Genesis Block: a Full-Service Banking Experience for the Digital Generation

Speaker 1

Sarah Wiley is the VP of product development at GenesisBlock, a Utah-based startup building a consumer bank powered by Web3. Sarah studied computer science at BYU and has worked as a software engineer for 20 plus years with a long tenure at Intuit before making the leap into the alluring world of startups. Three years ago, Sara started learning about blockchain, decentralized development and crypto, and quickly became enthralled by the promises and possibilities of these new technologies. Sarah lives with her husband and children in Provo, Utah, and takes any chance she can get to escape on foot or bike into the breathtaking canyons of the Wasatch Mountains. Sarah Wiley.

Sarah Wiley

Hi. It is an honor to be here. I am a crypto blockchain newbie compared to so many here. Humbling to be following so many great talks. But I am honored to be here, and I’m excited to share a little bit about what we’re doing at Genesis Block.

Sarah Wiley

So the promises of DeFi, decentralized finance, stem from the overarching and kind of general promises of decentralization as it applies to finance. They’re made possible by the powerful and innovative advances in technology through blockchain. The ideal, and I say ideal because we all know we’re not there yet, but the ideal is to build and leverage systems that are, as we’ve heard many times, censorship resistant, permissionless. and peer-to-peer. For DeFi, this looks like democratic governance through DAOs and transparency through open source contracts and public Public ledgers. Trustless transactions can have the possibility, the potential of removing institutional bias that has plagued our systems historically and enable cross border and cross demographic transactions. And the incentivized networks with values and processes built into their framework mean no central authority and more efficient alignment of our values.

Sarah Wiley

Add Genesis block And particularly, I have to give a shout out to our CEO and founder, Mick Hagen. We are true believers in these promises. and are active participants in the ecosystem. We look for opportunities to advise and influence legislation and regulation, to build awareness and public perception, and to be supporters and sponsors of projects that reflect our values and help progress these promises of DeFi.

Sarah Wiley

So we are here to unlock the power of crypto and DeFi for everyone. Accessing DeFi today is ridiculously complicated and can be really scary. The benefits are truly only available to those who are willing and able to figure it out and in a position to afford the risk.

Sarah Wiley

Mick is currently sponsoring a March Madness competition internally at Genesis Block. And we’re all experiencing yeah, where we are supposed to use the Phantom Network to make as much money as we can. And we are all experiencing firsthand how impossible it can be, as most of us have lost. All money that we’ve put into it. So now the winner will be the one who has lost the least. Rather than who has made the most.

Sarah Wiley

But our vision at Genesis Black is to offer the benefits of DeFi in an accessible, familiar, and comfortable package. That means removing that risk. removing that barrier to entry. To build a delightful user experience, transparent and educational tools, all bundled within a framework that people understand, the traditional finance Workflows. And we use economies of scale to make fees more manageable and to mitigate risk.

Sarah Wiley

So what are we doing? We’re building a mobile application offering full featured financial services for a crypto generation. We offer high yield savings accounts that are powered by DeFi. We have FDIC insured depository accounts for traditional banking services. We have an integrated crypto wallet with easy ways to buy, sell, hold, exchange crypto. And we offer a Visa debit card with crypto cash back rewards.

Sarah Wiley

So for Genesis Block users, we are attempting to reduce the risk of DeFi while maintaining the high rewards that are possible. So, the question, of course, is how do we do this? And I know we run the gamut in this room of some DeFi degens and crypto curious and total newbies. So forgive me if I’m oversimplifying or not explaining enough. But there’s a lot of resources out there.

Sarah Wiley

So we reduce the risk and volatility inherent in crypto and DeFi by using stable coins. Stable coins are crypto assets that are pegged and backed one-to-one with with stable um assets like like the US dollar. And we use those stable coins to bridge the world between traditional finance and decentralized finance. So as much as we wish we could just teleport to the new and better world of complete decentralization, We’re obviously not there yet. And so we’re trying to be a part of the transition by strategically introducing DeFi into tools and systems that people already use and understand.

Sarah Wiley

So DeFi protocols provide opportunities to make money through several avenues. There’s safe lending markets with over collateralized leverage. There’s providing liquidity for exchange services and through incentives from platforms that pay commissions for participation.

Sarah Wiley

So making money is not the only thing we’re interested in at Genesis Block. We are also on a mission to do good. We donate 10% of our revenue to causes that our community chooses. This year, we had a combination of causes related to the environment, financial access and inclusion, and helping refugees. We’ve set up a donor advice fund, which allows users to grow their assets tax free. supersize them with DeFi and donate them to their favorite nonprofits. We’re pending B Corp certification and have worked really hard to get there. And in our app, users can earn rewards points for healthy behaviors like saving, donating, and learning, more than just spending.

Sarah Wiley

We are executing on an everybody wins strategy. We believe strongly in the potential of decentralized finance to make the world a better place. There’s that optimism that we’ve been warned against, but you know, it takes a certain amount of conviction and optimism to face the challenges that we are to make it a reality. We’re building a product to help our users make money which then helps us build our company, which then enables all of us to do good in our communities, while also participating in and building momentum for DeFi.

Sarah Wiley

This obviously is not without its challenges. As others have mentioned, we are absolutely facing immense pushback and challenges by archaic, restrictive and uncertain regulatory environments. But we’re up for the challenge. We’re invested and motivated and optimistic that this will ultimately help make the promise Of DeFi Reality. Thank you.