TIL: What Should I Uphold?
After graduating with an MBA in Finance this year, I have been in search of a career change.
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Here is my Uphold story:
I found Uphold while searching for a Financial Analyst position in order to transition careers.
What started out as a desire to be a Financial Analyst transitioned into a desired to be involved with a Financial Tech company that was involved with Blockchain technology and using it to disrupt the status quo of financial transaction fees.
I wanted to be a part of an international payment organization so that I could help Christian churches and ministries transfer the funding to missions and missionaries overseas at the lowest possible cost.
Through the course of my search for FinTech organizations, I came across the BNKtotheFuture.com website where FinTech companies were raising capital for their firms.
On this list is where I found Uphold and I thought I knew it was the right place for me when I saw the description that read "Uphold's platform allows anyone, anywhere to buy and convert any form of currency or commodity for free. There are zero costs and zero fees for any and all currency conversions."
I knew that this was the mission I was wanting to be involved in and see this as a great way for Churches to reduce their transaction costs and thereby freeing up more money to put towards the mission.
The passion and desire that I have is to find Churches or ministries who are already sending money overseas and switch their service to Uphold.
As the financial industry continues to change and develop with the transformation of Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies,
I want to be on the bleeding edge of the movement for the benefit of others.
I see Uphold's potential to also be involved in Church fundraising efforts. Recently our church has taken part in a fundraising to "Feed the Hunger" and as part of the financial team, I saw up to 8% of the funds lost per transaction to fees. This is something I am passionate about changing, because I think "Giving money shouldn't cost".
Why should you care or what is Uphold anyways?
In MARTIN BRYANT’s article on TheNextWeb (TNW), I learned this about Uphold:
The following is from: The incredible story of CNET’s founder: He beat bankruptcy, now he wants to beat the banks:
Halsey Minor has had remarkable entrepreneurial career by any standard. He was an early business partner of Jeff Bezos; practically invented the online tech media business when he co-founded CNET in 1994, and he’s invested in and started many companies besides that.
Now, after a dark period that saw him battling the demons of depression and bankruptcy, he’s back with big plans to disrupt the banks. That’s full-circle for a man who started his career not in technology, but as a banker.
This had my attention.
Following along I found out they got the Former Nike CIO Anthony Watson to serve as Uphold CEO.
Minor, in the article went on to say, “What we’re really trying to do is create cloud-based money. In a sense, I guess you could say Bitcoin was the first cloud-based money because it’s just a bunch of servers out there that keep track of it. But the idea was to extend that concept into and make it more convenient by essentially making all currencies instant and free to exchange,”
Let me pause a moment to also point out the recent announcement of a similar service by @stan in his article Remittio Offers Universal Off-Ramps for BitShares and Steemit.
From that article:
“Do you have digital currencies and a Visa® or MasterCard® issued from any local bank, ANYWHERE in the world? If you do, Remittio's Load Any Debit Card® platform can assist you. We can load the debit card you currently have in your pocket, no matter where you got it from. Remittio's Load Any Debit Card® platform can load the EXISTING debit card you have in your wallet using Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, BitShares, Steem, Litecoin, or 40 other Cryptocurrencies!”
But back to the other incredible story…
Again here are some select snips from: The incredible story of CNET’s founder...:
“So, instead of transferring money from your bank account to your friend’s, you’d store your money with Uphold and then sending it to any other Uphold user is free. What’s particularly interesting here is that Uphold is entirely free to the user.
“The bet is that our costs are so low running a cloud-based money service that ultimately we can make money and be profitable, just based on reinvesting the proceeds that we’re holding.”
“It’s a very different take on… just about everybody today – PayPal, banks, etc. – they all make money on the transference of money; they make fees. They’re called payment networks. We decided you’d get a different kind of banking infrastructure where we’re free; others can charge to connect to us if they want, but ultimately our business funds itself through the reinvestment of the proceeds that we hold. We do it transparently so we don’t do stupid things, hopefully.”
“We’re a pretty radical departure from really just about everybody in FinTech, because just about everybody has a fee-based model. We’re really not trying to replace the payment networks; honestly, we’re a replacement for banks. We want you to hold your money in Uphold so that you can send it to anybody instantly, at no cost, and do free foreign exchange.”
Replacing the banks
The next stage with Uphold will be to issue debit cards, so users can spend their Uphold funds with retailers. Minor sees a future five years from now where traditional banks are taken out of the equation entirely.
“We’re actually probably more different than just about any other service in that we really are trying to create a separate monetary system that connects to all the others, but one that’s completely free, and transparent, and instant… In five years you (won’t) need to hold your money in a very expensive, physical bank someplace; you hold your money in the cloud and you use your phone to transact.”
As for my story, I quickly went to the Uphold Careers page and searched for something that might work for me.
This was the only message I found:
“We’re different at Uphold. We're informal, collaborative and looking for people who want to change the world! If you are determined to revolutionize financial services and, in doing so, change billions of people’s lives for the better, we’d love to hear from you!”
Now there is another line that reads: “Impress us: [email protected].”
Because that line wasn’t there, I found their Contact Us page and selected what I thought would be the most useful email, Just want to say hi: [email protected], to send the following cold email to:
Subject: I want to be part of something big!
Hello Uphold!
My name is Michael Paine and I’m excited to learn about the innovations that Uphold is bringing to the financial industry. I am seeking an opportunity to work with Uphold because I share its values of being trustworthy, passionate, collaborative and willing to lead. It is my desire to work with a company that believes they can and should revolutionize the financial service industry.
One of the main reasons I want to be involved in FinTech is to help nonprofit organizations transfer funds at the lowest possible cost. I believe Uphold offers a system that is fair and valuable to all parties involved.
I am passionate about innovation, have proven leadership skills, a positive attitude, and strong communication skills. Additionally, I bring organizational and analytical skills as demonstrated through the acquisition of my MBA in Finance from Colorado Technical University. Through this program I lead a team remotely, in which we competed and finished at the top of the class in a business simulation software known as CAPSIM. These are just a few reasons why I would make a good addition to your team.
I would like to ask you to take a look at my resume and letter of recommendation and consider me for a position with Uphold. I see myself being involved in the acquisition and onboarding of churches and other nonprofit organizations that are looking for the best option to transfer their money all around the globe. I believe that Uphold is the answer they don’t even know they are looking for and I want to be a part of showing them the way.
Thank you in advance for your consideration and I look forward hearing from you soon.
Michael Paine
Contact Info Redacted
Additionally I included a copy of my resume with an attached letter of recommendation.
That was on November 7th.
So why the long post today about Uphold?
Well Today I Learned that “Uphold has announced the introduction of cryptocurrency powered virtual MasterCard for online payments.”
After learning about the company I signed up for their digital wallet, but quickly realized that was going to do no good in my mission unless there were some actually card people could use.
And now there is.
As Gautham, in his NewsBTC article Uphold’s Virtual MasterCard to Make Online Payments with Bitcoin Easier points out:
The adoption rate of Bitcoin leaves a lot to be desired. The slow rate of adoption is attributed to limited spending options when it comes to making payments for regular, everyday needs. Uphold, the cryptocurrency platform has made spending digital currency a bit easier by introducing virtual cards.
Uphold supports multiple cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Voxel. The platform is already known for its e-wallet service. The service allows customers to save their digital currency deposits in fiat backed wallets, avoiding fluctuation in value due to price volatility. With this new feature, Uphold customers can easily spend their cryptocurrency on any online payment gateway that accepts payments through MasterCard credit and debit cards.
Creating a prepaid virtual MasterCard on the Uphold platform is an easy process. By using this feature, businesses and individuals don’t have to go through the hassle of transferring the digital currency to an exchange and converting into fiat or finding the platform that accepts Bitcoin and/or other cryptocurrencies. The prepaid virtual card allows users to decide how much they want to spend. The limit will be set by the customer and once the card crosses the limit, the user will have to generate a new virtual MasterCard.
According to Uphold, the virtual MasterCard will be available in US dollar denomination. The minimum balance required to generate a virtual card is $5 along with an additional 3% issuance fee. Users can create multiple cards and label them accordingly for better identification. Upon generating a virtual card, cryptocurrency balance equivalent to the predetermined maximum limit will be locked for payments through the card. In case the balance remains unspent, it will be credited back to the wallet after the card’s expiry or cancellation.
As an aside, I have noticed that several of my credit card companies are also switching to MasterCard (from Visa). Something’s going on…
There you have it, I learned something useful about Uphold and hope you did too.
Also, I am still in search of a new career in the financial industry, if you or someone you know is interested in getting connected, I would love to talk with you more about the position.
As I like to end all my TIL post, I try to connect it back to steemit in some way, today my questions are:
Did you know this already or are you just learning about Uphold?
How can we or should we get Uphold to transfer STEEM or STEEM DOLLARS to make them more widespread / valuable (or can you use STEEM on Uphold already)?
Follow me @strangerarray because I am writing my career transition story.
Donations to PayPal.Me/michaelpaine are also welcome because I haven’t landed my new job yet...