In previous articles we talked about the SelfKey wallet as an all-in-one application that allows all the required actions to participate in a Token Sale with security and certainty.

We also explained how, with the SelfKey Wallet and Marketplace, one could get a second passport or residency, and find more freedom and opportunities.

In addition to passports and token sales, SelfKey is also designed to provide entrepreneurs and companies with the necessary tools to start doing business, empowering them to seamlessly incorporate their company and open bank accounts.

For this, SelfKey will enable several marketplaces. The first to see light will be Incorporation, Foundations, Trusts and Bank Accounts. In the future, payments processors, P2P loans and our corporate-dedicated application, The Corporate Identity Wallet, will also be available.

Incorporations

Incorporating a company is an indispensable requirement for any serious business. In addition to a more professional appearance, it limits the personal liability of shareholders to contributed capital and gives the ability to access financing and to open corporate and merchant accounts.

For investors, incorporating a company to manage their assets could provide several advantages over managing them individually, including compensation options, the ability to transfer multiple assets at once, limited liability, tax advantages, and asset protection, among many others.

However, there are certain due diligence requirements when incorporating a company that relate to Know Your Customer, Anti-Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and other legislation that must be satisfied.

This process involves filling out a ton of forms and service agreements and going through a document intensive KYC process that at least includes, a certified proof of id, proof of address, and a bank/legal practitioner reference letter for each shareholder and ultimate beneficial owner that could be requested periodically if the document is no longer valid or has expired.

At SelfKey, we aim to make incorporating a company straightforward. With the Identity Wallet, you can create your digital identity and store your ID documents locally on your device, request e-notary services, and have your documents attested. After that, you can shop across the SelfKey Marketplace and apply for services by sharing your ID with service providers, such as a corporate secretary, without the need to repeat the same process again and again.

In addition, SelfKey provides a curated report on legal requirements and taxes for each legal entity type in every jurisdiction. You can also browse and filter jurisdictions by corporate ownership, minimum shareholders, accounting requirements, privacy, tax rates, offshore tax laws, anti-avoidance rules or tax treaties, among many tax and legal aspects.

Not only corporations and LLCs will be available in the SelfKey marketplace, but also foundations and trusts.

Trusts are powerful tools for both estate and succession planning, as investment vehicles, corporate structuring, and for asset protection. A trust can serve you to protect your assets from being used for a purpose other than what you had in mind for them. It can protect your wealth beyond the reach of frivolous claimants, creditors, ex-spouses and even yourself.

Foundations are legal entities commonly set up for asset protection, estate planning and charity purposes. They can also be used by corporations for employee benefit plans, retirement and stock option schemes, insurance plans, and special financing arrangements.

Foundations are designed to preserve wealth against political, economic or family uncertainty. They can also minimize or even avoid estate taxes and avoid forced heirship.

Furthermore, as Foundations do not have shareholders or owners and by their nature are non-profit organizations, they are the most commonly used entities to conduct token sales or manage its proceeds.

In the SelfKey marketplace, there will be corporate and trustee service providers that understand the blockchain space and have provided services to companies doing token sales, empowering token issuers to set up a powerful corporate structure to conduct their token sale:

Appleby is a leading offshore law firm with around 470 people, including 60 partners, operating from 10 offices around the globe. The Group has offices in the key jurisdictions of Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Mauritius, and the Seychelles, as well as a presence in the international financial centres of Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Appleby has been ranked as one of the world’s largest providers of offshore legal services by number of lawyers in The Lawyer’s 2016 Offshore Survey. Appleby delivers sophisticated, specialised services, primarily in the areas of Corporate, Dispute Resolution, Private Client and Trusts, Regulatory and Property.

“SelfKey is as a gamechanger for the slow process of KYC and AML. A global solution to allow individuals and companies to transact business with each other with a higher degree of confidence, allowing the KYC to be completed in seconds”, states Samuel Banks, corporate attorney of Appleby, in the Cayman Islands Journal.

At Flag Theory, together with our global network of experienced corporate service providers, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors and bankers, we have been providing Incorporation, Immigration and Bank Accounts introductions since 2012.

In addition to citizenship and residency by investment services, NTL Trust, via its division of corporate services, will provide company formation and fiduciary services through the Incorporations, Foundations and Trusts marketplaces.

Founded in 1994, NTL Trust was a pioneer in this area and has grown to be a world leader on professional trustee, incorporation and international wealth management industries.

Bank Accounts

Through the SelfKey marketplace, we bring investors and entrepreneurs the option to open international bank accounts, diversify investments, minimize currency and sovereign risk, as well as to deposit and protect cryptocurrency trading profits, and allow banking access to high-risk merchants.

For entrepreneurs, this usually means repeating the same KYC process done during the company incorporation process. With the Identity Wallet, one can incorporate the company and receive the corporate documents in the same wallet to instantly apply for a corporate bank account.

Individuals can set up their digital identity and certify it once, including proof of ID, proof of residency, and proof of wealth (usually a bank reference letter), and use it as many times as necessary to open bank accounts. In addition, they can digitally fill and sign the required forms, making current burdensome paper-based application processes achievable in a few clicks.

SelfKey is in talks with banks to join the platform and accept applications to remotely open bank accounts from customers dealing with cryptocurrencies and companies who have previously done a token sale that successfully meet bank requirements and pass due diligence checks.

For now, we have already agreed to start integration works with a Dutch Antilles-based bank and a Cayman Islands-based bank to offer their banking products in the SelfKey Bank Accounts Marketplace at its launch.

In addition to corporate and personal bank accounts, our bank partner in the Cayman Islands will offer a gold-backed loan in the SelfKey marketplace. The gold-backed loan scheme allows account holders the ability to buy pure, physical gold and then obtain a loan of up to 75% the physical gold’s value. For example, a purchase of $10,000 worth of physical gold enables a $7,500 loan. The ability to leverage assets for loans is not only for businesses, individuals are also eligible.

The Cayman Islands is widely renowned for their strong AML and KYC regimes, and SelfKey technology allows to meet these high due diligence standards.

For its part, the Dutch Antilles-based bank will initially accept business and personal bank account applications in either EUR or USD. However, it is possible that our partnership will lead to the bank to offer their digital financial products in the SelfKey Marketplace.

We prefer not to disclose the banks’ names until the bank accounts marketplace is available to the public, in order to avoid any potential risk or external intercedence to these strategic relationships and ensure the proper development of them.