With crypto gaining rapid momentum in 2021, SmartFi has emerged as a leading player in the crypto open-finance space with the team having processed over $1 Billion in loans and transactions.
SmartFi is an open lending platform where the holders of SmartFi Token (SMTF) tokens take part in governing the monetary policy including setting interest rates on loans. The platform has launched its own native stablecoin, SFUSD, the first cryptocurrency to feature zero fees.
SmartFi’s success is built from years of continuous innovation, development and hard work. In this article let us show you where SmartFi came from through the journey of SmartFi founders Aaron Tilton and Tom Retson.
The Antecedent – Power Block Coin (PBC)
SmartFi traces its origins back to 2017, when a company called Power Block Coin (PBC) was formed. This company was a financial hub for cryptocurrency mining companies, providing them with loans, investment hedges and innovative financial solutions, at a time when there were very few players in this space.
Soon after, PBC launched cryptocurrency interest bearing accounts, which was met with a lot of success, prompting the creation of SmartFi platform.
SmartFi
SmartFi was developed as a solution to solve the problem of funding cryptocurrency companies like mining operations during unprofitable times such as a bear market situation. Such companies, who put in effort, energy and expense into mining the coins still have pressure to expand operations, even when the market bottoms out. Historically they were forced to sell Bitcoin at a lower rate, thus leading to a potential collapse of their operations in the absence of a hedging intermediary. To address this problem at the root, the SmartFi team saw an opportunity to start lending capital to these companies.
Since its inception, SmartFi has constantly developed and adapted itself to the shifting marketplace, be it for large scale mining outfits or a retail oriented crypto business.
Helping miners handle volatility
Initially in 2017, when the price of Bitcoin was approximately $1500, SmartFi focused on providing mining locations for bitcoin and altcoin miners in 2017. After several successful projects executed by SmartFi and by the end of 2017, Bitcoin was peaking around $20,000.
However, with every steep rise, there is an equal risk of a steep drop, and the inevitable happens. The cryptocurrency market collapsed shortly after the peak and the price of Bitcoin fell down to $3,500 in the span of a few months. Many miners, buoyed by the rapid rise of Bitcoin had re-invested in new mining equipment, which suddenly became unprofitable, almost overnight, following the crash.
Crypto-related businesses were struggling to survive let alone break even. As the SmartFi team had already experienced similar ups and downs in the energy business, dealing with such volatility did not pose a challenge.
Armed with this experience, the SmartFi team started reimagining better ways to provide these loans algorithmically so that mining rewards could be de-risked to eliminate the market price risk.
In order to implement and deploy a truly automated decentralized lending platform, it was necessary for the platform to be able to be de-risked on-chain while at the same time, have the ability to provide a significant upside. This is where SmartFi’s previous experience in financing mining companies comes into picture, where several such areas of volatility risk were regularly identified and addressed.
Founders with a vision
The founders of SmartFi, Aaron and Tom are specialists with several years of experience in the energy industry. Their vision saw them correlating opportunities in the crypto market to extend a full suite of financial services and solutions including bitcoin collateralized loans to the mining sector, the retail sector and to crypto enthusiasts like you, helping businesses scale out beyond their limitations.
Aaron Tilton, one of the co-founders and currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SmartFi comes from a diverse background. He is also the President and CEO of Blue Castle Holdings and Power Block Coin. He has also advised a Venture Capital (VC) firm on state regulatory matters for a project on online medical consultations for an online pharmacy. He was also a former Utah State Representative, formally elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2006.
His passion for empowering users by explaining the confusing nature of crypto in an easy manner to a broad audience, thereby making the modern tools of wealth generation accessible to all, is one of the key reasons behind his thought process in developing SmartFi.
Prior to that, under PBC, he was tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the development of a leading nuclear plant project in the Western US. He also developed and negotiated equity positions and power purchase agreements with municipal and investor-owned utilities throughout the Southwest regions of the US, for two new power projects in the region.
Backed with such expertise and deep-rooted vision of our core team, SmartFi is set to grow leaps and bounds in the coming years. Join us and start your digital wealth creation journey today.
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