Crypto-friendly Medici Bank launching into private beta in October

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A new crypto-friendly bank is set to launch in October, and it promises to change the banking industry for good. Medici Bank will launch in private beta with a few clients to start with as it tests its platform, the CEO Ed Boyle revealed in an interview with CoinDesk. With most global banks shunning crypto companies, Medici believes it can change this narrative and that eventually, blockchain technology will power most of the banking processes globally.

The bank will launch the beta with five companies, three of which will be crypto businesses. The other spots will be reserved for crypto exchanges, Boyle said. This will enable the bank to test whether its platform is robust enough to handle high transaction throughput, he added, stating, “Crypto companies are high-throughput types of clients. If we can handle that, we can handle anything.”

Medici Bank will go into full beta before the end of the year, with plans to fully launch in the first quarter of 2020. It currently has six employees, with plans of increasing that number to 20 by the end of the year, 50 by the end of 2020, and 100 by the end of 2021. The bank has an ambitious target of having $1 billion in deposits and assets under management in three years.

Based in Puerto Rico, the bank was founded by Lorenzo de’ Medici, a descendant of the House of Medici, an Italian banking family and political dynasty.

The bank intends to split its clientele evenly between crypto businesses, private wealth clients and import-export businesses. And while the bank fully intends to serve the crypto industry, its appetite for crypto businesses is not limitless, Boyle revealed. Medici will be willing to have up to half of its clients being crypto-related.

The bank’s ultimate goal is to decentralize the banking industry, Boyle revealed. To fulfill this goal, the bank has been in talks with other banks around the world about creating a network that will facilitate interoperability between several blockchain systems, with the participants being able to share customer KYC information, engage in real-time cross border payments, facilitate account transfers and more.

While some banks have initiated blockchain projects, Boyle believes that they have missed the point. The banks are not truly using blockchain technology as they only involve one node which the bank runs. The proposed network would allow several banks to participate in a truly decentralized banking system, with each bank running a node.

This system will have several benefits, including allowing the customers to switch accounts between the different banks seamlessly.

Boyle remarked, “Banks like to put up walled gardens and make it difficult for you to take your money elsewhere, we want to make it very easy for you to send your money elsewhere, whether it’s from one place to another or from one bank to another.”