I got introduced to the Kado ecosystem when I was looking for ways to easily get my money to Anchor Protocol.
The biggest problem with crypto right now is that it’s hard to make use of your assets in the real world. If we’re talking about the Metaverse and buying digital goods there using your digital assets, that’s a bit easier to understand.
I had a haircut in the past and the stylist brought up crypto. I’m young, so she thought that I knew more about it. She was quite educated and open-minded about the topic, and we got to the concern that most people have about crypto — how can we use it in real life?
While I did my spiel about how crypto is translating to goods and services in the digital world, we found ourselves at an impasse on how to really explain crypto in the physical world.
If people don’t believe there is any utility to a medium that we’re using, no one is going to use it. And right now, crypto, for all its awesomeness, still lacks in that department.
I can’t pay my student loans or bills with BTC or USDT at the moment. I make the money in another currency, but I pay with another. There is that disconnect with crypto and the “real” world.
That is where Kado comes in. It’s a bridge between crypto and the real world. You can swap your fiat currency to a crypto stablecoin in just minutes, and use it for whatever purposes you have.
What is Kado?
In simple terms, it’s a bridge. Kado makes it possible for consumers to use their crypto without having to use their fiat again.
According to their lite paper,
Kado is building towards the mission of being able to live within the crypto ecosystem, without ever having to leave.
Basically, you can use stablecoins for real world goods and services. Stablecoins are the preferred asset for transacting in the crypto space due to its lack of volatility and instant transferability.
What Problem Does Kado Solve?
Let me get straight to the point: utility. More specifically, utility for stablecoins.
While many crypto enthusiasts praise the idea that crypto can solve a lot of financial problems that the world experiences, ideas don’t translate fast enough in the real world.
We are getting there, don’t get me wrong, but the majority of crypto assets don’t have use besides speculation and store of value. It’s true use and power haven’t been explored yet and utilized by the very people crypto was meant for.
You can be making money from crypto, but you still have to put that back to fiat so you can pay your food, rent, bills, etc. It’s hard to pay for things in the “real” world using crypto.
But what about people, merchants, and countries that accept Bitcoin and Ethereum as payments?
While it’s a good step, those assets are not ideal for everyday transactions. Bitcoin is still slow, and Ethereum is notorious for its high gwei fees.
Merchants today who do not use stablecoins are left to use credit card payment methods that take out 1.5 to 3.5% in processing fees. Plus, funds don’t settle quick enough into a merchant’s account to be usable for their business.
These are just some of the things that Kado is aiming to solve with their products and services.
Kado Products
Kado Ramp
This is the service that I’m a bit familiar with since I had experience with it. The big challenge is consumers have a hard time getting into crypto because of its utility issues.
Ramp is onboarding fiat users into the crypto space. It’s the first step. With Ramp, it’s easier to get your fiat swapped with a stablecoin, mainly UST, that you can use for projects in the Terra network, or you can use the UST to do some shopping in Kado Pay.
Kado Pay
Speaking of, Kado Pay is Kado’s version of Venmo or PayPal. It’s a payment processor that bridges crypto users with goods from real-world merchants like Amazon or Walmart. They have an e-commerce platform where you can shop just like normal, pay with UST from your wallet, and the product gets delivered to you.
Personally, I have not used this yet since I have nothing to buy from their platform. But when I do, this is going to be the first thing in mind.
One cool thing that I saw in their shopping platform was the Tier Access feature. I had not found a project that actually offers subscription-based services. This Tier Access feature provides better shopping experience with discounts and no shipping fees just like Amazon Prime.
Subscribers can also earn referral rewards, which I have no clue what it is about since they haven’t added any details to it. I can guess that this gamifies the shopping experience for users. Tier Access is powered by the Suberra and Valkyrie Protocols.
I’ve also got waitlisted for a Kado Card. There are no other details about this card, except that the “Kado Card will open new possibilities for easier UST spending and savings,” according to their website. There’s nothing wrong if I got myself a spot, right?
Kado Save
One project that really stands out in the Terra ecosystem is Anchor Protocol. It is the go-to savings protocol for people looking to create a low-risk, high-yield passive income. According to Kado, they are “building a direct fiat integration into Terra and stablecoins, effectively allowing merchants and consumers to gain benefit from the Anchor Protocol.”
To be honest, I don’t know what that means because there are barely any details offered about it.
In their main website, Kado Save earns you interest on your stablecoins with multichain support. We don’t know what that looks like yet, but I think it’s like Anchor Protocol but lists a lot of other stablecoins in which you can make passive income from.
We’ll just have to wait and see what this product will be.
My Thoughts on Kado
I believe Kado will be a big step towards mass adoption for crypto. If there is more proof of utility from this platform, it’s very likely that more projects in the Terra network will be involved.
I was very relieved when I found Kado for my Anchor Protocol use. It literally saved me so much time. Getting UST to my Terra wallet was so easy and fast that it’s worth mentioning to start using this as the main method of getting UST.
Kado has big plans for 2022, and what I’m looking forward to is their Reseller Merchant Onboarding Push. Basically, resellers can get into their platform and sell products and get paid with crypto. This is equivalent to being an Amazon Seller.
Right now, we go to Amazon as merchants, but Kado could be a big instrument in creating a crypto-focused merchant network.
One thing I can think of right now though with Kado is that it’s easier to get into crypto, but there’s no way to get back to fiat. It’s a one way door. At the moment, the world still relies on fiat, so an option to also buy back fiat could make it more acceptable for users.
I and many in the crypto space, probably understand what Kado is trying to do, but not everyone understands it. Consumers right now cannot make that connection with digital assets and real-world goods and services. It’s just something to consider if you decide to use the entire Kado ecosystem.
I am not a financial advisor, so do your own research.
Personally, I have not encountered any problems with them, so I can’t find anything yet to comment about. But overall, I like Kado and I will continue to use Kado.
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