Maximalism is out, MELD is in!

From new decentralized finance to old traditional finance, and from the now “old” technology of Bitcoin to the new layers of “altcoins” and “sidechains” alike, Crypto is new to the world of finance! MELD is a decentralized finance (DeFi) project that is offering solutions to both sides of the aisle, in fact, multiple aisles! From new decentralized finance to old traditional finance, and from the now “old” technology of Bitcoin to the new layers of “altcoins” and “sidechains” alike!

The old financial institutions have certainly taken note of this new technological development called blockchain and the financial tools being created on it. On November 1st The New York Times published an article outlining how complex this transition is as the big banks like JP Morgan, US Bank, and Bank of America all turn their attention and resources to understand this new space.

Any time something new enters an existing arena, the old incumbents will take notice. They might react with fear and disgust, or intrigue and openness, but in any case the old will pay close attention to the new.

This same dynamic of old noticing new is not reserved to the banking industry. Blockchain adopters themselves are just as susceptible to the same dynamic as individuals become financially and emotionally invested.

In the new world of crypto we are pretty familiar with the maximalist argument that, because a favorite blockchain is unique and offers unmatched advantages over the others, it must be the dominant one and supersede all other blockchains. Just follow Michael Saylor on twitter for a classic example of this mindset.

Similarly, if you ask most crypto OGs what they think about traditional banking and finance you will probably hear some sharp criticism of those incumbents followed by a starry-eyed exposition on the potential of crypto currencies to change the world.

Are they wrong? Not exactly. Crypto will certainly change the world, but nothing in life plays out in simple maximalist patterns. New things never replace old in binary “all or nothing” ways. Some part of the new won’t work, and some part of the old will remain!

While maximalism is natural and explainable -- we all love what we know and invest in --  most of the time it is not helpful.

The danger of a maximalist approach is that you limit your resources to what you already know and risk missing out on new opportunities. Reality shows us that we can move forward much faster when we take a mediated approach.

What do I mean by mediation? It’s simple:

• Bridging gaps

• Offering resolutions

• Meeting needs

• Covering discrepancies

You cannot mediate anything without identifying the need for it - the discrepancy. The answer to maximalism is not to deny the advantages of one entity or ignore the failings of another.

Quite the opposite, to mediate is to call out these discrepancies with care and clarity, which might allow each party - old and new - to discover together how to move the conversation forward.

MELD is Bridging the Gap

MELD is a Decentralized Finance platform that is leading the charge in the mediation of both blockchains and banking.

Being built on the Cardano blockchain was a pragmatic decision intended, in part, to take advantage of the mathematical provability and clarity offered in the functional programming language of Haskell.

While this is an advantage on the one hand, Cardano is only in its early stages of implementing and testing smart contracts, which means there is much work to be done by developers to create the standards and tooling needed to build applications.

The MELD team is solving this problem by innovating and mediating the needs they see.

By building the ADAmatic bridge with Vent and Polygon, MELD will be able to take advantage of the currently thriving and established smart contract ecosystem on Polygon and Etherium.

By creating the Hachi project MELD is building and vetting the security standards that will help guide smart contract structures on Cardano.

The services that MELD will provide are going to change lives - especially for the 2 billion people who don’t currently have access to the modern banking tools to expand their businesses and lifestyles.

This will be done through innovative loan structures, premium UI/UX for intuitive use, which is incredibly important for adoption, and sustainable high yield opportunities for asset holders.

All this new innovation might seem like a threat to the old world of banking, but the truth is that MELD is offering a massive opportunity for traditional financial institutions, from banks and pension funds to institutional investors and hedge funds.

Every one of these traditional categories is becoming more and more aware of the high yields possible in crypto, and by offering them the opportunity to utilize their assets as liquidity on the MELD platform they have the chance to join, contribute, and earn, without having to compete.

The MELD protocol is going to mediate between blockchains by creating bridges to take advantage of their strengths but also cover for their weaknesses. All in all, MELD is positioning the protocol to mediate the strengths and weaknesses of not only the unbanked populations, but the greater traditional banking institutions as well.

There is no need for maximalism when you can MELD instead!