Company Name: Fedi

Founders: Obi Nwosu, Justin Moon and Eric Sirion

Date Founded: June 2022

Location of Headquarters: Fully remote

Amount of Bitcoin Held successful Treasury: N/A

Number of Employees: 27 full-time employees

Website: https://www.fedi.xyz/

Public oregon Private? Private

Just a fewer years back, Obi Nwosu was moving Coinfloor, a successful, long-running bitcoin exchange, retired of the UK. But thing irked Nwosu. He knew that helium could beryllium doing overmuch much with state technologies similar Bitcoin to assistance radical astir the world.

So, helium and 2 partners founded Fedi, a institution that’s precocious released a “community superapp,” arsenic Nwosu calls it, that provides an casual and backstage mode to not lone to negociate wealth but to pass digitally and conscionable the antithetic needs of communities worldwide.

“We created Fedi due to the fact that it solved a occupation that we could see,” Nwosu told Bitcoin Magazine.

“That occupation was however to empower disempowered communities astir the satellite and however to get millions of radical that were utilizing [bitcoin] exchanges and springiness them a way to spell from 3rd parties to self-custody,” helium added.

“We realized that the mediate crushed was community. If we could find a mode to empower communities — to supply an offering which was arsenic good, oregon successful immoderate ways better, than the centralized offerings that are by acold inactive the [custodians that the] immense bulk of radical use, [and regenerate them with] parties who individuals spot much than they spot these 3rd parties — that would beryllium the path. That was the opening idea, and the remainder is history.”

To somewhat change Nwosu’s words, 1 mightiness accidental that the remainder is past successful the making.

After implicit 2 years of processing the Fedi superapp, the institution took it live connected August 6, 2024. And what the app offers adjacent successful its archetypal iteration is possibly much than adjacent Nwosu himself envisioned erstwhile helium undertook the project.

What Is Fedi?

Fedi the institution has 2 main components, according to Nwosu.

“It has the app, besides called Fedi, and it has a web of experts who are section and tin enactment users,” helium explained. “We telephone them the Fedi Order.”

The app leverages what Nwosu refers to arsenic “freedom technologies” similar Bitcoin, Lightning and Nostr. It besides employs the Fedimint protocol, which enables users to stock custody of bitcoin; utilize the Lightning Network; and mint ecash, integer tokens pegged to the worth of bitcoin, fiat currencies oregon different assets that are utilized to sphere privateness successful transactions.

Beyond that, it lets users nonstop messages privately and has different functionalities, features and adjacent different apps wrong the app — hence the word “superapp.”

“You don't person to instal aggregate apps to get things done,” explained Nwosu. “[With Fedi,] you person 1 app and you can, successful 1 place, bash each the antithetic things you request to do.”

Imagine having WhatsApp, Twitter and Venmo each successful 1 app. This is what Fedi offers, albeit with different, much state tech-orien versions of messaging, societal media and outgo apps.

However, due to the fact that immoderate of this exertion is caller and hard to usage — peculiarly Bitcoin, Lightning and ecash mints — Fedi provides assemblage enactment via the Fedi Order, composed of “Fedi Knights,” which serves arsenic a “decentralized Genius Bar,” according to Nwosu.

“If you've got an iPhone and person a occupation with it, you tin spell to an Apple store and locomotion up to the Genius Bar and idiosyncratic who is knowledgeable tin assistance you lick that fixed problem,” helium said.

“We wanted to replicate that feel. That's what the Fedi Order does. They supply connected the crushed assemblage support, which you request if you privation to instrumentality Bitcoin beyond adept users oregon enthusiasts,” Nwosu added.

This benignant of enactment is peculiarly utile for the guardians of Fedi communities.

Guardians And The Federated Custody Model

To execute Nwosu’s archetypal program for Fedi — helping to determination bitcoin disconnected of exchanges and into the self-custody of its owners — the institution utilizes a federated custody model, oregon a multisig setup successful which assorted “guardians” clasp the keys to bitcoin funds.

Community members prime radical to beryllium guardians, and these guardians tally the Fedi bundle unneurotic truthful that spot is dispersed amongst them. They’re besides successful complaint of custodying the community’s bitcoin and minting ecash. Together, the guardians signifier a federation, a custodial exemplary without a azygous constituent of failure.

“[Each guardian is] individually trustworthy, different they wouldn’t beryllium successful those roles,” said Nwosu.

“The information that you necessitate 2 of the 3 oregon 3 of 5 [to motion disconnected connected transactions] increases your trustworthiness significantly. We spot this mode of moving hap successful organizations, companies, governments, subject and families clip and clip again,” helium added.

“You tin adhd much guardians to summation the level of redundancy and resilience.”

Guardians volition besides marque decisions for their assemblage regarding however to employment the antithetic modules, oregon “mods”, that Fedi offers.

“Modules are a mode of upgrading their Fedi with [more] capabilities,” said Nwosu.

For context, each Fedimints travel with 3 modules: the Bitcoin module, which provides federated entree to bitcoin; the Lightning module, which provides communities with entree to the Lightning Network; and the mint module, which gives users the quality to mint ecash.

Nwosu shared that determination are besides further modules, 1 of which is simply a stableness excavation module, that provides what Fedi presumption a “Stable Balance” for assets.

Using the Stable Balance feature, communities tin peg their bitcoin to the worth of a fiat currency, oregon the worth of different plus — a peculiarly important diagnostic for communities that mightiness not privation to tummy bitcoin’s volatility.

“As agelong arsenic determination is simply a terms provender betwixt Bitcoin and an asset, a stableness excavation tin beryllium acceptable up to supply terms stableness to the asset,” explained Nwosu.

“That could beryllium USD, but it could beryllium the section currency. It could beryllium gold. It could beryllium Tesla stock. Different radical volition usage it successful antithetic ways,” helium added.

Open-Sourcing Fedi

One mightiness deliberation that a institution that’s taken the clip to physique a superapp would privation to support that codification nether wraps.

Not Fedi, though.

It plans to open-source its codification — codification that's already publically auditable. Part of the organization’s information successful doing truthful is to further gain the spot of the communities it serves, but it besides has 2 different notable reasons for taking this step.

The archetypal revolves astir the company’s philosophy.

“First of all, philosophically, our fig 1 nonsubjective is to physique a instrumentality that takes the champion of the state technologies retired determination and merges them into one,” explained Nwosu.

“We judge that for galore people, privateness and being reliable is truly cardinal erstwhile it comes to thing that's handling your communication, wealth and more. The lone mode to guarantee that is astatine the highest levels is for Fedi itself besides to yet go open-source,” helium added.

The different main crushed has to bash with pursuing the inclination successful the Bitcoin and broader state tech space.

“The 2nd portion is we're portion of the state exertion assemblage and Bitcoin community,” said Nwosu.

“Five years ago, the thought of open-sourcing [code] would person seemed truly strange, if not crazy, for an enactment similar us. Our prediction is that successful 5 years time, it volition beryllium brainsick to beryllium closed-source, and we're seeing this transition,” helium added.

“That is the aboriginal — we’re conscionable getting up of it.”

In a satellite wherever it volition beryllium overmuch easier to replicate applications, Nwosu isn’t acrophobic that imaginable Fedi copycats volition eclipse what the institution has to offer.

“We realized that the things that are going to inactive person enduring powerfulness are web effects and the quality elements of your business,” said Nwosu. “So, we built a concern exemplary that truly leverages quality networks, which are not truthful casual to replicate.”

Global Adoption

Though Fedi presently focuses astir of its efforts connected The Global South — which includes regions specified arsenic Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia — it has its sights acceptable connected “everyone, everywhere” yet utilizing it, according to Nwosu.

However, the institution is starting with The Global South due to the fact that it plans to archetypal conscionable the needs of those often considered last, which volition assistance it to conscionable the needs of everyone.

“When you're looking astatine the pyramid of users and needs, if you absorption connected the apical percent of users, it's going to beryllium precise hard for you to thrust down to a acceptable of users who possibly person little resources, little assets,” explained Nwosu.

“If the car you're making is simply a Ferrari, it’s precise hard to marque that car for everyone. But if the car you're making is simply a VW Golf, past it's precise casual for idiosyncratic who tin spend much than a VW Golf to proceed to usage a VW Golf,” helium added.

“By focusing connected immoderate of the astir disempowered communities, you extremity up with a merchandise oregon instrumentality which is utile for everybody, arsenic opposed to utile [only for a] subset. When aiming for the widest funnel, you should effort to spell for the broadest scope you can, which means that we commencement focusing connected the radical who usually are not focused connected first, but focused connected last.”

Also, radical are struggling to negociate and usage their bitcoin each implicit the world, and Fedi’s attack successful providing quality enactment for its users volition assistance bitcoin bash what it was designed to do, enactment arsenic peer-to-peer physics cash.

“You cannot conscionable lick this with software,” said Nwosu. “If you privation radical to usage this arsenic mean speech you person to lick a operation of bundle and people.”