Bitlocus aims to bring more people into DeFi by lowering the barrier to entry.
Navigating the DeFi space remains one of its biggest barriers to entry, while taking part as a fiat user can be difficult at best, or daunting at worst — with high fees, multiple blockchains and a whole lot of technical jargon to contend with.
Bitlocus, a new Terra-based DeFi investment platform, looks to tackle these issues in one fell swoop by providing a simplified fiat-to-DeFi onramp and product suite.
What Is Bitlocus (BTL)?
Billed as a "DeFi investments platform for fiat-based investors," Bitlocus is designed to provide a simple means to help traditional investors benefit from the unique properties of the rapidly expanding DeFi ecosystem.
It achieves this through a range of products that allow fiat users to gain exposure to the yields offered by DeFi protocols and platforms — like Aave, Compound, Venus, Sushi, etc. This will be offered through a dashboard for accessing DeFi yields, helping to bring the benefits of DeFi to mainstream investors.
The platform’s native utility token, known as BTL, is intimately woven into its operation: it is used for the payment of certain platform fees, as an incentive to participants in the Bitlocus product ecosystem and the key for unlocking token holder specific features, such as exclusive DeFi packages or improved yields.
Despite its importance in the functioning of the platform, the existence of the BTL token will be largely kept behind the scenes for most users, ensuring the platform remains accessible to those with little to no knowledge of blockchain and DeFi. Nonetheless, more experienced users may wish to gain exposure to the token to maximize their access to Bitlocus’ offerings.
Bitlocus was created by a team of entrepreneurs and builders. At the head of the operation is Andrius Normantas, Bitlocus' CEO and a seasoned developer that has been operating in the blockchain space since 2018. Bitlocus' CTO, Tadas Varanauskas, has a wealth of development experience working with high tech firms and has been building Bitlocus' exchange and B2B solutions since 2018. Lastly, Glory Lucas rounds out Bitlocus’ c-levels as its CMO and an established marketer in the crypto space.
Beyond this, Bitlocus is supported by a multidisciplinary team that includes developers, business growth specialists, and marketers, as well as a variety of accomplished advisors.
How Does Bitlocus Work?
Bitlocus is bringing to market a first-of-its-kind fiat to DeFi management platform that cuts down some of the challenges users can face when entering the DeFi market as fiat holders. The platform looks to improve the user experience of the DeFi space, reduce costs and mitigate some of its inherent risks.
Bitlocus achieves this through an intuitive dashboard that allows users to access a variety of DeFi investment options using their traditional fiat payment methods. The UI is designed such that users do not need an understanding of IT, crypto or DeFi to participate.
Bitlocus works at the intersection of centralized and decentralized finance, as such, it fits into the small but growing CeDeFi space.
It will offer a variety of investment packages designed to appeal to different demographics. These will include staking, farming and P2P lending packages which will be classified based on the risk level and estimated yield. Some options may also have either a built-in insurance fund or optional third-party insurance to help mitigate risks further. In later iterations of the platform, users will be able to select from custom DeFi packages and access more speculative markets — like those surrounding non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Each strategy will be hand-picked and vetted by the Bitlocus team; this will be combined with a guarantee fee fund and additional risk hedging strategies to minimize or offload risk to external parties.
Bitlocus makes investing in DeFi not only simpler but also cheaper by eliminating the fiat-to-crypto conversion fee and instead charging a flat 0.5% entry fee. There are no fees to deposit to the platform or convert from DeFi back to fiat, keeping the costs down to a bare minimum.
Bitlocus is building on Terra, a blockchain designed to host the next generation of financial products. As a result, it benefits from massive throughput and high security, while enabling compatibility with the growing number of DeFi tools also built on Terra.
Want to learn more about Terra? Check out our full deep dive on the platform!
The platform has a clear and concrete roadmap available on its official website. As of writing, Bitlocus is in the first stages of rolling out its DeFi strategy. The platform is expected to launch the MVP version of its DeFi investment packages by year-end, before expanding to support custom packages and DeFi staking Q1 2022, yield farming and lending investment options in Q2 2022 and further investment options throughout the rest of 2022.
Bitlocus will be hosting SEED SHO on DAO Maker in early December and its token generation event (TGE) is expected to take place shortly after.
What Makes Bitlocus Unique?
Bitlocus is built to provide an easily accessible bridge between traditional and decentralized finance through a range of simplified investment packages that can be entered with fiat, but generate a yield from novel DeFi protocols.
To help it target the biggest possible audience and deliver on its goal of exposing the benefits of DeFi to the masses, Bitlocus includes the following unique features:
Built on Terra
As a high-speed, highly efficient blockchain designed to power the future of financial infrastructure, Terra will ensure Bitlocus can scale with demand.
Bitlocus will be able to leverage the wide array of DeFi products building in the Terra ecosystem, and take advantage of native Terra stablecoins like UST and EUT, as well as the Terra bridge — providing interoperability with other blockchains, such as Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum.
As the third-largest smart contract community by community size, Terra is ripe for expansion and Bitlocus aims to grow this community by providing a simple DeFi hub for fiat users.
Low-Cost DeFi
As we previously touched upon, Bitlocus is building on Terra, which means it automatically benefits from negligible transaction fees.
But going one step further, Bitlocus has slashed the costs usually associated with moving fiat into DeFi by eliminating fiat-to-crypto conversion fees when both entering and exiting the DeFi gateway. This also makes DeFi more accessible by lowering the minimum entry threshold, allowing investors of all wealth levels to benefit from DeFi.
In total, Bitlocus charges 0.5% of the transacted amount, e.g. $2.50 for every $500 entered into its products, as opposed to potentially 5-10% using a standard OTC broker.
Beginner-Friendly
Bitlocus is designed to distill the best of DeFi into a range of beginner-friendly investment products. By using the platform, users can easily choose from a list of investment products based on their preferred strategy and risk tolerance.
Users will be provided an estimated APY for each product, and are free to buy and sell their shares in Bitlocus’ DeFi packages as and when needed without restrictions.
Risk Mitigation
With any investment, there will always be risks. In the cryptocurrency sector, these can include exit scams, protocol and smart contract failures, stablecoin de-pegs, bugs and more. These are part and parcel of investing in DeFi and should be considered when implementing any investment strategy.
Bitlocus helps to mitigate or eliminate these risks through a variety of mechanisms, which include manual vetting, rate risk hedging, a guarantee fund and optional insurance options.
Full-Fledged Ecosystem
Besides its upcoming DeFi product lineup, Bitlocus has developed a variety of additional B2B products, these include:
- White label exchange — allowing firms to launch their own crypto exchange with fiat support in under four weeks;
- IEO launchpad — enabling early-stage projects to raise funds via an initial exchange offering;
- Crypto payment gateway — allowing firms and merchants to accept crypto payments that are automatically settled in fiat;
- Mass payouts — helping individuals and firms process mass crypto payments.
This article contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any association with its operators.
This article is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It is important to do your own research and analysis before making any material decisions related to any of the products or services described. This article is not intended as, and shall not be construed as, financial advice.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s [company’s] own and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinMarketCap.
CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the success or authenticity of any project, we aim to act as a neutral informational resource for end-users.
