Despite a significant increase in adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency, the crypto industry has yet to create a universal system to enable transfers from one digital asset to the next on separate blockchains. Because digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum exist on separate blockchain platforms and cannot interact with one another, the exchange of digital assets is significantly inefficient. Additionally, the collaboration between separate blockchain projects requires complicated and expensive solutions.

The industry is dedicated to solving this challenge because it has greatly hindered innovation in blockchain. And for us, overcoming this hurdle will continue our mission of giving customers entry into the new world of digital money and helping change the financial lives of people and businesses worldwide.

In a commitment to solve this problem, FBG Capital recently announced itself as the lead investor in the Universal Protocol Platform (UPP), which will allow all cryptocurrencies to become accessible on a single network.

And today, I’m excited to announce Uphold, along with Brave, Blockchain at Berkeley and Cred (formally Libra Credit), as one of the founding members of the Universal Protocol Alliance. As an alliance of leading blockchain companies, we will honor and advocate for UPP as a widely accepted industry standard.

We chose to be part of the Universal Protocol Alliance because it is aligned with our transparent approach to connecting old and emerging financial systems globally. The decision to join the alliance was also highly dependent on the fact that we see great advantages for our community – and we did. UPP will enable Uphold members, for the first time, to convert digital assets between currencies without having to go through an exchange. Ultimately, UPP will save users time, make exchanges more secure, and remove yet another barrier for increased global cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption.

How it works

UPP will enable all cryptocurrencies to become accessible on a single network through the introduction of ERC-20 compatible Proxy Tokens. The value of a Proxy Token is fully-backed by a matching asset in the professional custody of a reserve, which will be supported by the Uphold Reserve.

In line with our commitment to consumer protection and financial services accountability, UPP will publish the value of its assets in custody in real-time on a public blockchain. The reserve will also be subject to quarterly third-party audits that will be shared with the community to demonstrate the financial soundness of the Proxy Token ecosystem.

We fundamentally believe that everyone has the right to full transparency over their funds, and this will also be a key mission for the Universal Protocol Alliance.

Support for UPP by leading members of the industry is a critical step forward in establishing the digital money future for the world, and we’re excited to see the next chapter of this story.

Visit the Universal Protocol Platform here: https://universalprotocol.io/