeah, I wanted to ask about like, what's the experience been like for you guys in terms of the process and how has the grant helped you guys in terms of bringing more awareness and adoption of Safepal, CD five, baking Gateway and Visa card?
Transparency in Grant Programs
Yeah, maybe I can go first. To be very honest, this is the first grant program that I personally also get involved a lot. I'm very impressed of the transparency and the fairness of the whole application process. It's proved that the whole process can be both transparent and also highly effective and efficient. And like also in a very early stage at the application, were assigned an advisor who has been giving us like countless advice and suggestions regarding like how we should add information, what else context we should add to the application to give a full disclosure to a community for voting process.
Support from Committee and Transaction Improvements
And the advisor has answered basically everything that we have raised in the group chat in a very prompt way. So we do appreciate the support from the committee and also ever since the Dunkin upgrade, transaction speeds and gas fee like Chase mentioned has been improved in a very progressive way. It's much faster, it's also much cheaper. So using the service is becoming like, it's not really any kind of hard decision to make.
Enjoyable Experience with the Program
It's really simple to deploy and also very friendly for developers. So it's overall a very enjoyable experience. And also we got a bonus out of the program as well because we got to be able to work with other fellow LTIPP get grantees. So the process is actually a great way to filter and also for us to meet all of those promising projects building on arbitrage. So this is actually a great bonus that probably not going to be noticed or promoted or mentioned by the public very often, but we do find it also a valuable resource as part of the grant program.
Overall Success of the Program
So I really appreciate the opportunity and we did have involved a lot of the process and when it comes to the outcome, I can only say it's a huge success. So we have achieved 97% of our target goal. We have actually attracted quite a lot of users, especially in EU region, because we are not talking about global range at the moment. The service was in a very early stage, only open to selected countries and regions.
Progress Since the Grant Application
So were amazed to see like the progress is made ever since we applied for the Arbitrum grant and we kick started the whole process of promoting the service from day one. So we are really grateful that Arbitrum has been there since day one when we apply for the grants and when we have been promoting the grants and promoting the program, and eventually we got a chance to join here and to share about our experience of being one of the grantees and also being in the arbitrum ecosystem.
Advice for Future Participants
So that is a very valuable experience for us and hopefully that could be a good reference for all of you who are listening to the podcast considering whether you should join in the future. I would definitely highly recommend it. So that is a little bit of personal feelings and insights from my end and also on behalf of Safepal team as well.
Collaborative Experience in LTI Program
Yeah, so we are part of LTIpp program as well. But unfortunately our CMO who handle the entire LTIpp life circle, you know, from application to implementation, cannot join this call. She just got a birth two weeks ago. However, what we can say is that with the grant we managed to onboard thousands of more new clients and established partnership with six more wallet provider.
Shared Goals in Blockchain Promotion
Well, overall I believe is our shared goal to promote mass adoption of the blockchain technology. So the collaboration with CPEL is a good showcase of how we use the technology to solve real life problem. Yeah, I want to sort of add on to what they both said.
Community Engagement through Grants
I think one of the great parts about the arbitrum Dow incentive and grants programs is what Ron said is it's a great way to engage with the community. Everything happens in public. There's a lot of really smart and talented people within the arbitrum dao that are extremely passionate about not only the arbitrum space, but also just growing this tech generally because they think that it's better for the world and a lot of them do it for essentially free. So it's great to see, it's a great way for teams to connect and it's great to see collaboration like that.
Looking to the Future
100% totally agree. And looking into the future for you guys, Fiat 24 and Safepal, what are you guys most excited about and what's coming up ahead from your end for the community? Yeah. Would you like to go first?
Geographical Coverage and Service Enhancements
So on our end, we keep increasing our geographical coverage because as mentioned by Veronika, so the service is only available for very selected regions. So we are expanding to global coverage, except from the US. There are also some enhancements in term of product offering, in term of money transfer, and we try to make our application as similar as possible to traditional banking software. But in the past few years, I have seen increasing acceptance of crypto by traditional finance. For example, one can buy and sell cryptos in neo banking software like revolut. And also there are more and more swiss bank and also international bank who offers crypto services. But I'm asking myself, why can't we embrace traditional finance from the other way around? So why not integrating an e banking model into crypto wallet? So this is exactly our goal. I think eventually the line between crypto and fiat will be erased in one way or another.
Future Expansion and Partnerships
Yeah, definitely would like to use Lisi or this opportunity to thank Arbitron and FIA 24 again for making this happen. It cannot happen just with us. It has to be a team effort. We really appreciate that. Talking about the future, we look forward to the future expansion of adding more services and also expanded to more countries and regions. We are going to come to like, as FIA 24 mentioned, we are going to come to many more countries coming next, including APAC, including adding new fiat currencies available or even making Mastercard. Maybe happening in the future. So we are very excited about that. And we have also built on top of the banking gateway with our SAP utility. So that is something new that we have tried for ourselves. And we have actually seen it as a very strong utility for our token holders. So we keep expanding that and building incentives for all those who are opening bank accounts through the safe health channel.
Defi Ecosystem and User Experience
So this is one part of our roadmap and it's how happening soon this year. And of course, CD five is actually. It's a wonderful word. I like whoever invented this term. It's actually kind of keeping the good side and bright sides of both worlds, but mingling them into something that is most tangible and also has the biggest advantages out of it. So in the future, we would also add more services available inside a wallet, especially to improve the chain interoperability between different ecosystems across different chains, into arbitram for seamless usage. So when it comes to swap, when it comes to Dexs trading, we do want to enhance in a frontier of user experience, all of those cross chain and connecting all of these ecosystems together and pull all of those across different chains into arbitrage for friendly and safe usage.
Building an Interconnected Ecosystem
We believe that would be wonderful. That is also part of our mission, to be chain agnostic, to be fully focusing on user demand, and also bridging all of the cross chain ecosystems in one place. So that is our mission since day one. It's been there six years, we've been keep building and delivering it. And we are really grateful that we are not building it alone. We are building it alongside with great partners like Arbitran and Fiat 24, that is a blessing. So we hope to open up the partnership with even more partners moving down the way and also to achieve that same goal altogether. Thank you, Veronica. I think this is exactly the spirit of web three.
Practical Applications of Web Three
Well, I see FiA 24 as, for example, a piece of label. So we are only focusing on the last mile. So this piece does only one thing. So convert stablecoin on arbitrage into fiat money, and from there we take it over. So we do the money transfer. We are connected to the traditional payment rail and we use the fiat to feed Visa and Mastercard. But on the other hand, we hope that there are more and more Lego pieces built on top of us. So CPA, you can see CPA as another piece of Lego. You are good at interface. You can build bridges and swaps or even sticking contract in your wallet. And then piece for piece, we build entire ecosystem in Defi world that is mimicking the whole functionality of traditional finance.
Appreciation and Looking Towards the Future
So that would be a bigger vision of us. Yeah, I'm very excited to see all the stuff that's coming out that's going to get shipped out from you guys. And yeah, really bullish on how you guys are onboarding the masses to crypto. So I'm super excited for what's coming on your end. And thank you for having us. Yeah, appreciate the time and thank you for everyone tuning in for the episode today. Yeah, great speaking to everyone, actually. Abby Chom foundation and Abby Chom ecosystem has been providing constantly support to us since, like, at least two years. Really appreciate.
Collaboration and Future Meetings
Well deserved, well deserved. We, it's been a pleasure working with you guys and we hope to continue working with you and, you know, bringing crypto to the masses. Well, you guys be it hope to meet at token 2049 next week. By the way, if you guys are. In town, definitely, I'll be in town. Yeah, looking forward. Same here. Well, thank you, everybody, for tuning in. 902, Veronica Chase. Thank you guys for coming through. Super excited to see you guys ship some really cool stuff on your end and, yeah, hope everybody here has an awesome day.
Closing Remarks
Like, thank you. Have a great one. Yeah, great. Yeah, stay safe. Bye. Bye, everyone. Bye.
