Founder: Max Kei (CEO)
Date founded: March 2024
Position of the headquarters: Lugano, Switzerland
Website: https://debifi.com/
Public or private? Private
Max Kei is a manufacturer in the Bitcoin P2P space and an expert banker, who makes him uniquely qualified to create debts, a non -full -bodied P2P loan platform, supported by Bitcoin, which mainly serves institutions.
Kei’s work in the Bitcoin space began in 2017, when it contributed for the first time to Hodl Hodl, which quickly became a P2P trading platform not seriously used.
In 2020, he helped Exchange’s launch launch in Hodl Hodl, the first loan and loan product P2P non bearing in the Bitcoin space.
The product gained traction in Latin America and in the South -East Asia, where it was used to facilitate the microlans, while artists of the caliber of Preston Pysh (now strategic consultant in debts) was interested in the product and also made the famous Cypherpunk Adam sang its praise.
According to Kei, it is the high quality reputation of the team behind Lend in Hodl Hodl, some of whom are now working on debts, which is attracting users to debts.
“Many credit and mutual institutions go to debts because they know that the team has a very wide experience,” Kei said to Bitcoin Magazine.
“People are satisfied, as we have crossed more bear cycles and we managed to survive,” he added.
“Now, we took the concept of loan in Hodl Hodl and we moved to the institutional space.”
From Bitcoiner banker
For 10 years before finding Bitcoin, Kei worked as a private banker.
He resigned from his position before “going to full Bitcoin rabbit hole” at the end of 2015, partly as a reaction to an experience he had with one of his customers.
“A year before stopping, I was sitting in a meeting in the banking office with one of my customers and he was showing me his phone and saying” you know at some point in the future, I will not need you because I have Bitcoin, “said Kei.
The customer then proceeded to send $ 15,000 Bitcoin to his contact in Brazil, according to Kei, who thought to himself that his client was crazy. However, it didn’t take long for Kei to realize that his client was not crazy but, instead, on something.
“I started doing my research and quickly understood that Bitcoin is a real thing,” said Kei.
Kei focused on Bitcoin shortly after. However, after spending eight years to build in the Bitcoin space, he has come to believe that banks will still play a role in the hyperbilized future.
“The banks will not go away,” explained Kei.
“They will become infrastructure suppliers for Bitcoin companies, for startups, for everyone. They will still be a spine, “he added.
He made it when banks and other financial institutions began to express interest in the use of the Hodl Hodl product.
Differentiating with debts
A few months after the launch of the launch at Hodl Hodl, the institutions contacted the Hodl Hodl team asking to use the platform.
“They said ‘Hey, we want to be available for Bitcoin loans’,” Kei recalled.
“But we didn’t want to mix the world of microlending with the world of institutional loans. We realized that we had to do something different. This is how the concept of debts was born, “he added.
In 2022, Kei began to make debts brainstorming. A year later, they raised funds from risk capital companies including Ten31 and Timecain to build a practical minimum product (MVP). By March 2024, Debifi was live.
The platform operates in Beta and the official version will go live at the end of the month. Having said that, Kei explained that Debifi is already fully functional.
“Just because the product is in beta does not mean that it is not operational – it is actually fully operational,” he said.
So this leads us to the next question: how exactly does debifi work?
How debts work
Debifi is both a website and a mobile app and the two work in tandem.
“We have a truly unique proposal of value is that the mobile app acts as a key storage,” said Kei. “The mobile app becomes a wallet, storing your private key, but you need to use the website to engage in contracts.”
When signing a transaction, create a deposit for a loan or pay a loan, you use the mobile app to do it.
Users can also choose to use Coldcard devices (MK4 or Q) instead of the mobile app and Kei hopes to add support for other hardware wallets.
“We want to support Jade from Blockstream, accounting devices, Trezor devices, Fondazione and Bitbox passport – all these good names – because we want to provide flexibility to our customers,” explained Kei.
The guarantee for debifi loans is under warranty in a multisignature portfolio (Multisig) with four keys, three of which are necessary to sign the transactions.
“In debifi, we have a single multimincaia configuration,” said Kei. “All loans are held in a multimeter portfolio from 3 out of 4, while the standard is 2-out-of-3.”
The borrower, the lender and debts each deight a key, while the fourth is held by Anchorwatch. Kei says that having a fourth key held by a reliable institution as anchorwatch drastically increases security.
“With two institutions holding keys, even if the keys of the lender and the borrower are somehow compromised, you still have to get another key,” said Kei. “If we remove anchorwatch and go with a simple model of 2 out of 3, we could end up in a situation in which the attackers have two keys and the striker does not need a third key.”
Debifi loans are excessively collateral (forced liquidations occur if the value of the Bitcoin guarantee drops below a certain level, which varies according to the agreement between the borrower and the lender) and the average apr is just exceeding 10%.
Kei explained that the search for his team has shown that many are willing to pay the highest APR for non -gradual loans.
“A little time ago, we talked to 300 bitcoiners and we gave them a very simple option: you can borrow in custody with an 8% interest rate or you can borrow not capturing 11% or 12% of interest rate,” he explained. “91% of people said they would prefer to keep the keys.”
Users can get loans up to $ 1 million via the platform and loans of loans range from three to 12 months. In April, this will expand to 24 months.
Users can borrow in Stablecoin in US dollars, US dollars, Swiss euros and francs and debts is working on the addition of British, real Brazilian and Mexican pesos to that list.
Debifi monetizes through the expenses of origin, which takes the guarantee for guaranteeing and has a team resolution of disputes that helps to solve the reimbursement problems of loans and other problems.
What is the next for debts
As mentioned, Debifi has just brought Preston Pysh as a strategic consultant in the efforts to help society with networking and advertising. Pysh will also provide advice on how to improve the debifi product.
The company also provides to collaborate with the Blockstream Asset Management (BAM) division. Bam will use debts as a technical supplier for institutions that try to offer loan products supported by Bitcoin.
In addition, Kei has observed that even a number of other important partnerships are in the pipeline and that debts will announce them in the coming months.
And he concluded with a tone to all institutions outside that could be interested in working with debts.
“Debifi helps you connect and play in the world of loans supported by Bitcoin as an institution,” said Kei.
“We provide you with all the necessary infrastructure. We will be on board and we will guide you with private support. We will give you all the necessary tools, “he added.
“In fact, we will be like a single door. Not only you don’t have to build these things because it is already there, we bring you customers, with whom we allow you to communicate directly. And the best part is that as a liquidity supplier, you don’t pay anything about it. Zero.”
It is difficult not to argue that Kei and his team are on something here.