After two months of rigorous testing, Newton Web — our fully responsive web app— is now out of beta. Whether you’re on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, or Linux, you will now get the consistent no-fee experience that iPhone owners have enjoyed since October 2018.

But you may be wondering: where is this going? What is Newton all about?

Paul Gauguin had the right idea.

In the beginning

First, a minor digression about myself: before starting Newton, I was co-founder and CEO of Akira, a company that aimed to change the way Canadians interact with the healthcare system. It was stupidly hard, but the stress paid off: Telus Health acquired Akira in August of this year. It’s now making its way into the hands of hundreds of thousands of Canadians through partners like Manulife and Sun Life.

Where Akira required us to take on entrenched healthcare interests to make care better, Newton is squarely aimed at doing the same for the financial sector.

The problem

Our financial system is messed up, and it makes me angry. Canada’s laws governing anti-competitive behaviour are lax, allowing oligopolies (like Canada’s big chartered banks) to operate with impunity. They stifle innovation, hurt economic growth, and take money directly out of the pockets of Canadians with some of the highest fees in the developed world.

Need proof? The 4 most profitable companies in Canada are all banks (but don’t worry, former TD CEO Ed Clark said that this is good for Canadians). Canada significantly lags in fintech adoption because of this brutally anti-competitive system.

Another area where oligopoly power has manifested itself is payments. You can’t operate a business in 2019 without accepting digital payments. Period. And yet, you cannot access payment networks like EFT or Interac unless you have the approval of a bank. With the ability to blacklist entire (legal) industries, our biggest banks are essentially deciding who should be allowed to conduct business in this country.

How to move forward

Back to why Newton exists: we believe that technologies emerging from the digital currency sector have the potential to change how money works, with huge ramifications for banking. Signature Bank, for example, is already moving huge amounts of money between traditional banking customers in the US via a dollar-backed cryptocurrency.

What’s our plan for taking on the banks? Three easy steps:

Drive cost out of dealing with digital currency. Fees, wide spreads, and other forms of friction are all an impediment to widespread adoption. Today we’re the lowest-cost brokerage in Canada, however, we intend to drive spreads down further as we grow. As always, you can check out our transparent buy/sell prices on our website. Offer the benefits without the complications. The digital currency space is exploding with innovative lending, borrowing, trading, and payment services. We need to make these accessible to people who care about the benefits — like higher interest rates, lower transaction costs, or fewer impediments to cross-border commerce — without requiring them to understand the technical details. Get regulators onside. Digital currencies obviously can’t escape the eye of regulators forever. We need sensible regulation that allows the space to flourish, and in anticipation of these rules, we’re adopting financial controls that would be on par with trading in precious metals or other commodities. Stay tuned — we’ll have more to say on this next week.

Let there be light

Let’s be real: our industry has a lot of trust-building to do. If we’re going to demonstrate that these technologies can make a difference, we need to start with leading by example.

Throughout the fall of 2019, we’ll have a number of announcements that will begin to show how we intend to be a positive force for change.

In the meantime, enjoy Newton Web and please email support@newton.co with your feedback :)

Happy trading!