Mt Pelerin
| Mt Pelerin | |
|---|---|
| Mt Pelerin | |
| Ticker: | MPS |
| ICO start: | 2018-10-30 12:00:00 |
| ICO end: | 2018-12-15 12:00:00 |
| Price: | 1 MPS = 5.00 CHF |
| Tokens: | 10,000,000 |
| Tokentype: | ERC20 |
| Hardcap: | 2,000,000 CHF |
| Softcap: | None |
| Platform: | Ethereum |
| Minimum: | 1,000 CHF |
| Accepting: | ETH, BTC, Fiat |
Mt Pelerin is a fintech startup based in Geneva, Switzerland. Launched in 2016, the project’s objective is to create the first bank to be fully built on blockchain in total compliance with regulations. It aims to obtain relevant Swiss banking licenses in late 2019, a preliminary process started in early 2018.
Contents
Introduction
Mt Pelerin wants to create a blockchain-based modular platform with a tokenization system that aims to bring the entire bank’s balance sheet on chain. With an open approach that would allow external banking and financial organizations to be included, the goal of this platform will be to leverage tokenization to democratize investment opportunities to the public while heavily rationalizing the traditional cost structure of those financial services. It would also be a bridge between traditional and crypto assets, accelerating the global attractiveness of the platform.
Business Model
Mt Pelerin’s business model is built around the following elements, the three first ones being what the company calls its “three pillars approach”:
100% Deposit Reserve
Money deposited on Mt Pelerin’s current accounts will be kept in full in highly liquid reserve, with the state of the total reserve being public and reported in real time on chain. Unlike other banks, the company will not reinvest the deposits of its customers in risky assets for its own profit.
Marketplace Approach
With deposits being kept safely in reserve, Mt Pelerin will not offer banking services itself but rather strive to provide marketplaces with the necessary compliance and technological facilitation built-in. Integrated in an e-banking portal, the goal of these marketplaces will be to connect customers and third party providers and let them freely offer and request services (currency exchange, loans, etc.) at the conditions they choose. Mt Pelerin would act as a market maker through bots populating the marketplace, passing the risk back-to-back to brokers, banks, credit and other financial institutions.
Tokenization of the Bank
Mt Pelerin’s ambition is to tokenize assets (loans, for instance) and liabilities (deposits), i.e. issue them on Ethereum blockchain as ERC20 compatible tokens, creating an ecosystem where smart contracts could be applied. With this approach, the company wants to bring an unprecedented level of liquidity and convenience to the trade of banking and financial instruments, resulting in disruption of the status quo. This would also create an effective bridge between crypto assets and classical finance.
Modular and Open Banking Platform
Mt Pelerin’s marketplaces will be built as an open platform providing core services, on top of which micro-services will be added as independent API based software bricks. The company will be able to connect the services of third parties to its bricks, and even add their own complementary bricks to its platform. With this inclusive approach, Mt Pelerin will create an open banking tech environment that will benefit all participants.
Revenue Model
As Mt Pelerin wants to exclude revenue driven from on-balance sheet credit, its business model will include fees and commissions taken on services and transactions taking place on its marketplaces. These fees will be significantly smaller than those of traditional banks, thanks to the highly digitalized and automated approach the company will take throughout its entire system. Therefore, it will strongly mitigate or avoid many costs usually seen in banks, and it will significantly reduce the power and influence of typical intermediaries by repositioning them as liquidity providers, acting as cost-cutting broker. While the resulting lower pricing would attract customers for some of the company’s services, the unprecedented access to services that were the preserve of private banks and investment bankers would also be a major volume driver.
Regulation
Mt Pelerin strives to become the first blockchain-based bank to be established and completely regulated in a country renowned for the stability and excellence of its financial and legal environment, but also for its open mindedness about blockchain and cryptocurrencies: Switzerland.
It is working towards obtaining relevant licenses (notably banking and security dealer licenses) from Switzerland’s financial regulator (FINMA), and it is preparing the regulatory compliance of its services, structure and funding proposal. For this critical regulatory part, Mt Pelerin is working with some of Switzerland’s best business lawyers and banking specialists.
The Mt Pelerin Bridge Protocol
The is a core aspect of the Mt Pelerin banking project, namely the tokenization of the entire bank’s balance sheet. At the core of its banking model, the protocol can be used by any developer to issue security tokens and tune them to the specific needs of the underlying financial asset and of its relevant jurisdiction. Thanks to the company’s rules engine at the heart of today’s most advanced compliance layer, it allows the on-chain issuance of any kind of securities, asset-backed and fiat tokens in compliance with the most strict regulations.
The protocol’s smart contracts are published on GitHub. The published code covers the following topics:
- The Mt Pelerin Bridge Protocol for compliant token lifecycle.
- Mt Pelerin’s MPS token specifically, as a first application of the Bridge Protocol.
- The MPS token sale contracts.
Any token issued through Mt Pelerin (as core assets or on behalf of clients) will derive from the Mt Pelerin Bridge Token, starting with the MPS token, following with fiat tokens, then gradually all other flavors of tokens on the Ethereum blockchain (for now – other technologies will follow as well).
The published code is the most basic expression of the protocol, but it already allows to comply with current regulation elegantly and in a scalable manner. Future regulatory needs, but also future operational requirements of tokens can be met by plugging new rules and claims to any token that follows the protocol. Moreover, the Bridge Protocol has a strong focus on the lifecycle of the token, making it immediately lifetime-compliant.
The Bridge Protocol currently supports:
- Several methods of voting, without the use of cumbersome proxy tokens.
- Dividend distribution, freezing of tokens (e.g. to facilitate swaps/upgrades).
- Seizing of assets (upon court ruling only).
- Conditional restriction of transferability on amounts (fixed and rolling period limits – AML pause thresholds).
- Conditional rights (to vote, to dividends, etc).
- Full support for KYC compliance and whitelisting.
History
Mt Pelerin was initially started in early 2016 by its founder, . After having started to gather a team, a first prototype was built later that year.
In July 2017, the project was first incorporated as Smart Execution SA, a company registered in Geneva, Switzerland. The same year, the company was authorized as a financial intermediary affiliated with a self-regulatory organism (SRO)[1].
On April 2018, Mt Pelerin has published the beta version of an open-source decentralized wallet on Github.
On August 28th 2018, the company published the Mt Pelerin Bridge Protocol on Github.
On September 2018, the company Mt Pelerin Group SA was incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland, as holding company for the future bank and its sister tech and compliance companies.
On October 16th 2018, Mt Pelerin Group SA was the first company to issue its shares and mirror them on the blockchain, and having the resulting tokens recognized as shares providing legal protection conferred by Swiss law, including full voting and dividend rights for registered token holders.
On October 26th 2018 at the end of its private sale, Mt Pelerin raised one of the largest amount of ETH from investor pools of 2018[2].
Branding
The name refers to the Mont Pèlerin Society, a group of brilliant economists and intellectuals advocating for an open society and economy driven by free market principles, personal and political liberty, and freedom of expression.
The Mont Pèlerin Society was founded in 1947 at the first conference organized by Professor Friedrich Hayek on the Mont Pèlerin, a small mountain overlooking Lake Geneva. Professor Hayek invited 60 liberal scholars from all over the world to meet and renew the links that had been broken between them by war and nationalism. The society’s founders include Friedrich Hayek, Frank Knight, Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, George Stigler, and Milton Friedman, among others. Although these intellectuals represented a mix of schools of thoughts, e.g. the Chicago School of Economics or the Austrian School, they nevertheless all agreed on a desire to promote liberal ideas in the classical sense. The group never aspired to conduct propaganda nor align with any political party. Its sole objective is to facilitate the exchange of views among minds inspired by certain ideals and broad conceptions held in common and to contribute to the preservation and improvement of the free society.
Mt Pelerin therefore chose its name as a reference to its Swiss roots and as a tribute to the ideals of the Mont Pèlerin Society with which the company aims to align.
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