Wallet UMI Top - umi.top

[UMI Top]

UMI Staking is Your Rock in an Era of Global Economic Crisis

The global economic crisis has been growing on the planet’s body as a huge and painful furuncle for a few years now, but it couldn’t rupture. However, events of the last few months have drastically changed the situation. This year’s coronavirus pandemic became a catalyst of sorts that helped the furuncle finally burst. The global quarantine with its severe restrictions instantaneously brought to light all weaknesses of the global economy — the crisis made dramatically worse and still ripping round all sectors and industries.

According to Standard&Poor’s forecasts, the global GDP is set to shrink by 3.8% in 2020 which is a lot worse than the previously expected 2.4%. On the surface, these numbers may seem quite insignificant, but it’s far from being so. In monetary terms, it translates into trillions (not even billions!) of dollars in losses to be suffered by the world’s companies and the ordinary public.

An economic slump of this scale is an unfortunate event for the most powerful states while for emerging economies it’s a disaster. Even though today analysts predict some economic recovery following relaxation of quarantine measures, they are certain the recovery to at least previous levels will be extremely slow and fraught with difficulties.

To better understand today’s economic climate in the world, let’s look at some graphic examples. These demonstrate the financial insolvency of seemingly stable and successful manufacturing and trading companies. You may be surprised to know it’s the companies everyone has been looking up to.

● Zara, Bershka, Pull&Bear and Massimo Dutti are the trademarks owned by Inditex, a large distribution company and the world’s leading apparel retailer. Due to quarantine measures, the company’s earnings in Q1 2020 fell by as much as 44%, or EUR 3.3 bln. Consequently, Inditex intends to close 1,000–1,200 stores in Europe and Asia. In addition, the company’s management made another strategic decision — that of boosting online sales — and even drafted a two-year plan. It should be noted, however, that online sales do not require as many sales people and support staff as conventional stores. This, in its turn, will contribute to growing unemployment.

● Starbucks Corporation — the world’s most popular US-based coffeehouse chain — also plans to close 400 stores in the US and Canada over the next 18 months. At the same time, the number of carryout stores will grow. Yet again, it means that thousands of wait staff (waiters, bartenders, janitors, etc.) are bound to lose their jobs as this new format has nearly zero demand for this kind of labor.

● Hertz — one of the world’s largest car rental firms owned by the Hertz Corporation — filed for bankruptcy protection back in May. Since the start of the year, demand for the firm’s services plummeted while its debts grew considerably.

● Nike — an American multinational corporation engaged in the manufacturing of sports apparel and footwear — is currently in a deplorable financial condition despite being highly popular all over the world. Based on Q4 2019 data, its net loss amounted to 790 (!) mln US dollars. However, Nike CEO John Donahoe refrained from pointing fingers at COVID-19. The problems were caused by the “overburdened matrix” — this is what Donahoe said while emphasizing that Nike had to simplify its work and increase its speed and responsiveness for the market of the future. To resolve the issue, the corporation would be restructured, with layoffs scheduled to happen in phases. Even though the company’s management “do not yet know how many jobs will be reduced, nor who will be specifically impacted”, a huge number of people will be left unemployed and will hardly be able to easily find new jobs amid a global crisis.

● JCPenney Company (JCP) — one the biggest US retail chains existing since 1902 — has also filed for bankruptcy protection. The company direly needs restructuring of debt resulting in closing of 242 stores all over the United States. This strategy was selected as a way out of the crisis by reducing the amount of debt. It should be noted that the company has been in trouble since 2011, having closed 20% of all stores and laid off about 40% of its staff. It is rumored Amazon intends to purchase the company. However,the goal is not breathing new life into it — Amazon just needs sales premises for new-generation offline stores — such as Amazon Go — that operate with a minimum number of employees, thus contributing to growing global unemployment.

● Berkshire Hathaway Investment Firm founded by Warren Buffett, one of the most famous and affluent players on the stock market, reported $50 bln losses in the previous quarter. The firm said it was due to the coronavirus pandemic “hitting common stock investments”. However, rather than being the reason, it’s most likely the consequence of the global economy being unable to adapt to the current situation.

Also, one of clear signs of the aggravation of the economic recession is a global surge in unemployment. Let’s take the USA, the world’s major economy, as an example. The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 14.7% in April. That is reported to be the highest level since the Great Depression (that number peaked at 25.6% in May 1933.) Moreover, in late March, the Federal Reserve System (the FED, the U.S. central bank) officially warned of 32% unemployment — meaning that high would be far worse than that during the Great Depression. At that rate hundreds of millions of Americans are at risk losing their jobs.

By now the situation has seen a slight improvement. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate fell to 11.1%. Nonetheless, that is three times as high as the pre-pandemic rate of 3.5%. With the thorough research of the economic situation in the country, Bloomberg economist warn of a possibility of long-lasting or even permanent unemployment in the USA

Conclusions are as follows:

● First, most of the world’s popular and well-established brands, having billions of employees worldwide, are now facing huge financial issues. The debts they have are huge too. In other words, all their wealth can be called phantom, or bubble — in fact, they are just debtors who in the worst-case scenario may lose everything. In reality creditors — banks, credit unions, investment companies, and other entities owning a great deal of money — rule the world.

● Second, many manufacturing and trading companies began to understand that it’s time to change. In the hope of staying afloat and with the coronavirus-inflicted situation in mind, they are discovering new ways of selling goods — switching form face-to-face interaction to e-commerce or takeaway service. On the one hand, this is a step into the future. On the other hand, these changes involve trading support staff redundancy. The present-day economy is about people losing their job every minute and even more job cuts in the future.

UMI staking provides people with new opportunities that shouldn’t be missed.

The existing economic model, now more than ever before, has completely failed. It needs change, and people need new sources of income.

While the powerful keep producing oil, even with losses, ordinary people join UMI staking to produce cryptocurrency. This is a chance for the entire humanity to resolve economic problems and start a new life. This is an opportunity that allows people to be independent and “create new digital money” on their own.

UMI takes the economy from bankers and gives it to the ordinary public. Our mission is to make people feel happy, even when all around go bankrupt and when human work is no longer valued as it should be, or it becomes unnecessary.

Don’t miss this chance and join UMI staking right away. Despite crises, multiply your coins up to 40% per month!

We care about each of you,

UMI Team

 

[UMI Top]

Why UMI is a Step toward a Free Financial World

Quite recently, the world has seen a remarkable event — an anonymous bitcoin whale sent a total of $2.24 billion in a series of transactions. Large transactions are certainly not uncommon for the bitcoin network. Whale Alert — blockchain tracker and analytics system — regularly reports large and interesting transactions. Although $2.24 billion is the largest ever cryptocurrency transfer, the most remarkable thing about this event is not the transfer amount but the incredibly little fee the sender paid for the transaction — less than $1. With no checkups and intermediaries.

If such a transfer had happened a few years ago, it would have considered abnormal and unreal. Today it is a matter of fact. With each passing day, using cryptocurrency for making transfers is getting more attractive than bank transfers. The UMI network, which enables instant payments with no fees, fits in best with new realities. Let's explore this issue.

Freedom from Bank Charges

The BTC whale sent the above-mentioned amount in seven successive transactions within one hour. The total amount was 241,500 BTC, which was equivalent to $2.24 bln. Each transfer cost around 0.0001 BTC or just $0.93, giving a total of about $6.51 for the seven transfers.

Let's compare now how much you would be charged for an identical transfer in a bank.

In big banks, the international transfer fee is at least 1% of the amount, but it is often higher than that depending on the conditions. For instance, the VISA system charges 1 to 10% of the transaction amount for an international transfer (minimum of $10). Therefore, the more you transfer, the more you pay for it. To transfer the above-mentioned amount via a bank, a customer would have to part with as much as $22.4 mln (!!!), in the best-case scenario — that is if the fee is the minimum 1%. In other words, a bank would make a fortune — virtually at the drop of a hat, making no effort whatsoever — by simply taking someone's money. What makes it more absurd is that banks intend to further raise their fees amid coronavirus pandemic.

Cryptocurrencies are a completely different story. In most cryptocurrency networks, fees do not depend on the transaction amount — the same fee could be charged for transferring $1 or $1 bln. In the cryptocurrency world, it doesn't matter how much money you transfer. If you make a big transfer, no one makes you pay the “tithe”. With UMI, you don't have to pay anything to anyone — not a dime. But we'll get back to this a little later.

Freedom from Excessive Limits and Unneeded Checkups

First, let's consider another important factor — the very possibility to make unhindered transfers of large amounts via bank especially foreign transfers. The irony is that even if someone chooses to pay this multi-million dollar fee, the transfer would far from being 100% successful.

In most countries, including the Russian Federation, a $22 bln transaction would be virtually impossible to run in a state-owned bank, let alone private banks. Even going through a bunch of mandatory procedures as well as wasting lots of nerves and time wouldn't save the day. This is why a payment of this size is virtually impossible:

1. The overwhelming majority of the world's banks just don't happen to have such large amounts on their correspondent accounts. Even if we assume they do have sufficient funds on the books, this money doesn't just sit idle — bankers use it in their own favor, for instance, to grant loans, make deposit payments, etc. No bank would agree to send all its reserve funds to another bank on your orders. Moreover, banks have no right to violate the law in terms of reserve requirements, including currency norms. And processing such a large amount contradicts the established rules and regulations. So, even if money is technically recorded on the customer's account, transferring it to another bank, especially in a foreign country, is still a virtually impossible task.

2. In almost all states transactions of this scale are only allowed on the level of governments, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, or mega-tycoons with a declared multi-billion dollar income, such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and the like. In other words, only customers with a special status can make especially large transfers without restrictions. Any “abnormal” transactions fall under suspicion and automatically frozen. If you have always run $500 transactions on a monthly basis, any incoming or outgoing $10,000 transfer would most probably be frozen. Let alone billions of dollars. An average owner of a large business will only be allowed to transfer billions of dollars after they get approval from FATF on an individual basis. Obviously, they must also be verified using KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-money laundering) procedures and must establish the provenance of each dime they transfer. They have to do all this to transfer THEIR money, with a huge fee of billions of dollars.

3. The situation is even worse because it is equally true for receiving monetary transfers. In other words, if you have a large amount successfully transferred to you, there is no guarantee that you can use this money. Sadly, even if the money leaves the sender's bank, the recipient's bank can instantly freeze it. On the very same day, you could get a visit from bank or government officials along with the state security service and a special interrogation. If you cannot provide provenance data for the funds, the transfer could easily remain frozen for good. Naturally, this system opens the doors for various types of abuse of power and manipulation by bankers, governments, and state services.

For the existing banking system, any big transaction makes you a suspect of some manipulations resulting in a frozen transfer. More importantly, it isn't only true for multi-billion or multi-million transfers. Any transaction involving hundreds of thousands, dozens of thousands, or simply thousands of dollars may be deemed suspicious and sanctioned. It means that anyone who runs relatively big transactions runs the risk of encountering certain problems at any time.

Cryptocurrencies are a step toward free transfers

The above-described situation proves that digital money helps people get rid of many problems related to bank transfers: high fees, payment amount limits, specification of personal data, verification procedures. With digital money, you don't have to prove or explain anything. This is a real revolution that makes people free from fees and manipulation. Cryptocurrencies allow people to be a master of their funds and no one has the power to change this. No one charges you crazy fees and no one can steal your coins.

With each passing minute, cryptocurrencies are becoming part of our life, and rather than profit from trading, investment, mining, or staking, they are regarded as a convenient way of sending funds. Only cryptocurrencies make people feel completely safe and allow them to transfer whatever amount wherever they want. This is a huge step towards changing the existing financial system, and it has already been made.

But UMI Goes Even Further

It may appear that problem with bank fees concerns only large businessmen. In real fact, regular people living live paycheck to paycheck are more sensitive to this issue. Being on a tight budget, most people have to pay for any bank transaction.

You always pay fees charged by banks — when you pay utility bills, buy online, deposit money to your bank card, receive money, transfer money between your accounts or withdraw cash from an ATM. Overall, bank fees cost people a lot of money. It's curious to know how much your pay banks every year for mediation.

Now let's see how you can make transactions using UMI.

In terms of fees, UMI is more profitable than banks and even more profitable than most of the other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. There are no fees in the UMI network at all, even hidden ones. All transactions are instant. That is, if you sent $2.24 billion through the UMI network, it would be instant and completely free. There are no limits, verifications, and other nervous procedures. Instant, free, and secure — here and now.

This is the key advantage of UMI as a payment instrument. Our cryptocurrency empowers all people — from large businessmen to factory workers — with profitable and absolutely safe funds transfers. UMI gives all people around the globe equal opportunities. This is the next step toward a free financial world. We are the first to make it.

Sincerely yours, UMI team

 

[UMI Top]

- UMI is an open source universal monetary instrument. All network operation is visible at a glance.

- UMI is protected from third-party interference, hacking and even blockchain technology vulnerabilities.

- UMI is instant and absolutely free blockchain transfers. No more waiting for confirmations and paying commissions.

- UMI is 300 times faster than Bitcoin and processes up to 4,369 transactions per second, aiming to outperform VISA and MasterCard.

- UMI is an innovative smart contract staking that allows you to increase coins up to 40% per month just by keeping them in your wallet. Without energy consumption and software installation.

- Join existing staking structures or create your own to get even more coins!

- Change the world with UMI

Read more about UMI features in the Whitepaper:

https://umi.top/about

 

[UMI Top]

UMI Cryptocurrency Celebrating 4-Month Anniversary!

Dear friends! UMI has a big and important date today. Our coin has been around for precisely 4 months. It's been four months of joy, growth and success. Over this time, we've become a big and close-knit family who always keep in step and understand each other without words. Thank you for this!

Thanks to our closeness, a powerful ecosystem has formed around UMI — its size making 90% of other crypto projects jealous:

- Today, the network comprises over 54,000 UMI addresses and, additionally, over 40,000 staking addresses. All in all, the UMI network has over 90,000 various addresses.

- Overall, we've completed over 690,000 transactions and formed over 290,000 blocks. These values would take other emerging crypto projects years to achieve — we achieved them in just a few months.

- Our daily trading volume on all platforms (SIGEN.pro and Crypto-By-Card) totals $70,000 to $110,000 or 5–9 mln rubles. These are actual values people buy/sell UMI for on a daily basis proving huge demand and sound liquidity.

- UMI's liquidity has grown to an impressive value. The order book supporting UMI price on SIGEN.pro now has orders totaling about $600,000; additionally, the p2p-platform also has UMI buy offers amounting to over $300,000. Thus, in total we have orders worth of $900,000 supporting UMI price.

- We have a total of 20,100,000 UMI, with 6,700,000 coins used for staking and over 13,100,000 UMI stored on the genesis address. It's strange but only 300,000 UMI is in free circulation. All the other coins are either used in staking or stored on the initial address.

Once again — these values would be impossible to achieve for most cryptocurrencies, and we've done in in just 4 months. Most importantly, we don't stop working on the project and its development — not for a second. Today, UMI has grand ambitions and plans. Specially for you, we've prepared a detailed official article on our future plans to be published really soon.

Spoiler alert: ahead is the growing UMI liquidity, large-scale market entry, setting up of new staking structures, network optimization in order to achieve the capacity of 1 mln transactions per second, release of a desktop wallet (validator node), complete cryptocurrency legalization and source code audit, design of new DeFi, DApps, DAO, DEX products and many-many other things. Be patient — we'll put all chips on the table really soon.

UMI is still a four-month old “baby”, but already an infant prodigy. Just imagine what it can achieve once it's grown up. Today we're starting a new stage of project development, and it's sure to be legendary!

Congratulations to all our users on this festive day!

Sincerely yours, UMI Team!

 

[UMI Top]

Your mnemonic phrase is never transmitted to the network

If you look at other popular cryptocurrencies, they have one very unpleasant disadvantage. To create a transaction through an official node, you need to upload your private key (wallet.dat file in the case of Bitcoin) or a mnemonic phrase (as in the case of NXT or PRIZM).

Thus, when using the node, the mnemonic phrase / private keys are transmitted to the network. This means, for example, in the event of some kind of attack on the network or collusion of the majority of the node holders, the private keys can be compromised. Given that the blockchain should eliminate the need to trust anyone, this fact is unacceptable.

Therefore, the UMI network uses an alternative solution. To provide the highest possible level of security, the UMI node does not require a mnemonic phrase to make transactions. Moreover, in fact, the network does not imply the ability to create transactions directly through the node at all. Separate libraries / SDKs are responsible for this. By the way, the availability of these tools (libraries) in the public domain greatly simplifies the process of developing wallets and other applications based on UMI.

Thus, the UMI nodes do not transmit the mnemonic phrase to the network in any form. Secret data does not leave the borders of your device and remains safe.

Also, just in case, we remind you that thanks to the encryption algorithm, the mnemonic phrase that you enter when you log in to the UMI wallet cannot be calculated.

 

[UMI Top]

UMI's Daily Trade Turnover Exceeds $150,000: Another All-Time Record!

Dear friends, UMI cryptocurrency's popularity has been swiftly growing these days:

The number of transactions increased to 3,500 per day;

- The total number of coins in 2 staking structures is about 8,500,000 UMI;

- The total amount of buy orders UMI/BTC has crossed a threshold of $750,000 (if including the orders on p2p platform, the liquidity has increased to $950,000).

- There's more. Today we have also witnessed UMI's trading turnover marked a new maximum.

Today, for the first time, UMI's daily trading turnover has exceeded $150,000.

Not even trading volume, but the growth dynamic looks really impressive.

- A week ago, when UMI turned 4 months old, we saw the turnover of about $100,000;

- A month ago, it was about $50,000.

In other words, in just a month (4 weeks), the trading turnover increased three-fold!

Keeping in mind the fact that UMI is currently traded only on two platforms — SIGEN.pro and Crypto-By-Card, where ordinary people, not professional traders, buy cryptocurrency for staking. And where everything is transparent — no artificially created trading volume.

In fact, a turnover of more than $150,000 is a luxury that most other cryptocurrencies have never seen. UMI is only 4 months old, and it's just started to make its way in the world of cryptocurrencies.

We are sure that $150,000 a day is far from the limit. There is $200,000, $500,000, and $1 million ahead. Its high growth rate and great prospects shows it's just a matter of time. Together anything is possible!

Keeping in mind the fact that UMI is currently traded only on two platforms — SIGEN.pro and Crypto-By-Card, where ordinary people, not professional traders, buy cryptocurrency for staking. And where everything is transparent — no artificially created trading volume.

In fact, a turnover of more than $150,000 is a luxury that most other cryptocurrencies have never seen. UMI is only 4 months old, and it's just started to make its way in the world of cryptocurrencies.

We are sure that $150,000 a day is far from the limit. There is $200,000, $500,000, and $1 million ahead. Its high growth rate and great prospects shows it's just a matter of time. Together anything is possible!

For information: watch the detailed trading volume in real-time here: https://umi.top/volumes

Congratulations on a new record! Sincerely yours, UMI team

 

[UMI Top]

UMI: Official Plans for the Future

Dear friends, The UMI cryptocurrency keeps growing by leaps and bounds. It's going really well now: with the number of users growing, infrastructure developing rapidly, staking generating coins at the rate of 25% a month, and UMI's buy order book on SIGEN.pro exceeding $800,000. But what about tomorrow? Many users wonder what our plans for the future are. What will happen in 2, 5, 10 years or more? What do we want to achieve? We've prepared this article with answers to all your questions — specially for you. Spoiler alert: tomorrow's going to be even better than today. We're happy to present official plans for the future from the UMI Team.

Platform Scaling and Future Outlook

To understand the future outlook, we need to consider the project's strategic vision. UMI was not created just for fun — we created it to offer people new opportunities to improve their quality of life. These include, in the first place:

- Free, safe and instant financial transfers.

- Ability to “print” cryptocurrency in your smartphone at the rate of up to 40% a month, with no complexities or risks.

- Provision of new solutions for the business and economy in general. It's possible because UMI is a fully-featured blockchain platform that can execute smart contracts of any level of complexity. It can be used anywhere, in any domain of human activity.

Transactions:

But — first things first. UMI is based on the Proof-of-Authority technology that provides for the fastest transactions and operation of master nodes. The latter, with super-high requirements to operating speed and network capacity, are given to prominent UMI partners and teams that are actively engaged in promoting the project. Currently, the network's capacity is about 4,500 transactions per second, with the latest tests showing a value of up to 5,000. It means we're faster now than at the start (just to remind you, our ceiling value was 4,369 transactions/second).

In the near future, we intend to continue network optimization in order to bring its capacity to as many as 10,000 transactions per second. It will bring us as close to VISA and MasterCard as possible and, beyond all doubt, will spark interest in the crypto community.

In fact, 10,000 transactions per second is far from being the final frontier. According to the technical department of the UMI Team, we still have room for response improvement. We plan to use tools such as cybernetics and optimize certain points in terms of programming languages and smart contract. Accordingly, in the future (maybe even within a year) we have a chance to improve capacity to 1 mln transactions per second. No one has reached such capacity so far.

It's true that UMI network now runs 2,000–5,000 transactions per day and this capacity may seem “excessive”, but our project has been around for 4 months only and already has over 40,000 active users who make transfers within the network. In the future, UMI's scale of operation will change. We will try reaching new audiences to take over the new heights. That is when the high speed will come in really handy as it will guarantee that UMI network will not face something Ethereum is currently facing or Bitcoin has faced multiple times — they have fallen victim to their own popularity, with transactions becoming too slow and too expensive. The high network capacity will ensure that UMI transactions are always free and instant regardless of the load on the network.

Validator Node:

As we’ve announced, we're soon releasing a desktop wallet for users that both allows you to submit/receive transactions and operates as a validator node. It's a fully featured node that will support all functionalities and features except block generation (this functionality will remain with master nodes only). By installing the wallet and launching the validator node, users automatically improve security, stability and reliability of the UMI network.

In fact, all interested users will be able to support the network without any complications. You don't have to navigate to GitHub, understand the code and settings, etc. Launching a node will be as easy to do as installing Microsoft Word, Telegram or a game. Obviously, the algorithm we use creates no extra load on your PC. It'll just work in the background and will be invisible for you.

PoS Integration:

The next major step in terms of technical development is the addition of the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm — the most popular in the crypto industry. It may seem strange as we use the Proof-of-Authority algorithm, but we'll explain everything. The UMI network will continue to efficiently use Proof-of-Authority while PoS integration will be an additional protection measure. What's the point? In case of any problems with master nodes (and, consequently, with PoA operation) PoS-nodes will come online.

Obviously, in this case transactions won't be as fast since you'll have to wait for multiple confirmations, but still, it guarantees network security even in the most unexpected circumstances. If all master nodes suddenly go offline (clearly, chances of such an occurrence are slim to none, but we need to consider all possible risks), nothing will happen with the UMI network. It will keep operating and processing transactions as usual, just a little more slowly. While the system operates using PoS, master nodes will have the time to resolve problems and go back to normal PoA-based operation.

PoS nodes will be owned by the same users who installed the desktop wallet and launched the validator node. Theoretically, it may be millions, even billions UMI holders all over the world.

Fully Featured Offline Transactions:

We'd like to note that technically all transactions in the UMI network are created offline. It's basically completely analogous to a cheque book, should you need a clarification. Therefore, in reality UMI can operate without the Internet connection.

Submitting transactions online is the most convenient way to go at this time, but it's not the only one. For instance, you can submit a transaction in a text message using your cell phone.

In case you're wondering, the length of a UMI transaction is 150 bytes. It equals 1,200 bits of data.

Standard length of a text message is 1,120 bits (140 bytes). It means we would need to send 2 texts.

Our plans include a transaction variant signed secp256r1 to support legacy chips in bank cards that would actually fit a transaction into a text message.

However, it's not limited to text messages. In fact, UMI allows you to use a validator node to create any transaction offline (i.e. without the Internet connection) and send it to the network by any available means — via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or even a radio wave. We're currently looking at various options. So if humanity loses the Internet connection as a result of a global cataclysm, the UMI network will be able to easily “evolve” and keep operating in new conditions.

Legalization and Audit:

Our goal is to comply with applicable law at all times. It's important that both people and authorities understand that UMI is not a product of the black market — it's a completely legal tool.

Therefore, we're working on obtaining a legal document that would legalize UMI cryptocurrency in the European Union and confirm that UMI is a decentralized payment system with a completely open source code and is not a security, security token, utility token or something else. It will open up new opportunities to use and integrate UMI. After this, we plan to work on legalizing cryptocurrency in other jurisdictions.

Moreover, when cryptocurrency passes the “endurance test” — once it reaches the milestone of 1 mln users — the UMI Team or one of our partners will register technology patents and obtain certificates.

In a related move, we'll soon address the issue of auditing UMI's source code. We're going to entrust this task to credible organizations who do not just audit “on paper”, but are reputable professionals. We've drafted a preliminary list of a few auditor companies we would like to collaborate with. We're mostly leaning to the firms who audited RandomX code for Monero: Trail of Bits, X41 D-SEC, Kudelski Security and QuarksLab.

DeFi, DApps, DAO, DEX:

Look at the hype surrounding the DeFi sector. If you're not familiar with the topic, in brief and in simple terms: DeFi or decentralized finance are blockchain-based financial instruments, services and apps operating as smart contracts. It's a very promising sector, but still very raw. To begin with, it has huge security problems and a strong dependence on the Ethereum network that makes all DeFi transactions too slow and expensive due to its massive overload.

UMI, on the other hand, is a new-generation cryptocurrency that, among other things, is a fully featured blockchain platform capable of generating and executing smart contracts at any level of complexity, including DeFi protocols. In the future, we plan to join this sector and support development of big DeFi projects that will be faster, safer and more multifunctional than the ones based on Ethereum.

We also intend to deploy a UMI-based family of decentralized apps (DApps) and decentralized exchanges (DEX). Our DApps will be the same apps you're using today, with the only exception — you'll be confident of their honesty and security as they won't belong to any particular company. It's a completely decentralized product. For instance, you'll know exactly that your personal data is not collected or passed along to third parties. You'll be confident that no one will withdraw funds from your account, etc. It's the same with DEX. It's a completely decentralized trading platform where you can trade in UMI and other cryptocurrencies, without fearing for security while also enjoying protection from all problems characteristic of centralization.

Moreover, we plan to deploy multiple projects based on DAO principles (decentralized autonomous organizations). In the simplest terms, DAO is an independent decentralized company that is in fact a multifunctional set of smart contracts that allow users rather than management (partially or fully) to run the company. It offers vast opportunities since in essence ensures actual democracy that is backed by cryptographic code rather than words.

Future of Staking and Smart Contracts

Let's continue discussing UMI-based smart contracts as applied to more specific points such as the current key concept behind the coin.

As you know, there are two most popular areas in the crypto industry:

1. Staking used by PoS-based cryptocurrencies. It's also called forging or PoS-mining. It's basically similar to mining, but does not require powerful equipment. Speaking of traditional mining, it's gradually fading into the background.

2. Perks of decentralization feature various smart contracts where people cannot influence the source code, change conditions, chances, etc.

This is why our team decided to design a unique system — staking based on a smart contract. It would allow us to unite two popular areas and substitute the PoS model with a faster and safer PoA algorithm. UMI staking is exclusively based on the smart contract. Please, remember that you can review terms and conditions and principles of operation in our Whitepaper.

Staking based on the smart contract allows you to generate new UMI coins 24/7 while earning up to 40% a month — without the need to install nodes, configure software, etc. To start staking, people don't need to understand the technical aspect. It's very convenient for regular users with basic computer or smartphone skills who just want to turn on a ready-to-use “coin printing machine” and don't want to assemble it from scratch.

We intend to promote and popularize UMI staking all over the world to bring as many people as possible into our community. We believe that staking based on the smart contract is ideal for encouraging users. We're confident that, as the community grows, we will one day see a structure that will generate earnings of 40% a month.

However, as we mentioned above, our smart contracts won't be limited to staking. Since ideas of decentralized finance (DeFi) and generation of coins by users on certain blockchains are now gaining popularity, we're considering creation of various UMI blockchain-based tokens, including stablecoins, as one of our next steps.

In other words, we're encroaching on the DeFi market by allowing for the creation of both tokens and smart contracts of various types. Users can then trade in these tokens and earn on price fluctuations. One of the options is also staking of such tokens based on a smart contract. It means that any user, not just the UMI Team, will be able to create a UMI-based token with a price, liquidity and staking conditions. They will also be able to create a community around it. You must admit it's just awesome.

We also plan to issue a multitude of specialized multifunctional smart contracts that could change a lot of everyday things, including the established commerce sector. UMI is capable of replacing/improving the popular services of eBay, Avito, OLX and other platforms by providing users with a more secure, rapid and efficient way of making deals.

In the immediate future, we intend to design HD wallets and a universal smart contract for various trading platforms. HD wallets will allow you to easily create addresses without the private key while the smart contract will act as a guarantor in a deal freezing UMI coins until closure of the deal, among other things. With this functionality, UMI will be easily added to online stores and service delivery platforms. Smart contracts will make trading and cryptocurrency integration even more secure and convenient. Most importantly, though, it will offer innovative solutions and new possibilities for the commerce and service delivery sectors that are currently non-existent.

Our plans include the issue of a smart contract for crowdfunding (fundraising for projects) that will allow us to create an easy-to-use No Reliance system with a guarantee that no one will con anyone. It's because in this case people, in a manner of speaking, are not needed in this system — all actions are based on a smart contract with mandatory and complete adherence to all preset conditions. Notably, this crowdfunding will be quite different from the services offered by the existing platforms. Right now, people simply raise money/cryptocurrency to be invested in a project. What we offer also includes staking that will allow the project to earn even more.

In fact, staking opens up lots of opportunities in crowdfunding. For instance, staking allows us to deploy a system that will allow people to get back, let's say, 70% of coins invested in crowdfunding in case of success or even failure. There're special algorithms to this end that we will soon start to actively use in real-case scenarios.

Additionally, we and our partners from the ISP Club intend to issue crypto cards that are being developed right now. These will be traditional VISA debit cards that can store UMI. Cards will allow you to use UMI to pay in the nearest store or cash out cryptocurrency in a nearby ATM. It will work with the usual terminals and ATMs — where VISA cards are accepted, UMI will be accepted, too. You will be able to connect your card to Apple Pay and other similar services. You will be able to buy a TV, table or a loaf of bread for UMI. Anything.

In a nutshell, using UMI tomorrow will be as easy, habitual and convenient as using bank services today. But that's not the most interesting part. The key perk of UMI cards is that coins stored on your account are also used for staking. As a result, the balance on your VISA will always grow — at the rate of 40% a month. No bank has ever offered such an opportunity and is really unlikely to ever offer one.

We also plan to release various types of NFC wallets specifically for contactless payment that can be used to pay for goods with cryptocurrency in any terminal. The Faster Payments System will allow the seller to immediately receive payments in fiat money — in 15 seconds. This is maximum. Obviously, NFC wallets will also allow using coins for staking.

In a nutshell, we're actively working on various projects in order to offer people an alternative system of financial payments along with a passive increase of their balances. In general, the main cause for aversion to many blockchain projects is that they are hard to understand. In fact, users don't really see how this or that project can solve their problem. We're the game changers — we look up to things everyone is used to, but we also present them in a more refined form. UMI resolves pressing issues only, doing it as clearly and efficiently for everyone as can be.

Let us speak aside. In Finland the government has recently conducted a very interesting experiment — they introduced basic income for 2,000 randomly picked unemployed participants who received an unconditional monthly basic income of 560 euros. Just for being a citizen of this country. Unemployed participants spent their income on food and other basic needs. If an unemployed person started working, they could spend the income on traveling, big-budget purchases, etc. Anything they liked.

Even though the experiment didn't improve the situation with unemployment in Finland, its outcome was evaluated positively. "The basic income recipients were more satisfied with their lives and experienced less mental strain than the control group. They also had a more positive perception of their economic welfare."

This experiment is the role model we want staking to achieve. We want people to generate new UMI coins for themselves, and use them as they see fit. We believe that this is a model of a healthy society where people can live a happy life with no fear of losing everything tomorrow. Finland has already completed the experiment. But we are starting it again and it will involve not only Finland, but the entire world. Staking allows any person to receive a kind of unconditional basic income like in Finland but unlike Finland, it will be paid in the UMI cryptocurrency. But it has a value too. ;-)

Geolocation: Where and How UMI Will First Be Developed

UMI intends to conquer the entire world. Obviously, it is impossible to do instantly. And no one needs it –– a smooth development is much more important for any product. Gradual growth and winning new audiences step-by-step will make the project more powerful and sustainable. Moreover, all these COVID-related issues distracted people from new technologies. Therefore, the immediate outreach of a large audience is not the best idea. We opted for smooth development which will allow us to get stronger before we enter new markets.

- First of all, we need to consolidate confidently our position in the CIS market. Our priority countries are Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

- $1 mln in the buy order book on SIGEN.pro, which supports the UMI rate, will become a signal that UMI's liquidity is high enough to enter China, Latin America, Indonesia and India. By the way, we are already preparing for this. Our official website, mobile app and all the other content have already been localized in Russian, English, Spanish (LA), and Chinese. Now all the content is localized in Indonesian. We also run UMI promoting social media in different languages. It is not a poor machine translation, translation only by professional translators. We should also mention that we have already laid the groundwork for entry into the above-mentioned countries. We won't let all the secrets out, except for the one that we've already made useful contacts and reached certain agreements with some partners.

- Next, we plan to fully localize the website and all other content in 18 different languages and start reaching other countries and continents. The next in turn are Europe, Asia, Africa, and eventually, the entire world. We would like to emphasize again that we are focused on gradual growth, this is why we are now closely working with CIS countries.

Current Tasks

Now let's put our long-term plans aside and talk about the key tasks that we are most focused on right now, at this very moment. There are three of them:

1. UMI liquidity. As you may have already heard, we don't take the funds generated from selling UMI for BTC and through the Crypto-By-Card service. Instead, we use them to create UMI buy orders on SIGEN.pro to support UMI's high liquidity and price. Thus, UMI is backed by bitcoins, and, as far as we know, no other world's cryptocurrency has this experience. In other words, this is a unique case when the team doesn't take the funds generated from selling the coin, but instead, they spend them on supporting the coin's price and liquidity. Now UMI's buy order book is over $800,000 (more than 55 BTC), apart from $200,000 buy orders on the P2P platform. It means you can now easily sell UMI for more than $1 mln with no fear of price drop. Our # 1 task for today is to continue to increase buy orders which ensure the coin's high liquidity and stability. Today, this is what attracts new users and makes them feel confident. A reliable coin grows faster and easily wins a new audience. Summing up, our number one priority is to fill UMI's buy order book. In the short term (within 1 to 2 months), we plan to fill UMI/BTC buy order book to $ 1 mln, in the long term –– to $10 mln.

2. Large-scale entry into the market. At the moment, the popularity of UMI is growing thanks to our partners from the ROY Club, who bring in new participants to their staking structure. But we are planning to increase the popularity growth rate. A large-scale social media PR campaign will be launched soon. You will see various articles about our cryptocurrency, news and reviews from top crypto-media and other popular resources. This will attract a new audience to our community: crypto investors, traders, crypto enthusiasts and regular people who get interested in new profitable opportunities. All this will help to increase UMI's popularity and improve its liquidity. This will obviously have a positive impact on all our partners, including the ROY club, ISP Club and SIGEN.pro. In the long term we also plan to get listed to new exchanges. Although some well-known exchanges have already proposed us listing on their platforms, we refused their offers. We'd like to reiterate that we are more focused on a smooth and quality-based growth. This is why the SIGEN.pro is our general partner and the trading platform where we are building up the community. As soon as UMI gets liquid enough meaning gaining muscles and foothold at the market, it will be listed on other platforms, and, consequently, on Coinmarketcap. This will protect it against deliberate pressure and price fluctuations caused by some traders who just want to make money from changes in price.

3. Organizing new staking structures. Currently, only two structures –– ROY Club and ISP Club –– generate new UMI coins. As UMI grows, various large communities, cryptocurrency pools, financial project developers, etc. will start creating their own structures and set the conditions as they like. Fortunately, the smart contract for staking offers quite flexible settings. Some organizers will offer their members generous and non-standard bonus programs, the others will use zero-fee transactions and the highest possible reward as a temptation for new members. We are now negotiating with potential creators of structures. We consider this as one of the key tasks, so we are ready to help our new partners implement their UMI-based projects in every possible way.

Technical Roadmap

As a final note, we would like to present our brief roadmap of immediate technical tasks:

1. Release a full-node desktop wallet;

2. Create detailed technical manuals and "how-to" guides containing text and video guidelines on installation, launch, setting and update of wallets and nodes.

3. Develop and implement PoS consensus;

4. Integrate HD-wallet;

5. Create libraries supporting all popular languages and platforms and use them to be easily integrated into businesses;

6. Integratу hardware wallets (Trezor, Ledger, etc.);

7. Integrate accounting systems;

8. Develop a node specifically for Windows with MS-SQL support and 1C integration;

9. Develop plastic cards and NFC-enabled terminals;

10. Create libraries for mobile devices supporting NFC payments;

11. Add side-chain service: commenting on transactions;

12. Add side-chain service: sending UMI using email address, Telegram username, nickname, etc;

13. Add side-chain service: an internal messenger with images and various features support. Telegram or Viber prototype;

14.Develop and run a developer blog containing technical articles for developers;

15. Create convenient user support service through Telegram, Slack, and Stack Overflow;

16. Implement tools for convenient collection and processing users feedback, for example, Reformal;

17. Develop new smart contracts.

This is not the final list. In view of the above, we still have a lot of technical tasks. These are only primary goals, which, however, can change and be modified depending on the circumstances.

Overall Roadmap

Let's sum up all the above. In addition to the technical roadmap, please review a list of current plans for further UMI growth:

- Increase UMI's liquidity. In the short term, we plan to fill UMI's buy order book on SIGEN.pro to $ 1 mln, in the long term –– $10 mln.

- Enter the market: launch a large-scale social media PR campaign, get UMI added to new exchanges and monitors.

- Organize new structures for UMI staking and encourage healthy competition.

- Optimize the network to bring its capacity to as many as 10,000 and then 1 million transactions per second.

- Release a desktop wallet that will work as a validator node and support the network.

- Implement the PoS consensus algorithm as an additional security measure. This will keep the network running even in the event of any problems with master nodes.

- Improve the ability of sending transactions offline.

- Legalize cryptocurrency and audit the source code.

- Create new DeFi, DApps, DAO, DEX products and enter these markets.

- Popularize staking in all directions and implement it into mass products.

- Create various tokens based on the UMI blockchain, including stablecoins. Integrate convenient features allowing users to create their own tokens and smart contracts based on UMI.

- Create HD wallets and a universal smart contract for trading platforms.

- Develop a smart contract for crowdfunding and other smart contracts for employment, services, production, and logistics markets.

- Release VISA debit crypto card with full support for UMI and staking.

- Release UMI staking-supporting NFC wallets for contactless payment.

- Work on creating a powerful infrastructure that offers an alternative system of financial payments coupled with a passive growth of their balances.

- Develop new features, guides, and services: create various side-chain services, start a developer blog, implement new tools for processing feedback, integrate accounting systems, hardware wallets, etc.

- Promote UMI in the CIS countries with further entry into China, Latin America, Indonesia, India, and other countries.

UMI Won't Stop

As you can see, we have grandiose plans for the UMI project and great ambitions. And we are full of enthusiasm and determination to turn them into reality. UMI is not some small "one-day project" or a product for a small target audience with insignificant goals. We are a growing decentralized community that is determined to go big. Most importantly, we are really good at that.

Hopefully, we have shed light on UMI's future plans. There are new highs ahead of us — great accomplishments and achievements. Since the time of writing the Whitepaper, our priorities have changed. We are confident that UMI can be fully integrated into business and change most aspects of society. Employment, services, production, commerce, logistics, and all financial arrangements — all this can radically change with the emergence of UMI. These are our long-term goals to which we are getting closer with each passing day.

Thus, by degrees, we will achieve all our goals. Thank you for being with us. If you like the article, please clap for it and share it with others. It's no trouble for you but great support for us.

Sincerely yours, UMI team

Welcome to the future!

 

[UMI Top]

Why UMI is better than Bitcoin?

Bitcoin has proven itself to be a reliable payment system, although it has several significant drawbacks. Among them:

- The network speed is limited by the network itself. In the best case, users have to wait for the translation for several tens of minutes, but it often happens that the wait is delayed for tens of hours or even for several days.

- High commissions. During periods of high network load, transfer fees skyrocket. In 2017, there were cases when the transfer fee reached $ 40. In "normal" mode, of course, everything is not so bad. But commissions of a few dollars are common for Bitcoin users.

- UMI, in turn, is based on the same proven technologies as Bitcoin, removes its disadvantages

- The network does not resist the speed of block creation, but on the contrary - in every possible way encourages their rapid creation and growth of throughput.

- New cryptographic algorithms reduce the load on the network nodes, which allows more transactions to be carried out in the same unit of time with lower computational costs.

- The UMI network is capable of processing all 500 million transactions created in the Bitcoin network over 12 years in a few days. And every translation will be completely free!

 

[UMI Top]

- Among the most significant disadvantages of Bitcoin is the centralization on the part of mining pools.

- In the pursuit of profit from mining, the greed of the participants in the decentralized network forces them to join in pools, which violates the idea of decentralization and leads to centralization.

- Today we have a situation that if several leading BTC pools decide to merge, they will capture most of the network’s capacity and be able to carry out a 51% attack. As a result, pools will be able to send non-existent bitcoins, confirm incorrect transfers and, roughly speaking, do whatever they want with the network.

- Having traveled a path in more than 10 years, Bitcoin has proven that the idea of decentralization as it is implemented there does not work.

- Therefore, in UMI, decentralization is implemented at a different level, and users, joining in pools (staking structures), on the contrary, help the development of the network and support its efficient operation, without threatening security.

 

[UMI Top]

Cryptocurrencies and Money Laundering: To What Extent They Are Actually Connected

We often hear authorities, banks and mass media say that cryptocurrencies are a tool for the laundering of money obtained by criminal means and must, therefore, be strictly regulated or, even better, prohibited.

In fact, however, money is mostly laundered using conventional payment systems and cash while cryptocurrencies only account for less than 1 % of this practice. Let's review whether cryptocurrencies can actually be used for money laundering and whether they are popular among criminals.

What is money laundering?

Money laundering is making money obtained illegally “clean”. Criminals pass “black” money through a sequence of transactions to make it seem like “honest earnings”. It's widely believed that the term was coined in the US in the 1920's. Members of the Mafia started laundromats where customers paid in cash. The actual number of customers was hard to know, so criminals added their “black” money to the earnings and passed them off as revenue from customers. The criminal underworld has evolved since then. Today, to launder money, criminals also use ghosts and companies, foreign and offshore accounts, rogue firms, ATM thefts — and cryptocurrencies, since recently.

In English, the fight against money laundering is called Anti Money Laundering, or AML. The key international organization that works out measures against money laundering and terrorist financing is the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, or FATF. It was founded in 1989 and includes 37 member countries, including Russia. FATF designs international AML standards and assesses how these are adhered to by its member states. In June 2019, FATF published guidance for regulating cryptocurrencies.

How much money is laundered through cryptocurrencies?

Qualifying cryptocurrency transactions as a method of income laundering is legally complicated due to their undefined legal status. Naturally, there is no precise data on the amounts of money laundered by criminals via cryptocurrencies. However, there are a few unrelated reports that agree on the order of magnitude.

Let's have a look at the three most recent reports:

- According to the 2020 Crypto Crime Report by Chainalysis that tracks crypto transactions, criminals have laundered about $ 2.8 bln in cryptocurrencies in 2019. In 2018, this amounted to about $ 1 bln. According to Chainalysis analysts, most criminals launder money through curbstone brokers — agents or firms that run transactions between sellers and buyers outside crypto exchanges.

- According to the July data by the analytical firm Peckshield, about 147,000 BTC, which is equivalent to about $ 1.5 bln, has been laundered via big crypto exchanges since the start of the year.

- According to Eliptic, a company that detects illegal activity, and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), the share of illegal bitcoin transactions now amounts to 0.6–1 %. This number, though, goes down year on year.

These numbers only seem enormous before we compare them with the amounts laundered by criminals via other means.

According to the estimates by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UN ODC), criminals launder 2 % to 5 % of the global GDP annually. It amounts to $ 800 bln or $ 2 trln, or even up to $ 4 trln (!), by some estimates. In comparison, $ 1–3 bln laundered in cryptocurrencies is just a drop in the ocean.

Now, let's make a calculation. Capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is $ 340 bln, that of bitcoin is $ 197 bln. First of all, it means that no more than 0.3–1 % of digital assets is used for criminal purposes. Second, capitalization of all cryptocurrencies combined is several times (!) lower than the amount of money laundered with fiat money.

According to Chainalysis data, one dollar laundered with ВТС corresponds to 800 dollars laundered with fiat currencies. In other words, bitcoin only accounts for 0.125 % of the total amount of laundered money.

Cryptocurrencies are ill suited to money laundering

As a tool for money laundering, cryptocurrencies are a lot less universal and convenient than bank payments and cash.

Unlike cash transactions and bank transfers, transactions in decentralized blockchains are easily traceable. Cryptocurrencies are transparent in nature — all transactions are recorded and publicly accessible. If you can accumulate considerable volume of data, you can determine who's behind a bitcoin address used for money laundering. Besides, you cannot use the ВТС network and other cryptocurrency networks to transfer a large amount of money — such a transaction would be immediately brought to attention of law enforcement.

The experience of fighting against the Darknet (the illegal Internet) shows that states can fight against cyber crime while anonymity of cryptocurrencies is greatly exaggerated. Legal cryptocurrency platforms have demonstrated a long-standing trend of using KYC principles (provision of complete information about a user) — exchanging currencies anonymously is getting harder. Special services can connect transactions to specific users, sometimes using the blockchain technology itself to do it.

Super anonymous coins that encrypt transaction data (Monero, Dash, ZCash and others) cannot save criminals either — there are methods that can be used to break down these transactions. However, some experts state that cryptocurrency technologies evolve really fast and will soon become completely untraceable. In any case, to withdraw cryptocurrencies and turn them into fiat money, you would have to “burn” your actual bank accounts, thus reducing the entire anonymity level.

It is often mentioned that criminals use the so-called “mixers” — software and services where transactions can be run by mixing your coins and coins owned by other users to maintain confidentiality. It allows you to hide your withdrawal data and addresses, as well as your real identities. However, according to the above mentioned Chainalysis report, most users prefer to use mixers to ensure confidentiality and not to conduct illegal activity. This method is only used to launder 8 % of all money passing through.

Moreover, special services can track transactions passing through mixers which makes them suspicious by default. This is why criminals are not overenthusiastic to use them — cash and banks are more secure.

As you can see, cryptocurrencies are not all that convenient for criminals though it may seem so. They are an excessive intermediate since actual laundering requires cashing out and it's getting harder to do so anonymously by the day.

Banks are the key “laundromats” of the criminal underworld

Let's turn to the best part now. Criminals launder most money via regulated banks seen as ideal by the states. They can annually launder up to $ 2 trln. Think about it: trillions of dollars laundered through the banks.

Many of the world's biggest banks have been involved in money laundering schemes and fined for this. For instance, Wells Fargo, J. P. Morgan Chase & Co and the Bank of America, Standard Chartered and others. Last year, it turned out that Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Raiffeisen had helped criminals launder $ 8.8 bln over a period of 7 years. It's only three bank conglomerates seen as strongholds of honesty and security. Imagine how much money has been laundered via other banks, including “shadow” banks.

In 2019, various companies around the world were fined for being involved in money laundering schemes worth of the record $ 8.14 bln. It's twice as much as in 2018. Two thirds of the fines were attributed to banks — $ 6.2 bln, and 17% — to gaming and gambling organizations. The best joke is that these fines are a drop in the ocean for the banks while money laundering cannot be undone.

According to the August report by the Mexican Finance Intelligence Unit, local criminals still prefer to launder money using conventional financial institutions, mostly banks, as well as brokerage firms and exchange companies. Seven biggest and most regulated Mexican banks that control 80 % of all assets in the national financial sector run the biggest number of transactions with black money (no specific amounts are given).

Moreover, Mexican banks have long been known to deal with activities of this kind. In 2012, one of them — HSBC — paid a record $ 1.92 bln in fines to the US authorities after the Mexican and Columbian drug cartels were caught using this bank for laundering drug-related money.

A short time ago, the international payment system SWIFT used by all of the world's banks published a report drafted in partnership with the financial research firm Bae Systems. The report noted that cryptocurrencies are rarely used for money laundering — with criminals preferring the more conventional ways. These include: using the so-called “money mules” — intermediaries who allow to use their accounts for transferring illegal money; hacking bank accounts, bribing bank officials, using shell companies and casinos.

The report also lists examples of laundering big amounts of money using cryptocurrencies while also noting that only few cases have been registered. These include use of intermediaries, prepaid crypto cards, purchase of physical assets, such as real estate or expensive cards, for cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrencies do not launder money — they fight against money laundering

As you can see, while cryptocurrencies can be used for money laundering, they are ill suited to this purpose. Moreover, they actually work the other way around by increasing transparency, security and speed of payment transactions and giving users more independence. Coins like UMI are building an alternative financial system accessible to anyone, not a shadow market for laundering illegal money.

The fact is that today 99 % of laundered money passes through other channels, not cryptocurrencies. Criminals still prefer using fiat money for this purpose. Banking institution are their key accomplices, and the amounts of money they hide outmatches the overall capitalization of the cryptocurrency market. However, no one is threatening to prohibit banks.

At the same time, we hear all the time that cryptocurrencies should be banned or strictly regulated. Unfortunately, financial regulators and law enforcement agencies all over the world are sometimes obsessed with the idea of putting spokes in wheels for the usual people who use cryptocurrencies while also allowing bankers to launder trillions of dollars. Isn't it ironic?

UMI is fighting against this state of affairs. We're building a new, alternative and completely transparent financial system where any person on the globe can generate digital money and make instant, fast and free-of-charge payments.

To sum up, don't trust the negative publicity for cryptocurrencies Trust the facts. The negative publicity is mostly generated by people who are not happy that the existing financial system based on banks is gradually become a thing of the past while cryptocurrencies are growing rapidly. At any rate, the key point is that decentralized cryptocurrencies which belong to users from across the world cannot be banned, even from the technical point of view. Thus, there's nothing to fear and progress cannot be stopped.

Sincerely yours, UMI Team!