Mic check, mic check

🎉 Our wallet beta is now live!

Last year, when the Afghan government collapsed and banks shut down, no one could access their money. A friend of ours who runs a coding school was still able to send much-needed cash overseas to her students in Afghanistan, because she sent it over the blockchain.

There is a chronic structural issue in the region affecting certain currencies:

• 🇹🇷 Turkey faces major economic stress as the national currency lost over 80% of its value. Via BBC.
• 🇪🇬 Egypt is facing their biggest financial crisis yet with the Egyptian pound losing 65% of its value. Via Reuters.
• 🇱🇧 Lebanese citizens who deposited money at their local banks lost 98% of their savings due to currency devaluation and hyperinflation. Via Reuters.
• 🇹🇳 Tunisia is in a dire economic crisis as its currency has lost over 50% of its value. Via Reuters.

Who is behind Sinbad?

Sinbad is a merchant who embarks on seven voyages, encountering mythical creatures and challenges along the way. Through his wit and courage, he overcomes these challenges and returns home with great wealth and knowledge, while learning important lessons about honesty, generosity, and humility.

- ChatGPT, 3rd prompt.

In one way, we are an independent team of digital natives, lucky to be backed by some incredible people. On the other, we are 1st and 2nd generation immigrants 🇦🇫🇮🇶🇱🇧🇭🇹 who have had the privilege to live in Canada where the currency is stable. And here lies why we are building Sinbad, we don't believe a stable currency is a privilege—we believe it's a human right.

Our mission is to help people living in hyperinflationary economies fight against currency devaluation, unstable banks, and corruption.

We believe blockchain technology has the ability to drive financial inclusion in a more efficient way than banks and TradFi.

We also believe bad design has hindered web3 and held it back from going mainstream. Current web3 UX is painful, unforgiving and feels anything but magical.

We're building Sinbad, a stablecoin payment app that will allow people in hyperinflationary countries to send and receive stablecoin. We are building this for your grandparents and zero web3 knowledge is a must.

So, what’s next?

With a loss of faith in their local currency, many individuals in the MENA region have turned to the US dollar and cryptocurrencies as safe havens for their savings.

While this is a step in the right direction, holding US dollars in cash or relying on central exchanges is not without flaws. You still need to use informal methods such as Telegram chats or clandestine meetups to obtain cryptocurrencies, increasing the risk of unfair exchanges or bad experiences.

At Sinbad, we believe access to stable currency is a human right. It should be secure, fast, easy—and digital.

Sinbad will allow people in MENA's cash economies to save, spend, and receive money in digital dollars (USDC), without the need for a bank account. Take your cash to the nearest Sinbad partner store, load the app with cash and carry on with your day.

We are not your typical digital payment app. We are not a digital bank, a traditional wallet or a centralized product. Why? Because we do not hold your money–you do. While you have to trust entities with your funds, Sinbad gives you ownership of your money with a simple to use wallet.

We're launching (soon) and will be making digital dollars available to as many people as possible.

To get there, we're starting small.

We are working hard at building strong engineering and compliance foundations to ensure everyone can have an awesome and safe experience as we scale up. Sinbad won't be available to everyone right way–instead, we'll be slowly adding more people on the platform (sorry about that).

Our wallet beta is now live 🥳

📚 Curious about Sinbad? Head over to getsinbad.com or send us an email to team@getsinbad.com.

🔊 Looking to stay in the loop? Follow our socials @sinbadhq for updates on Sinbad.