Abra Building Banking Solutions on Stellar Blockchain, CEO Barhydt Says

Abra, the company behind the global crypto and fiat wallet and exchange app of the same name, plans to give the world banking services underpinned by Stellar's blockchain — one of the results of the SDF's $5 million investment in Abra earlier in 2020. 

During the SDF's digital second quarter review meeting on July 15, Abra CEO Bill Barhydt mentioned Abra's focus on upcoming banking-type features the company is building out. In particular, Barhydt noted an "interest-earning capability" expected to hit the market in the coming weeks. 

Abra details upcoming features and capabilities

"This allows consumers, for example, people who aren't even familiar with cryptocurrency, to store dollars and earn significant interest on those dollars," Barhydt said in the meeting, elaborating on the upcoming interest-related featured. He also included availability of the same interest-generating function for crypto holders, as well as staking functionalities.  

In general, Abra collaborates with an array of banks, exchanges and other entities for global liquidity on the backend of its platform, as well retail players for app compatibility in real-world use cases, Barhydt explained. 

Explaining the bones and structure of Abra's operation behind the customer-facing interest generation, Barhydt mentioned working with approved large institutional players in tandem with its backend, which he labeled as "a very sophisticated lending system."  

Working with Stellar's blockchain

Back in May 2020, the SDF dealt Abra $5 million in funding. In light of the investment, Abra expressed plans for work with Stellar's blockchain. 

"For us to take this to another level, Abra is building an entirely new part of our business in order to facilitate the movement of funds globally, in real time, using the Stellar network," Barhydt said in the July 15 meeting. "What that will enable for us, is all forms of global lending," he added. 

A recent boom in the blockchain space, decentralized finance, or DeFi, solutions show one current avenue for crypto lending and interest earning potential. "We want to take this to another level, and use the Stellar platform to truly enable traditional banking applications at global scale," Barhydt said after mentioning current similar offerings in crypto, such as margin trading and crypto lending.

International peer-to-peer, or P2P, loans, as well as trade finance hold as example use cases listed by Barhydt, which the CEO noted as possible thanks to Stellar, blockchain and crypto assets.  

A growing trend, blockchain in general has garnered significant attention from mainstream giants over the past several years, with companies such as Walmart and Facebook looking into various use cases of their own.