Stronghold CEO: “It’s Up to Us” to Make Crypto Mainstream

“Mainstream media would rather cover CryptoKitties over important developments like how central banks are using distributed ledger technology,” said Stronghold CEO Tammy Camp.

In August, TechCrunch Editor Josh Constine interviewed Stronghold CEO Tammy Camp at ChainXChange, a conference on technology and innovation in Las Vegas.

The conversation, part of a chat series titled “Separating Bitcoins From Shitcoins,” touched on several topics, including Camp’s background as an entrepreneur, the current trajectory of blockchain, and where Stronghold aims to make the biggest impact.

Camp said the years she spent as a partner with 500 Startups helped her prepare for launching Stronghold and evaluating the competitive landscape. When she departed the accelerator two years ago, it had 1,600 companies in its portfolio.

“I think I have more data points than probably most out there, so that actually helped me tremendously with this startup,” she said. “[Launching] a startup is all about finding market opportunity and timing and connections.”

When Constine asked about Stronghold’s plans to lower financial barriers on a global basis, Camp said cross-border payments are a ripe use case, since Stronghold’s platform is asset-agnostic. Specifically, she said Stronghold is poised to transform the remittance industry, which is predicated on exploiting consumers who lack access to financial services.

“They are definitely taking advantage of people,” she said, noting that the majority of remittances are sent to people in developing nations. “People making less than two dollars a day need to spend ten percent of their income per month to bring that money back.”

Although Bitcoin remittance services are available, Stronghold now offers institutional and retail customers Stronghold USD, which allows them to settle/accept payments in U.S. dollars and exchange them for other fiat currencies.

“With Stronghold USD, we can instantly convert across many different currencies,” said Camp. “With Stellar, we can make over 300,000 near-instant transactions for less than $0.01.”

Because transactions settle in seconds, “it’s frictionless for the consumer. Thanks to the regulatory technology built in, two different financial institutions can work together as if it was one,” she said.

TechCrunch Editor Josh Constine and Stronghold CEO Tammy Camp.

Even as cryptocurrencies gain momentum outside of the blockchain community, public perception remains focused on speculators, Camp observed.

“For some reason, mainstream media would rather cover CryptoKitties over important developments like how central banks are using distributed ledger technology,” she said. Before crypto-related companies can reach mainstream adoption, discussions need to reach a certain level of maturity, and “it’s up to us to bridge the gap.”

Although Stronghold launched on the Stellar network, which was created specifically to handle financial transactions, Camp reiterated that the company is both platform- and asset-agnostic.

“What makes this a little interesting is that we’re not saying that we’re an exchange — we’re saying we’re a financial institution,” she said. “We’re starting out with Stellar but I don’t think that we’re tied to any one protocol. In the future, there will be many protocols and many ones that can scale.”

Looking forward, Camp said Stronghold is on track to create a more inclusive blockchain ecosystem where different forms of value are held and exchanged.

“Imagine a day where the New York Stock Exchange and the Australian Stock Exchange and the Nigerian Stock Exchange [are] all connected on one platform,” she said.

“And your Starbucks points and your airline points are on a platform too, so you can just exchange this value. We’re going to see more and more liquidity come to the world in places that are underserved… and I think that we’re going to be the front runner.”