Uphold

What Is Uphold?

Uphold is a [cloud-based](/distributed computing) financial service platform that enables individuals to safely move, convert, hold and execute in different assets. Uphold offers 27 fiat currencies, 58 cryptocurrencies, and four types of precious metals.

Users can fund their accounts from credit/debit cards, bank accounts, or cryptocurrency networks. From one screen, users can send funds to others and trade more than 60 assets.

Users can likewise move funds starting with one form of value then onto the next in one simple task. For instance, users can go from DASH to XRP in one step. (On a few different platforms this trade would include two separate transactions and two separate fees.)

Today, third-party engineers are able to foster extra software offerings in light of the Uphold platform. This is made conceivable through Uphold Connect, the company's application programming interface (API).

How Uphold Works

Uphold was established in 2014 by Halsey Minor, an American entrepreneur who is best known for establishing the media company CNET in the mid 1990s. Uphold was originally named Bitreserve; after a rebranding, the company sent off as Uphold in November 2014.

The stated goal of Uphold is to reduce the transaction costs associated with trading money, particularly according to cryptocurrencies. In the earliest long stretches of cryptocurrencies —, for example, bitcoin — those wishing to hold and trade in the currency frequently confronted a precarious learning curve. Not at all like traditional currencies whose infrastructure has developed slowly over hundreds of years, cryptocurrency devotees and entrepreneurs expected to foster their own infrastructure without any preparation.

Simultaneously, large numbers of those engaged with the cryptocurrency community share a longing to increase the transparency of these financial platforms. On account of Uphold, the platform was roused in part by the lack of financial transparency revealed by the 2007-2008 financial crisis. One functional illustration of this commitment is that Uphold distributes their reserve status in real-time, showing the individual asset and liability balances for its tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 reserves. The company is reviewed quarterly to confirm solvency.

The company has taken comparable drives as to lessening transaction fees. Today, the company claims that it is more affordable on normal than other household-name cryptocurrency platforms Indeed, the company has moved to commission-free pricing. The price that users see before they trade is the price they pay when they trade.

For cryptocurrencies, Uphold offers an all-inclusive, guaranteed price that incorporates a small spread of typically 50-100bps (0.5-1.0%). Contingent upon your individual trading behavior and volumes, the spread can be essentially as low as 40bps (0.4%). The company additionally offers free debit and credit card deposits, and zero withdrawal fees (with the exception of standard network fees on cryptocurrency networks).

Uphold works on a "completely reserved" basis, implying that its obligations are completely backed by the assets it holds in reserve. On the other hand, the standard practice among modern banks is the purported "partial reserve" model, in which banks frequently hold just a small percentage of the assets given to them by contributors. Those assets that are not retained by the bank are rather loaned out to customers or invested to get a higher return.

In March 2018, Uphold added the cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP) to its platform, offering Uphold individuals zero transaction fees on the initial 5 million XRP purchased. This move addressed a striking entry into the XRP marketplace, as Coinbase — one of the world's biggest digital currency trades — didn't support XRP at that time.

At the point when users pursue Uphold, they are approached to give their legal name, date of birth, and telephone number. To pull out or send funds to others, users must become confirmed users. To turn into a confirmed client, users need to give their current residential address, a substantial government photograph identification, and a 'live selfie.'

Highlights

• Despite the fact that it is regularly associated with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the platform is likewise used to trade traditional assets like fiat currencies and gold.
• Uphold is a cloud-based financial service platform that enables individuals to safely move, convert, hold and execute in different assets.
• Among Uphold's stated needs are the reduction of transaction fees and the maintenance of high standards of transparency.