Cryptocurrency is increasingly becoming the mainstream, but not everyone is familiar with or uses this emerging technology. This group includes young people.
Enter the stack. The Seattle based startup is building an encryption platform for teenagers and others deprived of their rights by the financial system.
The company recently joined a financial technology incubator in Seattle and recently ended a $500000 pre seed investment from on deck and Santa Clara ventures.
According to CEO will rush, stack initially developed a product designed to simplify investment donations. But after finding that the vast majority of investment gifts are aimed at teenagers and there is no way to provide cryptocurrency to people under the age of 18, the study began to turn to.
After various legal and compliance investigations, stack will launch a gaming platform in March, allowing teenagers to invest in more than 30 cryptocurrencies. If the user is under the age of 18, the parents jointly own the account. Users receive social and marketing rewards through responsible investment activities and watching educational videos.
“We want your parents to sit in the passenger seat of the financial system” and make it “an almost ubiquitous part of childhood,” rush said
The CEO of stack will come. (photo)
If so, he said, “I think the number of long-term investors in the stock market or crypto market will be higher because they won’t be afraid.”
A recent CNBC / momentous investment in you survey found that 48% of Americans aged 18 to 24 have no investment. In this group, 27% said they had never invested because they didn’t know how to invest.
Rush said the stack was “built for people who are not families with a significant investment history.” he said it was a way to separate the stack from other encryption platforms such as coinbase.
Although coinbase is developing beginner guides and educational tools, “it does not solve the problem of inertia for new investors,” rush said.
Rush said the app educates “in a sneaky way” through interesting, relevant 90 second videos and rewards for savings and diversified holdings.
A study by the investor education foundation found that students who took high school financial literacy courses had higher credits and lower debt default rates. The Brookings Institution found a positive correlation between financial knowledge, asset accumulation and net worth before the age of 25. Stack’s goal is to bring literacy training out of the classroom and into a more attractive and fun environment.
Although there are stock investment apps for teenagers, there are few apps for the Under-18 age group.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have depreciated in the past few weeks. Stack issued such a disclaimer on its website: “investing in digital assets is highly speculative and volatile, [stack] is only applicable to investors willing to bear the risk of loss and experience large withdrawals.”
Axios reported this week that there has also been a surge in fraud in the encryption industry, which may have a disproportionate impact on young people who are “proficient in digital technology but have less financial knowledge”.
Stack has partnered with companies such as fireblocks, aspect, and prime trust to help achieve compliance and security.
“We are the first platform for financial knowledge, so the main goal is to provide basic education and let students understand the good, the bad and everything in between,” rush said.
Stack makes money from subscriptions, ranging from $2 to $3 a month. Rush said that compared with other platforms that charge by transaction, if there are three or more transactions in a year, the subscription cost can be offset.
He added that subscription based and volume based “are very consistent with non day trading”
“The first investment pillar we reward on this platform is long-term holding, so it is important to understand that volatility is a long-term game,” rush said.
Rush held various positions related to finance in Deloitte for eight years, and then worked as a risk researcher at future venture partners in Seattle. There, he established contact with Eddie BEHRINGER, one of his mentors. Bellinger created copper, an app for youth banking, which inspired stack.
Although stack is aimed at teenagers, the platform can also attract college students and young professionals, many of whom lack investment and financial knowledge education.
Rush said Stark’s ultimate goal is to make financial knowledge accessible. “[financial knowledge] can be empowerment. It can help you spend the rest of your life,” he said. “For me, that’s Polaris.”