In cryptocurrency, we hear a lot about “banking the unbanked” and how new digital currencies can provide opportunities to individuals who may find it hard to open a bank account. Whether lacking necessary documentation or minimum funds, it is not always as easy as one may think to open a bank account. In this climate, a project called U.CASH aims to do the opposite (or so their motto claims), to “unbank the banked”.
What is U.CASH?
U.CASH began as a project called SecuraCoin, and their aim is to build a global network of cash-to-digital conversion locations in tandem with their technology. The team claims that the network will natively support all fiat and many digital currencies and that it will be compatible with any asset (such as art, bullion representatives, files, and more) and work with any blockchain. All of this amounts to a rather ambiguous and ambitious “anything is possible with U.CASH.”
Their list of short-term and long-term goals is also quite broad. They list currency conversion, digital wallet services, financial services, converter networks, worldwide usage, global exchange, distributed vaults, peer-to-peer transactions, easy use, easy access to digital currencies, proof-of-existence services, and monetary freedom.
The hope is to “unbank” the world by allowing anyone with internet access to participate in the global economy via cash and digital assets. The system itself is based on “converters”. There are three kinds of converters: retail, mobile, and online. The retail converters are money services businesses. They provide secure locations to exchange cash and digital assets. The mobile converters meet with others to do in-person conversions between cash and digital assets. Online converters provide remote, non-personal conversion between cash and digital assets.
Rather than going the typical ICO route, U.CASH chose to do an IBO, or “initial bounty offering.” In an IBO, the majority of access to tokens is determined by contribution of time and expertise. Rather than crowdsource funds, it crowdsources resources and skills directed toward the project itself. It is an interesting idea. The IBO has completed and the U.CASH team distributed 8,634,014,796.17 UCASH.
This coin has exploded recently, claiming a top 25 slot on CoinMarketCap. It sat at #22 at the time of writing.
Whether or not it will be able to hold this position against other digital market favorites and new cryptocurrencies remains to be seen.
U.CASH’s performance is characteristic of an overall trend we are seeing in which cryptocurrencies enjoy meteoric rises even in the face of less than favorable market conditions.
