April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] For Dan Schatt -- formerly a financial innovations executive at PayPal and Chief Commercial Officer of Stockpile -- credit is not something that should come easily, but it also should not be nigh impossible.

“Everyone should be able to have the equivalent to a home equity line of credit, which is (still) confined to very few people in the world,” Schatt said in a recent interview with The Investor on the sidelines of the Blockchain Partners Summit.

 

Libra Credit co-founder Dan Schatt

With that mission in mind, he teamed up with Lu Hua, also from PayPal, to co-found Libra Credit, a decentralized lending network based on the Ethereum blockchain.

“If you have access to internet, you have access to Bitcoin ... (that) will now (be) recognized as an asset class that can be collateralized. Essentially, we will lock down the value of your crypto and we’ll give you liquidity for it.”

Libra Credit has forged meaningful partnerships in the crypto and financial worlds, with the latest being with Binance Labs, the investment arm of the world’s largest digital asset exchange Binance. Libra Credit will lend fiat and crypto denominated assets to those who commit Binance Coin (BNB) as collateral.

In Korea, Libra Credit is in talks with banks for collaboration. It's not about disruption, Schatt says, but finding a safer, more transparent way of doing business together.  

“Banks tell us, it’s so refreshing because blockchain people have said crypto is going to replace fiat. We don’t think it has to be a replacement or disruptive.”

Touching upon the watertight regulations in the crypto sector, Schatt predicted it would be a matter of time before regulators realize it’s not an issue of keeping it at bay, but about effectively utilizing it.

“Remember when the internet was first out 20 years ago? The people who played it safe got left in the dust. It’s a matter of clear legal framework, getting the right talent and keeping taxes low,” Schatt said.

He added that Korean regulators are smart enough to see it’s a global competition. 

Despite the good times to come, volatility is in the cards for digital coins, says the executive, to be tamed as the markets stabilize. In the end, it will be about the technology and the safeness of it, and not just about making a quick buck. 

"I’m very, very optimistic. Anyone that’s serious in this industry doesn’t look at the fluctuations. Any time you have a new economy, you have massive volatility. The way to stabilize is to inject lots and lot of liquidity. That injects confidence in the market,” advised Schatt.  

Libra Credit raised over US$16million from its coin sale. Investors included  500 Startups, DHVC, GBIC and Alphabit Fund.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)