Local. That is Colu’s vision for Bitcoin. Something of a twist for a crypto-movement largely based on global, borderless finances. Yet, Colu wishes to free economies from the rigid control of banks with the Bitcoin blockchain and a ‘think local’ philosophy.

In production in Israel and the United Kingdom, with more than 200 merchants according to the founders, Colu represents a contemporary use-case for the bitcoin blockchain. The platform brings Bitcoin to people in local economies across the globe. The platform seeks to create digital assets that behave like physical cash.

‘Colored coins‘, a popular idea from Bitcoin’s early days, references a theory about digitizing real-world assets using Bitcoin. Colu ‘colors’ the bitcoin blockchain with fiat currency, and the developers behind the startup are some of the first movers into the colored coins niche. The Colu consumer application is to enable consumers to shop a bouquet of products offered by various banks. Merchants can also accept instantaneous transactions through the app.

“Switching banks will be like switching email providers,” Colu co-founder and CEO Amos Meiri told Crypto Insider. “There could be different layers that mix services from more than just one institution. You could use one institution’s insurance and another’s loan rates, and then a checking account from a yet another bank. We don’t need to trust one entity, with one point of failure, in a centralized hub-and-spoke model. I see what’s happening in the crypto-space as a promise of things to come, and we are talking about a big shift.”

Colored coins is the asset logic layer that you can use to manage issuance and verify who issues and transfers ownership between users. Colu is designing ‘local-thinking’ wallets, merchant tools, exchanges, analytics, and explorers to its additional asset logic layer.

The Colu CEO said he believes consumers interact with money and technology based on their culture, and therefore there is demand for financial technology applications which cater to local needs.

“I foresee an evolution of the Colu model to fit each country in which it operates,” Mr. Meiri imparted. “There is no such thing as a one size fits all for privacy, and different jurisdictions have different regulations. This will create an opportunity for different use-cases not only in fintech, but for the [bitcoin] blockchain.”

By valuing compliance with local regulations, Colu’s vision for the bitcoin blockchain differs from many of bitcoin’s small government-minded enthusiasts.

Replace Banks with Math

“For us, blockchain technology offers the ability to replace banks with math while maintaining the legislative ability to regulate more players in the system by creating a connection between digital asset issuance and end users,” Colu VP Mark Smargon told Crypto Insider. Bitcoin, as the foundation for the concept of colored coins, makes Colu possible.

“Just as the internet consists out of layers that weren’t built in one day – tcp, http, browsers – we wanted to focus on the top layers in blockchain,” explains Mr. Smargon. “We asked ourselves, ‘What blockchain has proven to be the most secure?’ And it’s not Hyperledger, it’s not Ethereum, but instead it’s the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin was there first and it has network effect, a very large community of developers, and remains the biggest cryptocurrency in the world with support from an ecosystem of wallets, exchanges and other apps. Bitcoin has the most traction and it has the most resiliency.”

Colored coins, Mr. Meiri says, is a way to use the most powerful blockchain right now. “The one with proven security, and without waiting for a new blockchain to be created,” he continues. “Bitcoin has existed eight years, and it has by far the most computing power. It’s never been hacked at the protocol level. Because it’s battle tested, we thought it was mature enough for us to use as the colored coins logic layer.”

Image from Pixabay.