A team of entrepreneurs has unveiled the development of Findora, a cryptographically transparent public blockchain for building financial applications.
Findora’s leadership team is comprised of experienced entrepreneurs and Stanford academics, including Charles Lu, Ben Fisch, Benedikt Bünz, and John Powers.
Fisch and Bünz are each known for several inventions in the blockchain sphere, including Bulletproofs, verifiable delay functions, and Filecoin’s proof-of-storage. Powers is the former CEO of Stanford’s USD $25 billion fund.
Ben Fisch, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Findora, said, “The global financial system is fundamentally broken, inaccessible, and lacking transparency. It needs blockchain’s transparent nature, but also has strict privacy and regulatory requirements that ordinary blockchain systems fail to meet. The Findora platform will create a global network of DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) based financial services applications that leverages bespoke technology for confidential transactions, balancing the need for privacy and regulatory compliance. Our infrastructure will drive forward a world where users control their own data, identity, and financial assets.”
Findora, which will boast the highest standards of confidentiality, auditability, and interoperability, will have a multitude of applications. These include open banking, asset securitization, trading systems, and peer to peer (P2P) lending solutions. The first applications to be built on Findora’s platform, called ‘Finapps’, will include a smart asset ecosystem, an open banking platform, and a P2P lending platform.
The highly secure nature of Findora will be achieved through the use of breakthrough zero-knowledge proof technology, a cryptographic technique that has matured over the last 30 years. Findora’s tools utilize the latest techniques in the field, including Bulletproofs, invented by Findora co-founder Benedikt Bünz. Data encryption will be utilized for digital identities, transactions amounts, and transaction metadata. Findora will facilitate compliance requirements while still protecting confidential data.
The FIN (Findora Infrastructure Network) is Findora’s central network, offering interoperability between public, private and consortia ledgers. It will allow seamless transactions of data across applications and between parties, making Findora a viable shared financial ledger for any application. The FIN can also connect to private ledgers, comparable to an Internet of independent, interoperable financial ledgers. In addition, Findora has designed a Smart Asset Framework (SAF), a compliant and programmable interface which facilitates the transformation of any financial assets into software. The SAF allows for the smooth movement and transfer of data across applications and parties.
Benedikt Bunz, Co-founder and Head of Research of Findora, said, “Billions of dollars are lost each year due to security fraud, as a direct result of dishonest and opaque asset management. We want to address these kinds of inefficiencies, by building cryptographically transparent financial ledgers. By putting assets and financial agreements on a distributed ledger, we want to combat fraud, offset the financial and administrative burdens of compliance, and enable innovative types of capital markets. A fully confidential, auditable platform – once a lofty ambition, is now available to the world.”
Charles Lu, CEO of Findora, said, “Findora’s aim is to recreate the financial world using decentralized technology. We want to bring unbanked populations into the financial system, to remove costly intermediaries, and to solve uneven access to financial services and capital markets. We believe in worldwide financial democracy, where users also have ownership of their financial transaction data and a complete understanding of how this data is shared. Findora will bring increased control, accessibility, and transparency to the financial space.”
