Utrust & $UTK — A ‘Permabull’ guide

Introduction

Nothing in this guide constitutes financial advice. Before investing in anything let alone crypto you should seek the advice of an investment professional.

Disclaimer: I have been working in partnership with Utrust for some time leading up to the publication of this piece.

When talking about crypto, there has always been a bit of an “elephant in the room” about when to actually use crypto other than to degen on a CEX or DEX.

On one hand, crypto represents to many as a whole new paradigm of asset class that is deflationary, limited, and unable to censor. On the other hand, we need things like food to survive and we all have pointless things we’d like to purchase. This internal debate within a crypto holder has been fairly simple — should we spend crypto? More specifically, how can I spend it on purchases online and in person?

On one hand, it’s difficult to spend crypto because you don’t want to have less of it — but for the one that wishes to spend it, it’s often a struggle of inconvenience anyway.

How can we spend it easily? How can we make sure we are getting the proper exchange value at the moment of purchase? If I want to purchase something in the future, when is the best time to convert it to cash? How many wallets or apps do I need to transfer funds and off-ramp into fiat??

The list is long and complicated.

Utrust is a major solution for all of this. With Utrust and its $UTK token, everyone is able to not only use crypto for payments but use the $UTK token directly as a payment method.

Let’s take a comprehensive look at what Utrust is, how it can solve all the issues of online payments and e-commerce transactions, and how we can start using it ourselves.

Utrust Overview:

Utrust is an ecommerce integration platform that gives businesses and users the ability to accept and use digital currencies for transactions. The Utrust platform is able to create a seamless payment solution that helps merge the world of e-commerce with the advantages of cryptocurrency. While crypto like Bitcoin can be used without a central authority as a P2P transaction, there are some flexibility concerns when it comes to using BTC for making purchases with businesses. Utrust is able to solve these issues and make it incredibly convenient.

In addition to Utrust being a seamless gateway to crypto payments, it is also a borderless solution, currently servicing over 180+ countries in a myriad of industries and supporting over 30 currencies, making up approximately 90% of the world’s GDP.

Utrust also powers a consumer wallet called ‘Hold’, which is a mobile first application that allows users to buy and sell digital currencies as well as stake $UTK tokens to receive rewards.

The benefits of Utrust for payments and e-commerce doesn’t stop with the users. Businesses have a fast and intuitive solution with Utrust as well. When using Utrust, businesses have the ability to see everything from order details, transactions, and even manage elements of e-commerce like refunds and settlements through a merchant dashboard. Businesses that wish to integrate Utrust are able to do so easily as well, adding Utrust integrations with just a small amount of code and less than an hour’s worth of waiting.

Advantages of Utrust:

There are many advantages to using Utrust as the growth for crypto adoption grows. With its robust architecture, integration, support structure, and widespread availability, Utrust is able to provide an attractive use case for everyone. Here are a few of the benefits of using this platform integration:

• Low Fees: Because Utrust is using blockchain technology on the Ethereum network and the ability to use a cross-border transaction system, Utrust is able to significantly reduce the cost of doing transactions for both businesses and users. Doing online business has been on a global scale for decades and having an ERC-20 token like $UTK helps integrate a payment system that’s as free as our needs online. Utrust has a flat 1% fee for all transactions, so there are no hidden fees or extra conditions to remember.
• Instant Settlements: Although electronic payment settlements as a whole have gotten better throughout the years, it’s still commonplace to wait 3–5 business days for settlements on transactions, not including holidays, with some people waiting up to even 15 days still. In many cases, these transactions are incredibly small and many banks prefer to charge extra fees to “settle” these transactions instantly. Utrust is able to settle transactions as soon as they are confirmed on the blockchain, which are near instant. For businesses this is even better as you can settle your payments into the currency of your location or choice on demand.
• Built-In Security: when dealing with payments and money, there’s an extra element of security to help prevent things like hackers and double spending. Blockchain and crypto are superficially designed to help prevent issues like these — where double spending cannot exist and hackers simply cannot take on the risk because of the distributed nature of the Ethereum chain. Using Utrust is more secure than a traditional payment method by default.
• Business Integration: as mentioned, a business is easily able to integrate with Utrust if they have an e-commerce structure already in place. Utrust works with common plugins like WooCommerce, Shopify, Megneto, PrestaShop, and handfuls of other integrations that make it extremely simple to add and use. You don’t need to wait for another company’s approval, maintain a certain threshold of transactions, or deal with unavailability because of your location.
• Crypto Wallet Integration: For the average crypto user, Utrust already works well with any major wallet so you can use it easily with a Utrust comparable merchant, making it one less thing you need to deal with. Utrust automatically works with Binance, Trust Wallet, Coinbase, and Ledger as well as ZenGo and others.

The $UTK Token and its Benefits:

The Utrust platform runs on the Ethereum network and uses the ERC-20 token called $UTK, which operates as the native utility for the platform. This allows users the benefit of either paying in a token of their choice, like Bitcoin or Ethereum, or directly with the $UTK token which helps separate the crypto you want to spend versus the crypto you want to hold. Speaking of “hold”, as already mentioned the Utrust platform allows users to store crypto and gain rewards from Hold, which can be downloaded on a mobile device. The app is accompanied by a debit card powered by Visa which is currently available across Europe.

With the Hold app, users can buy, sell, and trade crypto with ease and directly connect their bank accounts to easily convert to EUR which can then be loaded onto the Visa card to use online or in a store. With Hold and $UTK, you also gain the ability to use Reverse Staking. When you use the Hold app and stake a minimum of 1000 UTK, you can gain 1% back in rewards. The UTK tokens must be locked for 6 months in order to take advantage.

Today and Beyond:

There are plenty of things in store for Utrust going forward that gives users and businesses something to look forward to. Here is a small list of what you will likely see in the months ahead:

• Tier 2 Reverse Staking: In addition to the available staking option that gives 1% in rewards on a stake of 1000 tokens, Utrust is planning to release a second tier of staking, which requires a bigger, undetermined amount of UTK staked tokens but will offer 0% in trading fees, rewards for payments and a Visa metal debit card.
• Record Volume: During a recent team AMA, it was highlighted that the company have had more volume and activity in the past 3 months than they have for the entire previous year combined. This just highlights that global adoption for the platform as a whole is growing exponentially.
• Availability in USA: with this ongoing growth, Utrust is set to expand in different areas of the world, with a particular focus on the United States. Utrust is set to aim for a widespread US push within Q4 2021. The availability of services will differ from state to state.

Conclusion:

Utrust is a very powerful integration platform that’s well suited to combine the future, encompassing crypto ownership and retail purchases.

For the consumer, Utrust can offer a great trading and reward service through its Hold app which allows users to buy and sell digital assets while making purchases with a Visa debit card.

Businesses can take advantage of a robust system that has instant settlements, conversions to cash, and a convenient dashboard along with its easy integration for websites. All of this with an expanding reach in the years to come, it’s a comprehensive platform that offers a complete solution.

Fin.

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