Digital Commodity Money (aka Cryptocurrency)

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Why do we call it digital commodity money (DCM) instead of cryptocurrency?

• ‘Digital’ because commodity money in the traditional sense is tangible / physical
• ‘Commodity’ because it has the following characteristics of a commodity
  • no central issuer
  • no person or small group with significant influence over the supply of the commodity or the holdings of individuals
  • ability for self-custody
  • fungibility
• ‘Money’ (instead of currency) because it is an intangible system of value (and not just a promissory note)

Compared to all other DApps on the Trusdee platform, Trusdee’s Digital Commodity Money DApp has one distinct and unique feature: There will be no alternative (i.e. no competing Digital Commodity Money DApp) in the system.

This is in stark contrast to platforms such as Ethereum, where almost every crypto project issues its own token.

The main reason for this is that most cryptocurrency projects have either purposely or unwittingly caused financial harm to users, often resulting in greater losses than if those users had simply held on to traditional fiat currencies. This means that, once again, the less fortunate have suffered the most. Our goal with Trusdee is to do the complete opposite and ensure that all users are protected and supported, rather than put at risk.

If worthwhile projects want to raise money, they can do so through the usual fundraising methods, such as debt financing, equity financing, crowdfunding, grants, donations, etc. Nevertheless, Trusdee will offer these projects the option to issue shares. However, it is crucial that they adhere to the appropriate laws and regulations regarding the issuance and trading of securities. Furthermore, Trusdee will clearly label centralised financial products as such and educate users about the differences between decentralised money and shares.

Trusdee is not designed to be a platform where each project has its own unique currency, coin, or token. Instead, if the functioning of a project (DApp) requires financial transactions, Trusdee’s official digital commodity money can be utilised. It is important to note that this restriction only pertains to free-floating currencies, and not stable coins.

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Trusdee will always distinguish between decentralised and centralised assets and clearly separate them in all user interfaces. Below are a few categories of value-storing DApps grouped by decentralised/centralised and the number of possible DApps for that category (where $n$ is any number):

Decentralised (without an issuer):

• $1$ digital commodity money
• $n$ decentralised stablecoins (e.g. Dai-like technologies)

Centralised (with an issuer):

• $n$ fiat currencies / centralised stablecoins
• $n$ stocks
• $n$ collectibles

In addition to this distinct and unique feature, Trusdee’s Digital Commodity Money DApp also boasts other noteworthy features. We place particular significance on the fact that the DCM DApp is not constrained to just the functions of money, but it can also act as a complete replacement for established payment service providers like Stripe, Paypal, and Square. In a sense, it combines the best of both the centralised and decentralised financial worlds. These features encompass:

• Highly secure self-custody of all funds and digital assets for everyone (including non-tech users)
  Trusted third parties (TTPs) are not allowed to take custody of funds or digital assets, otherwise they violate the community guidelines and are placed on a public ‘TTPs to avoid’ list. Instead, they can be granted (limited) access to funds and digital assets with the designated feature.

• Online payments
  The process of receiving online payments should be just as seamless using decentralised technology as it is when using centralised services such as Stripe. Currently even Bitcoin experts like Matthew Kratter have difficulties accepting Bitcoin for online payments more than 14 years after Bitcoin launched.

• Subscriptions
  Automated recurring payments which, if desired, can be denominated in a more stable price index like the US dollar.

• Optional privacy
  Just like with physical cash and credit cards in traditional fiat monetary systems, the protocol has no opinion when it comes to anonymity, and users have the option to decide whether or not to make a transaction private.

• Point of sale
  A full technology stack to make in-store payments as easy and frictionless as possible for both the staff as well as the customer, from the point of sale hardware and software to the mobile app integration – similar to established payment terminals and apps such as Apple and Google Wallet.

• Proof of funds
  The ability to cryptographically prove ownership of funds without disclosing the account/wallet addresses.

• Payment requests
  Similar to a direct debit, but requiring the consent of the debtor.

• Payment intents
  The payer only releases the actual payment when the intended payee confirms the receipt of the payment intent. Payment intents are useful to simulate transactions in order to safeguard against spelling mistakes or similar slip-ups, especially with large payments or other sensitive transactions.

Digital commodity money is not only interesting for individuals, but also for companies, shops, retailers, etc., as it offers the following advantages:

• They receive the money instantly and do not have to wait up to 180 days for customer payments to be made available to them.
• They need never fear a freeze on their accounts.
• Customers cannot reverse the transaction (thus eliminating concerns about chargeback fraud).
• The fees are negligible compared to all existing payment methods.
• They are paid with money that does not continuously lose purchasing power.
• They have the ability to receive anonymous payments digitally (not just physically as with cash payments).

As previously stated, we want to make Trusdee’s decentralised commodity money as useful and attractive as possible to all user groups (e.g. individuals, businesses, operators, etc.) in order to accelerate global adoption.